A/N: The plot thickens as Amon and Robin arrive, the Hidden One reveals just how he intends to get ahold of Integra and Alucard, and we get a peak at Walter's past.

Disclaimer: I don't own a single thing in this except the ideas. R&R.

Integra walked down the hall to the library. There was a book that she wanting to do some cross-referencing in concerning the witches. As she walked in, she Walter standing at the window, staring out at the gardens. He seemed lost in thought. On one of the tables, an old leather-bound volume of Shakespeare sat, open to one of the sonnets. She picked it up and read it.

Lo! in the orient when the gracious light
Lifts up his burning head, each under eye
Doth homage to his new-appearing sight,
Serving with looks his sacred majesty;
And having climb'd the steep-up heavenly hill,
Resembling strong youth in his middle age,
Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still,
Attending on his golden pilgrimage;
But when from highmost pitch, with weary car,
Like feeble age, he reeleth from the day,
The eyes, 'fore duteous, now converted are
From his low tract and look another way:
So thou, thyself out-going in thy noon,
Unlook'd on diest, unless thou get a son.

She looked at him, knowing where his thoughts were. He was so good at concealing his emotions and thoughts, but around this time of the year he always slipped somewhat. He still looked out at the gardens, but she knew he didn't see them at all, his mind fixed on a different time and place.

"You miss her, don't you?" she said gently.

Walter turned, seeing her for the first time. "Sit Integra," he said, his usual cheer in his voice. "What can I do for you?"

She noted that he avoided the question. "You can answer my question, Walter. I saw the look on your face, and," she held up the book. "Other things. You can tell me. I knew her almost as well as you did. She could just have well been my mother."

Walter smiled, the hints of sadness and loss coming back to his eyes. "True, I do apologize. I should have known better than to hide it from you." He turned to the window and looked out. "The cherry trees are blossoming. She did so love the smell." He sighed wistfully. "She was such a gentle soul, understanding in the extreme. Even," he said, turning. "Considering the things that she knew I did in the war."

Integra nodded. "Walter, Hiromi would want you to remember the good times you had, not lament the separation. You know this." But even as she said it, she knew it would do no good. Why shouldn't miss her, as she missed her father? Thinking of her father threatened to close her throat, but she fought the urge.

Hiromi Kawabata had been a close friend; no, she had been more than that. She and Walter had been inseparable in their off duty hours. In Integra's youth, she had been the mother she should have had. Between her and Walter she had managed to make it through the days following her father's death, her uncle's attempted usurpation, and running the organization. Then one afternoon, she had gone to pick up some item from a vendor in town and her car had struck by some tosspot that had spent too much time at a pub. Thankfully, she felt no pain, according to the medics that attended the scene.

She walked over and placed her hand on the shoulder of the man she had come to trust more so than any other on the planet. He closed his eyes, placing his hand over hers, thanking her for the solace. "I never did ask, how did you meet?" Integra said softly.

"Your father, shortly after the war, sent me to Japan to track down information on some minor problem. I hadn't been in the country for more than a few hours when I came across her being attacked by a few ghouls. I took her to her home, making sure that she was ok. She asked me to stay, she was still quite rattled." He smiled as his eyes defocused. "We talked for hours on so many topics. Shakespeare, Emerson, Frost, she had such a broad taste. She was the one that introduced me to some of the more exotic blends that I've used for tea."

Integra smiled. So that was where he came about these blends.

"In any event," said the butler, straightening from the ever so slight slump that he had been in. "We became friends, and we stayed in close contact for several years, and then she came to London to take on an agricultural job for some corporation, and then your father hired her to assist with the design for the garden remodel."

He gestured towards the volume of Shakespeare in her hand. "Nevertheless, the sonnet was a mere coincidence. It was where I had tucked the number for that hunter I mentioned last night. It was thinking about how I came about the number that brought on my stroll through time."

Integra inclined her head as a slight bit of understanding flashed through her. He had taken a few trips to Japan since she had died, visiting her grave. She had gone once, marveling in the grove of cherry trees and the idyllic, pastoral site where her ashes had been buried. Apparently, on one of those trips he had run into this 'Amon' person.

