A/N trigger warning- mentions of rape and abuse.

Hope's point of view

The next few weeks were quiet. I wouldn't say that it was peaceful, it was more like that saying "the calm before the storm". The others were preparing for something and it was clear by the way they were acting. Alucard was sleeping for days on end which is apparently what he does before a confrontation, Seras wasn't as chirpy and the mercs were serious instead of joking around. My wounds had healed at an extraordinary rate and Gene had managed to clean up the mess of my room very quickly which was impressive.

I really was starting to fit in. I'd accepted that Hellsing was my home and I was okay with that. I was still hurting inside missing my family and because of this I wish I made Rachel suffer more. Alucard was right about one thing though: loss did make you stronger. The sheer power I'd felt that day... it was amazing. I hated to admit it but it made me want to do it all again just to summon my shadow.

"Meow." Salem apparently felt it too. He was restless, jumping at every little thing and wanting attention more frequently. It was annoying when I was trying to focus on telekinesis but that's just what cats do- bother you when you're busy.

Not having anything to do, I went on my phone and looked through people's stories and new uploads. I still wasn't allowed to message anyone. Chrissy's story came up and I couldn't help but lurk. Her puppy was so much bigger than the last time I saw her and it brought back memories which made me happy. I missed her but I couldn't risk contacting her just in case she was targeted. I knew she was mad at me for being online but never replying because of the indirects she'd occasionally post about me, but her being safe and angry was better than her being in danger.

I noticed green was seeping out of my arm and I sighed. Since drinking from Rachel my aura had been nearly uncontrollable. If I let my guard down it'd show and even though it didn't cause discomfort or anything, it was just annoying. I actually had a lot of questions about how to actually keep my powers in control since I'd tried everything to keep them at bay when I didn't want to use them. I contemplated finding Alucard and asking him but if he was sleeping chances were he wouldn't be in a good mood if I woke him. I went back and forth about my decision until finally I plucked up the courage to ask. I knew where his "room" was, it was only a floor down and had a bad vibe radiating from it consistently so I'd previously tried to avoid it.

I found the stairs which would lead me to a door which was old and rotting. Fitting. I opened it and there was another set of stone steps. The air was kind of damp and very cold, causing my hair to stand on end. I ventured down them slowly, trying to make my steps quiet, but I was sure Alucard would sense me anyway.

There was an ornate throne-like chair in the middle of the room with a small round side table next to it. On the table was a bottle of what looked like wine and sat in the chair was Alucard. His jacket was draped over the back of his chair and his elbow was propped up on one of the arms, with his hand resting his face and his eyes closed. I watched him for a minute whilst he breathed quietly.

"Um, Alucard?" I said. I was anxious so my voice wasn't very loud, but this didn't wake him. I didn't want to resort to touching him just in case muscle memory kicked in and he killed me or something so I repeated myself a little louder:"Alucard?"

He grunted, not opening his eyes. "What is it, Nightingale?" he asked, his gravelly voice having tones of irritation.

"I-I wanted to ask you something."

"Out with it, then. Your fluttering heart is bothering me."

I swallowed. "I'm exploring my abilities but I can't seem to keep them at bay."

"And? Get to the point."

"I want to keep them at bay."

"Intent."

"I-intent?"

"Make it your sole purpose that they keep quiet. It's not difficult, Nightingale."

"Ok but-"

"- unless this is actually important I would prefer to be left alone," he said firmly, raising his voice and opening his eyes. I sighed in disappointment m. So much for trying. He flinched as I thought this and I knew for a fact he heard it. "Wait."

"No, it's alright..." I said anxiously, edging away, "You want to be left alone, so..."

"Nightingale." The way he said this made me turn back around. He was now sat up and appeared truly exhausted, the lines under his eyes more prominent than usual. He glared and moved a gloved beckoning finger, indicating for me to go towards him. I obeyed, holding my hands in front of me.

"I can honestly come back at a better time if-" His glare cut me off and I looked down at my feet.

"You drank another vampires blood," he continued, "You've absorbed her soul and her powers. Newer vampires don't do this as often so it's normal that she's fighting back." My stomach turned.

"S-she's fighting back?"

"Yes. You need to let her know you own her and you alone." He cracked the bones in his fingers and his neck,"Or you could consume her soul entirely."

"How do I do that?"

"Channel your third eye, you will see her in there and then you'll know what to do." He said all of this so simply, as if I could easy do these things. I really didn't understand what he meant at all and he, of course, sensed this. He was quite clearly annoyed at me for waking up and now he was annoyed at me for not knowing how to use these complicated vampire abilities. "Is there anything else?"

