Note: see prologue for disclaimer
Chapter oneIntegral Wingates Hellsing was different things to different people. To some she was a royal knight and the Knight Commander of the Royal Protestant Knights of Hellsing, to others, mainly her subordinates, she was simply the Iron maiden of the Hellsing institution, but to a particular one she was simply master.
It was that particular one, that was the source of her most recent headache.
Then again, the last few days had been all a big headache. Ever since the Valentine brothers decided to pay them a visit, things had not been easy for the institution.
Never in its history they had faced anything like it.
She had lost nearly all of the institution's personnel that night. But no one had ever expected a coordinated use of ghouls, especially not in that fashion, well not since her grandfather's time.
The institution's combat readiness was at an all time low and they simply did not have time to replace the losses. She needed veteran troops ready, retrained and working as a team by yesterday.
The Valentine brothers had been the tip of the iceberg, a decapitation strike to cripple England, military use of ghouls, inside information…
It didn't add up to anything pleasant.
And now, since it had failed, no, it was not a good prospect and it was vital to put pressure onto them, or risk being overwhelmed.
But, that wasn't the problem at hand.
The problem was Alucard, Hellsing's 'one-man trash disposal unit', and the only thing that was keeping Hellsing operational. Well, he and Seras and while this one situation was as much her responsibility as his, Integral knew better.
It had been a simple search and destroy mission in a little town in the new forest. Oh yes, he had fulfilled the mission parameters but…
"Alucard, I distinctly seem to recall telling you not to make a habit out of it"
"My Master?"
"Don't feign ignorance, it doesn't suit you"
"I did nothing of the like, master"
"Of course you did not, not directly at least, do you expect me to believe that Seras did it out of her own volition?"
"Well, you did order me to properly train her, master"
"Alucard" Integral said in a growl.
"Heh… don't tell me, my master, that you aren't at least curious how an American boy, in an American army uniform and weapons ended up in British soil." It was a loaded question, very typical of the vampire.
No, curiosity was not Alucard's motivation, at least not solely. It still made her wonder what were his other reasons, especially if he was willing to reveal one so easily, but that would have to wait a little while, at least till Walter arrived with the boy's data.
Of course, at the time there was a far more pressing matter, that'd be showing his servant how to behave or at least to address her. While the chances of succeeding in the task were minuscule to say the least, that same task did wonders for her stress.
Integral had been in a foul mood when she opted to retire to the library.
The current situation had been bad enough, she, the institution, didn't need Alucard adding fuel to the already burning wreckage.
The worst part was, that there was precious little she could do to keep the vampire in check, not that it was easy to begin with. That was probably why her father had kept him bound in the dungeons for the larger part of his administration.
Oh yes, the seals bound him to her will, and limited his power as she saw fit. But with the current situation, she could not afford to take him from the active rooster, the closest thing to an effective punishment she had at her disposal.
Sergeant Victoria was far from being ready and, as for the more conventional forces, well, they were virtually non existent. Only ten, ten out of a hundred, had survived and only because they had not being in the grounds when the attack happened.
Alucard was the only thing keeping Hellsing operating.
Of course, that was what she was doing in the library, looking for alternatives, trying to keep Hellsing afloat, and be more than ready for the next attack.
That and trying to figure out what to do with Mr. Harris.
Walter had provided her the boy's file shortly after lunch; it still amazed her the ability of her retainer to cut through the red tape.
Then again, Walter was like that, unique. He had been a member of the organization from a young age; he had been in fact the youngest commissioned agent, and had grown up to become one of the finest and most efficient agents the institution ever had.
The boy's file had been composed by a mixture of school, hospital and police records, and the interrogation Mr. Harris had been subjected to after his had arrival to the mansion the night before. They were more than interesting, especially a follow-up report that had placed a watcher within the school staff.
The file had been, interesting to say the least. It certainly had not dispelled the boy's claims, what was more, it had made perfectly obvious that something beyond strange was going on within that town.
This situation was only going to make her headache worse, though there was plenty of reasons for that already.
About ten months ago, the US had approached Hellsing and several similar institutions for aid in expanding their paranormal units.
In the US, the paranormal threat had been dealt mainly by the private sector; by the so called Society of the Hunt, who centered their activities in the east coast, where the historical center of the paranormal activity had been located.
But since a few years ago, the effectiveness of the organization had begun to slip. Too many failures, high attrition rates, lower quality of the inductees. There were other rumors circulating, more harmful harmful, that spoke of serious problems within the society and they were probably true, as the US government had decided to take matters onto their own hands, rather than transforming the SoH into a federal agency.