"Have you contacted him yet?" she asked.

"Ah, no. I'm afraid that shortly after my idea came to me, I realized that my Japanese was far too rusty to wade through the layers of lower level officials to reach Amon. While he speaks English quite remarkably, not all of the people in his organization might. I asked James to do so. He should be making the call as we speak."

Integra nodded. "Tell him to report to me after he is finished." She turned to leave.

"Sir Integra,"

"Yes Walter?"

The man smiled at her. "Thank you. I haven't thought on the days we had for quite some time."

She smiled back, and left, after nabbing a book from a shelf near the door.

"What do you mean, he isn't with the STN-J anymore?" Hunter said calmly in Japanese. He had managed to make it to a person named Sakaki, a young man who Hunter remembered as being a headstrong rookie.

"Just what I said. Mr. Amon left the STN-J close to three months ago, after the incident with Solomon. I don't know where he is."

"Sakaki, I need to talk to him. It's important. Who would know how to find him? "

The voice was silent for some time. "Probably Michael. He knows quite a bit about tracking people down. Hold on, I'll track him down for you."

Michael. Hunter frowned, searching his mind, and a blonde haired boy came to his mind. Ah yes, the hacker.

"This is Michael," a new voice said in English, a trace of an American accent in his voice.

"Michael, this is James Hunter. We met briefly just under two years ago."

"Of course. What can I do for you?"

"I need to know how to contact Amon. I need his help on a case."

There was silence for a few moments, and Hunter could picture the young man scratching the back of his head. "The only thing I can think of is to have him get in contact with you. We don't have a set time or anything. He just calls in every now and again to let us know that he and Robin are alright."

"Robin?"

"That's right, you didn't know her. She was a Craft-user that took Yumi's place after she was killed. The whole snap with Solomon was because Robin turned out to be a genetically enhanced witch. She's on the run, with Amon looking after her."

Hunter felt his brows lifting. For Amon to volunteer to guard a Craft-user, she must have made quite an impression on the man. There had been times Hunter had thought the man made of granite. "What was her craft?" he asked.

"Pyrokinesis." Michael said, bringing a whistle from the Dhampir.

"Michael, get a pen and paper handy, I'm going to give you my number. Have Amon call me as soon as you hear from him, alright?"

After giving the number for the Hellsing house, and sending his greetings to the remaining team, he hung up. He sat back, threading his fingers together and posting his head on his hands. Amon on the run, with a Craft-user no less. He wondered just what had gone on since he had last been in Japan. He was so lost in thought that he didn't even pick up the footsteps that drew up behind him until a throat cleared itself suddenly. He looked up, seeing Integra Hellsing in front of him. He stood and nodded at the shorter woman. "Miss Hellsing." he said.

"I take it that you have made your phone call?"

He nodded. "Unfortunately, Amon has, for lack of a better term, taken on a safeguarding role for a young Craft-user and isn't staying put. He calls in to the STN-J at what I gather is semi-regular intervals. I passed along the number so he can get in touch at his earliest possibility."

She nodded, and spitted him with a look. "What do you know of him?"

"Amon? Strict, by the book, emotionless on the surface, but he always does the right thing. I think bringing him into this wouldn't be a bad thing. Might even help, in the long run."

"I'll be the judge of that, when he gets here."

Hunter nodded. "Miss Hellsing," he said in parting.

Integra watched him go, feeling mildly surprised. Everything about that half-breed was polite and non-taunting. Such a welcome change from Alucard's borderline insolence and Seras' timidness.

Somehow, he reminded her of Walter and her father.

There was a rap on the lid of his coffin. Alucard cracked open an eye. His senses told him that it wasn't quite nightfall yet, but if something had brought someone to his chamber to summon him, he decided that it would be important. He started to lift the lid, when the person beyond spoke. "You've been neglecting her training." Abraham Van Helsing's voice said.