"Um."

"You're testing my patience."

"I don't know how to do that..." I breathed, "I-I'm sorry, I really don't."

Alucard sighed, thinking for a moment. "Come closer, I'll show you." I nervously stepped towards him and he reached out for my hand and took it. I noticed a pentagram emblem on the back of his glove which started glowing red, but I knew better than to stare or ask questions. Alucard exhaled and suddenly I was someplace pitch black. I walked around for a while, trying to find a source of light and eventually I found an area that was lit by a few candles. I picked one up and tried to make out where I was- it was like a dungeon with stone walls and stone floors, but no visible exit.

"E-excuse me, fraulein?" The German accent got my attention The voice made me turn around and I was shocked by what I saw: a boy a few years younger than me, with shaggy blonde hair wearing what looked to be a Hitler's Youth uniform was chained tightly to the nearest wall. What was weird about him was the fact he had two grey cat ears on the sides of his head. He also looked incredibly malnourished and sick, and I saw that he was shivering in his bounds. "Can you help me?"

"Who are you?"

"I'm Schrodinger..." Huh. Schrodinger's Cat. "Bitte, you have to let me out."

"Where are we?"

"Inside Him..."

"I mistakenly drank his blood, among with over three million other souls," Alucard's voice echoed, "I could kill all but one of them."

"He's just a boy. "

"He was the trump card of the Nazi group Millenium. I'm sure you know about them already, so you can guess how dangerous their associates were. Especially him."

I did say anything. I just stared at the boy who was staring back desperately at me, struggling against his bounds to reach for me. It filled me with emotions for some reason- to think that Schrodinger was trapped inside Alucard for what might be eternity. I'm sure he had been evil, but at this point he just looked so incredibly desperate and pathetic.

Something suddenly began to change and I experienced that feeling I had when I accidentally saw into Seras's head. Our powers must have clashed and mine overcame his, giving me access to all of his darkest secrets. I was deeper inside his mind than before, viewing all his memories.

I saw a young boy with bright blue eyes and an older boy with brown eyes. Both had dark hair and were playing with wooden toys and laughing happily. They were speaking a language I didn't understand; probably Romanian or Transylvanian. Suddenly, armed soldiers burst in. They were speaking Turkish, and the one with the most regal armor pointed at the younger boy and his men grabbed him and dragged him away whilst he cried 'Mama! Darius! ". I didn't realise straight away but a blonde woman stood by these soldiers and just watched whilst they took her son away. It even looked like she was the one who'd led them there... The entire scene was heartbreaking and then it came to me- that boy was Alucard. The scene changed and I was horrified. He was being raped by an old man of some sort of royal figure. I couldn't watch and I tried closing my eyes but the scene still played out in my mind. In the next few seconds I saw Alucard's most vulnerable moments- him being defeated by the Turks, by Van Hellsing, by Millenium; past loved ones being tortured and killed in front of his eyes including Seras getting brutally mutilated by a masculine woman with a scythe, helpless and weak and practically dead. I saw things I knew he didn't want me to see but I couldn't help it, I had no control over what I was looking at. I learned of the awful things he's done to other people purely for sadistic fun, and I've seen him suffer at the hands of others who've done the same thing back to him. I felt minuscule amounts of what he felt per scene and it hurt my heart.

"Enough."

I was back in reality and Alucard had yanked his hand away. The expression on his face had a mix of emotions: horror, disgust, anger... I didn't know what to say to him. I just stare at him, my eyes wide and full of tears.

"What did you see?" he demanded, anger starting to dominate his other emotions.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"-What did you see?" He was shouting now and I froze in fear, my mouth hanging open as I failed to find something to say. I quickly regained myself, trying to think of a response which wouldn't anger him further.

"Nothing, Master," I say quietly, avoiding eye contact. His furious face relaxed into puzzlement, as if he wasn't expecting this answer. "I didn't see anything. I'm going to go now. Thank you for your help. " I started to climb the steep stairs out of the room. I knew calling him 'master' would calm him down to some extent, but I'd just seen some of his most hidden secrets. I could only imagine how vulnerable revisiting his past would make him feel...

When I reached the door, I heard him call out:

"Don't do anything stupid."

I sought comfort in Salem when I got back to my room. I picked him up and cuddled whilst he rubbed his cheeks on my face.