In surprise, he sat up, but in doing so he rose faster than the lid of his coffin did. He cracked his forehead on the hard ebony wood and fell back, letting the lid fall down askew on his bed.

Hunter chuckled. "Not an afternoon person, are we?" he quipped in his normal voice.

Alucard pushed the lid the rest of the way off, sitting up. "If you were a human, I'd rip your throat out, spawn of Loki." he said, rubbing his forehead.

Hunter tossed a bloodpack at him. "Relax," he said. "I need to know what you mean to do about that appalling lack of knowledge in her department."

Alucard saw the half-human sitting at the table in his room, a chess board set up next to the bottle of wine that sat like a centerpiece. Hunter was taking this seriously.

He stood, stepping to the table and nudging a pawn forward. He drank the blood as Hunter moved a knight out. "Her power is expanding exponentially now. If she doesn't get some sort of instruction, she won't have any control and will be more of a terror than you were."

He crushed the bloodpack in his hand. "She hasn't been ready." He moved a bishop out and sat down, crossing his long legs.

"It's been close to two years, old man. You guys can't have been that busy."

"She has done well enough learning on her own."

"Don't tell me all that time in Walachia eroded away your memories from when you were learning how to use your powers. You can't tell me that helping her learn control would be beneficial. I know that it would have helped me in those first days."

Alucard smirked. "Perhaps. But she hasn't been ready. Physically she has, but not mentally. It took almost six months before she would feed willingly, not just to sustain herself. She still isn't quite ready for the strain that it would put her through to access those skills."

Hunter took one of his friend's rooks from the board, supplanting it with a bishop. "Perhaps," he said, mimicking the vampire's voice and accent. "But would you object to my giving her a nudge in some areas that overlap? I can't help her summon demons or her familiar, but I can help with the shape changing and the form masking."

Alucard slid his queen to the side, placing the opposing king in check. Hunter countered by castleing. "No, of course not. I do admit that perhaps releasing her without that training was foolish, but I wanted her to have the strength that the organization needed. The self confidence."

"My friend, you must be as dense as the wood your coffin is made of." He slid his queen forward. "Don't you realize that she thinks you view her as a joke?"

"There have been times," the vampire quipped. "Some things she has to learn on her own. I don't want to spend the time teaching her like I did getting her to feed."

"She grew up in a different era than we did, my old friend. We grew up in times when war and bloodshed would be in the villages as well. I remember the Crusades dimly, but they were ending while I was still a child, and I seem to remember stories about a man named Vlad Tepes. Our world was much more violent than hers."

"It is still violent, James."

"But she hasn't seen it like we have. You have to realize that she is, despite her nature, still quite innocent. Integra grew up knowing about your kind and what they did. Seeing it was just seeing a lesson in practice. I remember people I considered friends butchered in the Inquisition. I nearly didn't survive my time there. You," he smirked. "Well, you drank blood as a human anyway, so it wasn't much different for you."

"It was better, in some ways."

Hunter looked up from the board where Alucard had trapped him in a neat little box. "Seras, however, hadn't seen much of the death and gore of life until she became a cop. And I gather that she hadn't been a cop long before the two of you met. It's just going to take time and patience. She had a rough acclimation phase."

"She's lucky she wasn't a Dhampir."

"I agree. I doubt she would take kindly to knowing that she'd only escape the curse by hunting down and killing her own father, or the rather violent way we are introduced to our powers." He tipped his king over, acknowledging Alucard's victory. "I'll start tonight. She's supposed to show me the grounds. That way you can spend some time with Integra."

Alucard looked at the man as he stood to leave. "What makes you think I would?"

"Please, you two cross each other's minds so often it's like hearing kissy noises no matter where I go in this house. I would hate to think what the things deeper down were like."

That set them both laughing. Alucard stood, brushing his hands down his suit. "I guess I'll take your advice."

"Don't bite too hard, old man. I get the feeling she could sit you on your ass if she wanted to."

A toothy grin spread across Alucard's face. "That almost sounds like fun," he said.

Seras walked out to the firing range, finding Hunter there with his pistols out, firing slow, precise shots. After one shot, he set one down and fiddled with the sights on the other, squeezing off a few rounds before messing with it again. He flicked a glance at her as he reloaded.

"Well, I was going to start with the firing range anyway, so I guess you've just started without me." the young vampire said.

Hunter grinned, holding both pistols out and ripping out round after round. She slipped behind him and saw the chaos the shells left in the targets. She whistled.

He turned, slipping the guns into holsters at the small of his back. "So, where would you have taken me from here?" he said, holding his arm out as he had the night before.

Taking it, Seras started leading him down the corridor to a large room. "Well, the motor pool would be the next place, since it's on the way to lifts." She showed him the APC and truck bays, the various vehicles that they used for missions.

Seras felt odd as she showed him the grounds. She felt almost at ease with him. She had felt it at the club before hell had broken loose. Almost like she was a normal person again. That is if you can be called normal living on a diet of blood. She looked at him from the corner of her eye. She knew that he drank blood as well, but the thirst was smaller for him. She had gleaned that from him at the club.

He looked down at her. "Yes, Miss Victoria?" he asked.

She flushed. She was caught red handed. "Just thinking about how much it feels like being a normal person when I'm with you."

He smiled. "I tend to have that effect on people, making them feel at ease around me. But what is normal, after all? The average of a wide base of differences. You are quite average for a vampress."

She flushed again. He continued. "I know that it was difficult for you, but there are many thousands of ways that it could be worse. You could be dead. Or Martha Steward."

She giggled at that. "I just wonder if was like this for everybody."

"Took me six months before I accepted that the safest thing for everyone was if I drank blood. But then, everyone I cared about thought I was dead."

She looked at him. "What do you mean?"

He ran a hand through his hair. "Dhampirs are the offspring of a vampire and a human. They go through life as ordinary humans for the most part, until they come across a supernatural creature and are killed. In my case, I ran across a werewolf while walking one night with my sister. We were both torn to shreds, but I woke up soon after while it was feeding on my sister, my wounds healed. I flew into a rage and attacked the creature."

He looked off into the distance. "After that, I just wandered from city to city, village to village. I knew that I was different, and as I traveled I came across my various skills. I helped a lot of people down the centuries, and saw more bloodshed than I ever cared to." He stopped and turned to her. "I thought the purpose of tonight was to show me the grounds."

Seras smiled. "So I wanted to get to know a bit more about you. It seemed like a good opportunity. Besides, maybe later on you can share some embarrassing tales about Alucard, since I'm sure he's already told you a few."

"I thought the one incident with the taco stand quite cute," he said.

She blushed. "I didn't think so at the..." she trailed off. "What taco stand?"

He laughed.

Walter caught the phone on the third ring. "Hellsing residence," he said. After a few moments, he nodded. "Of course, I'll send someone to pick you up as soon as you land, though we didn't expect you this quickly. What time will your flight land?" Walter jotted down the time and flight number and then hung up the phone after exchanging good-byes. He informed Integra of the news and then picked up the PA microphone and called James Hunter and Seras Victoria to Sir Integra's office.

Amon was almost to London.

He watched as a car left the manor, loaded with the two vampires. He didn't like that one bit, but it was too late. The plan was already pushed to the limit of flexibility. He decided to wait twenty minutes before launching the strike. He turned to the tall man beside him.

"You're certain that it will bind his powers?"

"Aye, though how much is still in question. I've ne'er seen a monster with that much power." The Scottish brogue made the words difficult to make out, but the hate was evident in his voice. So was the obvious trouble he had keeping his hands away from the various weapons stashed amidst his robes. A large cross hung from his neck, hovering around his stomach and his face was marred by a large scar running from just below the left eye across his cheek to the jawbone. Light blonde stubble covered his face, peppered with several darker hues. He grinned almost like a man possessed.

The man stepped back from Paladin Alexander Anderson, no longer certain of his safety this close to the man.