"The shit I've seen..." I sighed, releasing the tension in my gut. Salem mewed in complaint and then jumped out of my arms. He looked back at me and mewed again, as if he wanted me to go to him. I rolled my eyes and went to him. I tried to pick him up but he hissed at me to back off. "The fuck's the matter with you?" He walked a little further and meowed loudly at me. "Do you want me near you or not?"

To add to the series of weird of events, Salem began glowing green. I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't just seeing stuff but nope, still glowing. He then opened his mouth and the green spread into a floating bubble . "What the fuck?"

I slowly approached it and when I put my hand towards it Salem meowed excitedly, as if urging me to touch it. I gave in, touching it, and I felt like I was falling off a cliff until I stopped. I was in another dark place and Salem was nowhere to be seen. It was daylight, shards of light shooting through broken windows which made it so it wasn't completely pitch black. I couldn't see anyone or anything around and I didn't understand fully how I got there either.

"H-hello?" I called out, but received no response. I tried to peer outside to see where I was, but it just looked like the countryside with fields that hadn't been tended to for months. I searched my person to check if I had my phone on me to call Gene or someone but I didn't. The longer I was there, the more I started panicking. I sat on the cold floor and just broke down, feeling so lost and alone. I knew I should've started walking through the fields to find a road with a pay phone or something but I needed to let out my feelings first. It was also daytime so the sun would irritate my skin if I went out now.

"Why do you cry?" an unfamiliar voice asked me. My instincts forced me to look up to see who was talking. There was a tall figure but he was in the shadows so I couldn't see his face. He had very broad shoulders from what I could tell, and his voice... it was so similar to Alucard's I thought it was. "There's nothing here that's going to hurt you, darling."

"Why are you in the dark?" I was in defense mode, "Come out!"

"So strongly willed... that's my girl." The man stepped into the light and my heart stopped beating. He had black hair slicked back neatly, a squared jaw like his brother, but had his facial hair neatly fashioned into a balbo style. His attire was different too- he wore a black suit with a green shirt and a black tie with gold embroidery on it. He stared at me straight in the eye, too. He started walking towards me and I instantly started crawling away, not wanting to be anywhere near this man if he was who I thought he was. He chuckled at my actions, "I'm not here to hurt you."

"Then what are you here for?"

"I just want a connection with my daughter, is that so bad?" His smirk turned into a kinder smile but I didn't trust it yet.

"They've warned me about you, you send out a woman to kill my mum, you sent out Rachel and she killed my grandparents... all you've done is brought me loss." I braced myself to attack and he puts out a peaceful hand.

"No, no... I didn't do any of that. Donna forebode me seeing you at all because of what I am and that was all I wanted- to see you. My man Hias was the one who couldn't control his girls and trust me."

There was silence. I wondered if he was actually the good guy in this situation. I'd seen what Alucard had done but I'd heard nothing of what Darius had done, which is maybe because he hadn't done anything horrible. Alucard was a monster and generally not a nice person to be around , and Darius... he seemed kind. His intentions seemed pure and his soft expression alone told me that everything was going to be okay.

"So you're my ...dad?" I asked eventually. The word 'dad' made my stomach feel strange and my tongue almost refused to form it. Darius had gotten closer and was crouching down to my level.

"Of course, dear." With him closer to me, I could see which parts of him I had inherited- such as my face structure, my smile and my strangely pointed ears. It was somewhat... fulfilling to see the other half of where you come from but then I remembered everything I'd been warned about and I'd instantly become weary again. "What's wrong?"

"This is... weird for me," I said, "Especially since the people at Hellsing told me that your intentions were bad..."

"That's ridiculous! I just want to know my daughter." He held out his hand and I hesitated before taking it. He helps pull me up and smiles kindly. It comforted me, as much as I hated to admit it. He gazed at me with loving eyes and I hadn't seen a look like that since I was at my grandparents. "I never intended for you to be turned into a vampire this young. I simply wanted a life with you in it."

I cleared my throat, "What happens now?" I asked.

"I was thinking about taking you back to where I live and focus on your powers. You recently drank from another vampire, am I correct? You want to shut her up?"

"Yes, Rachel... she worked for you..." I scowled, remembering the pain that woman put me through.

"She worked for my colleague," Darius explained, "I told them no collateral damages but Hias never listens. Believe me when I say I had firm...words with him. " I believed him. He seemed genuinely angry at the fact his colleague had gone behind his back like that.

Time passes and we get talking. I start warming up to him and become more comfortable with him than anyone at Hellsing. He understood my emotions and he answered things that they would never answer me over there. It was probably unwise to trust him so quickly, but I couldn't help it. It was something to do with the way he spoke to me, as if whatever I had to say was actually important.

After a while, Darius leads me to a fancy black car with a chauffeur and we drive to a large cottage about 20 minutes away. It's still in the middle of the countryside but it's incredibly nice, and had ivory plants covering the front of it. Even though it was a cottage, it had a lot of charm to it. In fact, it was the type of house I'd always wanted to live in as a child instead of a small overpriced modern plasterboard house.

"Alucard is more... withheld, isn't he?" I'd said, as he helped me out of the car. "More private, not many visible emotions?"

"Ever since he took to servitude to that family who defeated him he was never the same. I do not fully understand how it works myself, and I'm sure it has something to do with the torture he received from Van Hellsing himself, but still.. if he wanted to he could still just leave. Everyone there could. So could that Seras girl."

"O-Oh..."

"Don't get me wrong, dear daughter. I'm sure they like it there for a reason. I just cannot imagine submitting to a stubborn old woman." He takes my arm and leads me to the house. The doorway alone was amazing- oak engraved with leaves, and it had round gold knockers with gargoyle heads. There was a train of different coloured roses bordering the stone above the door and I couldn't help but stare. Darius unlocks the door and opens it, revealing a just as amazing interior. There was a wood and stone colour scheme, and everything matched. It was aesthetically pleasing to look at and I found myself lost in wonder again.

"Do you like it?" Darius asked, noticing me marveling at the interior.

"It's beautiful," I said,"It really is."

"I'm glad you think so."

He allowed me to look around quickly and the design was consistent throughout the entire downstairs; modern but with vintage accents.

"Your bedroom is the first on the right upstairs," Darius said, "I had someone bring some of your things from your house so don't worry about that. Also-" He reached into his pocket and retrieved a brand new IPhone and handed it to me. "I heard you weren't allowed to contact your friends. You're free to do whatever you want on there whilst you're with me."

"Y-you didn't have to," I said, holding the phone carefully, "I already have a phone."

"It's at Hellsing, no? I doubt they'd let you leave again if you went there to get it."

I sighed and smiled at him, "Thank you. I really appreciate it. " I paused, "Wait, what do I call you? I've just met you so it would seem weird to call you dad right away."

"I do not mind," he assured, "Whatever you're comfortable with. Now go explore. I'll be downstairs if you need me."

Gene's point of view

"What do you mean, the cat disabled your powers?" Integra asked Pip "And why wasn't this brought to my attention sooner?!"

"I didn't know, alright? I'm monitoring your safety most of ze time. I knew something was funny about zat cat." He mumbled some swearwords in French and Seras put a comforting arm around him before he disappeared.

"So Hope's gone?" Seras asked, "She's nowhere to be found?"

"Her phone was left on her bed," I said, "so there's no way of tracking her."

"You can go, Seras. Get Alucard," Integra instructed. Seras let out a small obeying 'hm' and left.

Integra let out a long exhale, taking a cigar out of her top drawer. Those were the ones stronger in nicotine so I could instantly tell the matter stressed her out. Automatically, I began fixing up some chamomile tea to help calm her and handed it to her. She took a sip without waiting for it to cool.

"Is it possible Darius is behind this?" Integra said.

"It would be most unusual," I replied,"He has an army, I'm surprised he hasn't used it yet."

"Perhaps all of this was to throw us off guard." She kept the cigar in her mouth and rested her chin on her hands, "Sometimes I wonder if I'm too old for this..."

"Your mind is as sharp as the day I met you, Sir Integra," I said, emptying her jade ashtray for her, "None of this is on you."

"I made it clear to her that she was safe here, Gene," Integra reminisced, "She believed me. If anything happens to her, I swear to God that sleeping vampire in the basement is going to hear an earful. I told him that she was his responsibility yet I can't help but feel guilty."

"None of this on you, ma'am. Drink your tea. It'll calm you."

"I've gone soft..."

"Come now, that's not necessarily a bad thing."

"Oh, I'm not so sure about that," Alucard teased, apparating in front of us.

"Your brother has your fledgling, Alucard," Integra informed sternly, "We don't know where they are or if she's safe."

"In my brother's presence, no one is safe. He's deceptive like a snake, gaining trust so a person is most vulnerable. Then he strikes."

"My orders are simple then. Retrieve Hope and do not engage Darius."

The vampire bowed, "Yes, my Master."