If he can still be called such, he thought. I'm lucky he doesn't know what I am, otherwise I'd have been carved up by now.

"We'll proceed in twenty minutes. I don't want them coming back in the middle of the operation."

"What does it matter? Two more vampires would hardly be a threat to me, especially the weak little whelp."

He spitted the regenerator with a glare. "The objective is not to kill them, but to carry them away. Killing them is of no use if they do not assist with the ceremony."

"What do I care of your ceremony? All I know is that those blasphemous dogs will soon be sent to the pits of Hell where they belong." He started cackling.

For the first time, he wondered if bringing in the priest was a wise idea. It may well turn against him if he didn't watch his step.

"Amon, it's been too long."

Hunter stepped forward and shook hands with the tall, dark haired gentleman who stepped from the security kiosk.

"I agree," the stony faced man said with a voice that surprised Seras. It was deeper than she thought it would be, and sounded faintly like Alucard's.

Hunter turned to the young woman beside him, her blonde hair up in ribbons on either side of her head. A peculiar pendant hung from her neck and she noted the rather conservative clothes she wore.

"You must be Robin," Hunter said. "I'm honored to meet the one that melted the iceberg's heart."

The young woman smiled softly, and in a soft voice tinged with an Italian accent replied. "I'm not so sure who melted who. If one thing our running has shown, it was that there was a lot more that we had in common than we thought." She slipped her arm through Amon's, reminding Seras of how a wife would link her arm through her husbands.

Hunter gestured at Seras as they made their way to the car outside. "This is Commander Seras Victoria of the Hellsing Organization. She heads the ground troops and the disposal unit."

Amon looked at her with eyes that probably were only half used to showing warmth. "I see you're a vampire," he said simply.

She nodded, a little uncomfortable. Hunter put a hand on her shoulder and sent a reassuring smile at her. Don't worry. He got used to the idea that not all creatures are evil a while ago.

Thanks, she shot back. She turned to Robin. "You'll bunk with me, if you don't have a problem with that." The young woman smiled that soft smile again. "Not at all," she said with that soft voice.

Hunter slid in the car after stowing the luggage and slid the key in the ignition. The first thing they heard was the small radio blaring to life.

"Sword Dancer is on the grounds. Repeat, Sword Dancer is on the grounds. Taking heavy casualties, Main house not responding to calls. Any field units not currently engaged are ordered to recall. Repeat, Sword Dancer is on the grounds, all non-engaged field units are ordered back to base."

Seras jerked upright, her throat throbbing in an echo of phantom pain. "Bastard," she spat.

Hunter kicked the car into gear and sped off, spitting her with a sideways look, but Amon was the first to speak up. "Who is Sword Dancer?"

"An Iscariot dog. I've run into him a few times before." She touched the scar on her throat. Hunter caught that and nodded.

"Great, so the Iscariot Organization decided to loose one of it's hunters on the grounds. Alucard will make short work of him."

Seras looked at him. "Not him. He's a regenerator, and he's a lot crazier than Alucard is."

"Great," muttered Amon.

Robin sat forward. "Excuse me, what is Iscariot?"

Seras turned around. "It's similar to Hellsing and the STN-J, only it also targets the people that would work with 'unholy' beings." She gestured at Amon. "Even though he's not a witch, because his with me, James, and you, Anderson would butcher him just for standing next to us."

Hunter cleared his throat. "Actually, Amon is a witch. The hunter's of the STN-J are picked because they have latent powers. If I remember correctly, Amon is an Astral Projector."

Amon nodded while Seras looked between them in confusion. "A what?"

Robin spoke up. "He can project his image or the image of anything he wishes up to a certain distance. He also can use a reverse effect to help zoom in on a target."

"And what is it you do?"

Hunter stuck one of his thin cigars in his mouth as he swerved around a double-decker bus. "Robin, if you would be a dear," he said.

Robin smiled, and the tip of the cigar lit in a tiny flash of flame. Seras sat back. "Enough said," she murmured as the sweet smell of cherries and vanilla filled the car, almost relaxing her.

Almost.

Amon cleared his throat. "I understand that we all have certain abilities, but do we have any weapons, or will we have Robin roasting the entire grounds and have the groundskeepers rather cross at us for a month?"

Hunter hauled one of his pistols out from his jacket and handed back to the grim faced man. "Here. Watch out, though. It's got more of a kick than those compressed air guns you were using."

Amon ejected the clip and checked the magazine. "Noted. Spare clip?"

"In the boot with the bags. I'll be bringing it along with us, since I have a few other toys that might come in handy. Hold on," he said just before he hauled up on the emergency brake, sending the car into a swerve that he used to shorten the turn he was making.

"Why don't you just apparate to the grounds?" asked Amon.

Hunter shook his head. "I don't like jumping into a hot zone, and the Police Girl here can't drive a stick."

"Can too,"

Hush, Seras. Always keep a combat group together, remember?

The radio crackled with a repeat of the earlier report. Hunter skidded around another corner and applied more speed. A car slid in behind them, a red light flashing on its roof. "Great," muttered Hunter.

"Seras, if you would kindly trade me places," he said, raising his eyebrows. She nodded, and he phased into the shadows of the car while she shifted into a fog and slid into his place at the same time. Hunter slid back the skylight and climbed out, leaping back to the pursuing car. He landed and leaned towards the driver's window. After a few minutes, he stood and apparated back to the car. The car shut its light off and fell behind.

"What'd you do?" Seras asked.

"I used my charming personality to get him off our tail. He agreed after I put the situation out in front of him."

Amon snorted. "You growled at him and threatened to use him as a late night snack, didn't you?"

"He was a bit more understanding than that one cop in Kyoto. All I had to do was smile at him. He's got a brother in Hellsing's troop division."

Seras interrupted. "If you would like to take the car back, you're welcome to it. I'd rather get ready."

They traded places again, the same way. Robin hadn't thought the car could go any faster. She was wrong.

"Seras, you're armed, right?"

"Socom and Gravedigger. The Halconnen is in the equipment locker in the barracks."

"Shame. Would love to see what a 30mm shell would do to a regenerator."

"Quite a bit, but only for a short time. I'll phase in and get it just as we get there."

"I wonder what Walter and Alucard will leave us."

Amon smiled. "Knowing those two, probably not much."

Seras nodded, but she wondered internally if it would be true.

So do I, Seras. Those Holy Writs will slow Alucard down, and from what I'm guessing, this Anderson would make short work of Walter.

Thanks, she shot at him. I was trying to look at the bright side of this.

Not sure there is one, Hunter grimly said back, and whipped the car around another corner.

As he raced through the middle of London, he reflected back on a passage of Shakespeare.

A curse shall light upon the limbs of men;
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy;
Blood and destruction shall be so in use
And dreadful objects so familiar
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war;
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:
And Cæsar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Até by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war.
That this fould deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

He gritted his teeth. I guess whatever it was you sensed the other night is coming true, Seras.

She nodded. I just hope that we turn out better than Brutus and Cassius did. Remeber, we're the ones Italy is after this time.

You would remind of that, wouldn't you? He took another turn hard, fishtailing the car. "We're coming up now." he said.

Amon spoke up. "Robin, your glasses?" Seras glanced back to see the young woman slide a pair of glasses onto her nose.

Seras must have had a puzzled look, for Robin smiled. "My powers tend to cause my sight to dim, rather similar to astigmatism. This way, I won't set anything on fire that we might have to put out later."

"Amon, you and Robin will be the most free ranging of us, since your powers are genetic more than anything. Seras will be hampered the most, and I will be knocked through a loop, thanks to those Holy Writs. I'll go in first with Amon. Seras, you and Robin come in second."

As he brought the car to a stop, he hopped out, Cain already in his hands. He pulled his bag from the trunk, and led the way to the front gates.

A/N: for those of you that might not know, Crispin Freeman voiced both Alucard and Amon in the dub versions of Hellsing and WHR, as well as Tsume in Wolf's Rain.