It had been shortly after that, that their department of state had issued the requests to the more successful organizations.
Integral had been considering the request, but in the aftermath of the Valentine disaster the issue had become academical.
But if Mr. Harris' claims of an active Hellmouth held water, and so far they did, the request couldn't be ignored.
'Damned watchers, had they expected to keep an active Hellmouth secret?' she slammed her fist against the desk
She had never liked that organization much;there had been disagreements between the council and the organization as far back as during her great grandfather's time, during the early years of Hellsing, so it was hardly news.
'But this, this is idiocy; they were putting them all in the line, and for what?'
It was true that most of the older organizations had poor histories of collaboration, and some had outright hostility with one another, or in the case of the Iscariots with just about everyone else. But this was an active Hellmouth and the success rate of the Watcher's Council and their chosen one left a lot to be desired.
Hopefully they had at least informed the local authorities, she wanted to think that that was the reason for the request, rather than the SoH loss of performance. But with no proper evidence she knew better, the watchers priced their secrecy and impunity to operate, specially since their chief weapon happened to be an underage girl, and no country liked foreign organizations operateing within their boundries without their authorization or to use their citizens as tools, specially not if they could do so themselves.
She still wanted to have a face to face with the boy, hear it from his lips, to be certain.
It was an all too serious matter, grim almost, especially if her hunch about Millennium happened to be accurate.
When Xander arrived to the mansion, he had been placed in a secure room, given some clean clothes and was questioned to death.
So yeah, he had no way to explain how the hell he had ended up in the land of tweed, asides from the usual "Hellmouthy" clause, but that did not work well with the people here.
Of course they had explained him who they were and what they did, actually that butler, uh… Walter, had. He even gave him a heads up about his new condition. He had never used actual silverware in his life, except that one time at Wills' place, but he certainly wasn't going to ever again.
But, for the most time, they had left him alone, to let him get used to his new condition, at least that was his guess.
Actually, there had been a bit of a surprise on that matter, he was not happy or comfortable with it, even if it had only been a few hours since it happened, but he wasn't feeling miserable or broody bout it either.
At least so far, but truth was, he had been concerned with other things; he was after all as curious as these people were in how he had ended up here, but he also was worried about what had happened before, the possession and the Halloween madness.
He had felt as a caged tiger, he wanted to know what had happened and more importantly, if the girls were ok.
Hmmm… it was probably the shock of too many things happening too soon, once his mind properly rebooted, well, no guarantees, except he was not going to become a cheap copy of Brood boy, maybe.
And then Walter had come in and took him to Sir Hellsing's office.
Sir Hellsing had wanted to speak to him.
The office was impressive, large, elegant and with the setting sun behind Sir Integral's desk, it gave a certain atmosphere of power.
But not more so than the platinum blonde woman sitting behind the large mahogany desk
"Mr. Harris, please take a seat" It was not a request; the woman didn't play games and didn't fool around, he had been told as much. So he did the sane thing and quickly complied.
"You have placed my organization in a delicate situation, you are not only a minor, but a foreign citizen"
Suddenly Xander begun getting more and more nervous, the tone and the implications were not good.
"You-you are not going to kill me, aren't you?" Integral frowned
"No, I don't make a habit of killing my own agents, living or otherwise; at least not without a very good reason. However, that is not the issue I wanted to discuss with you," and just like that he had been drafted.
"Uh?"
"The Hellmouth, mister Harris" she leaned forward, a predatory visage present on her face "that and your knowledge of the Aurelians, or rather how you acquired it" and suddenly he'd felt like he'd rather be having a one on one death match with Buffy. Seemed a safer alternative.
Meeting Sir Integral Hellsing, the current head of the Hellsing institution, had been an experience Xander wasn't going to forget anytime soon.
Of course, the last few hours were going to be etched in his memory for, well, what years he had ahead of him.
If anything she had been very blunt and direct, he thought as he begun changing into his new uniform.
Sir Hellsing had unceremoniously drafted him into the organization, not that he had much of a choice to begin with. He was in the land of tweed, except few people in the house seemed to wear it, and well, not sure how he had ended up there and with no cash or a passport…
That and he was temporally bound to Seras, that had been the name of the woman in the blue uniform, Seras Victoria.
"Sigh…" he muttered to himself while he finished tying his boots "Some luck…"
He looked up into the mirror while he begun buttoning the shirt. The reflection had been a welcomed surprise, and while he had seen Seras's red eyes and rather sharp fangs before hand, adapting to actually having them was a whole different matter. But all in all it had been the tongue the real surprise. It was long, it was pensile, it certainly wasn't human and it was way to easy to bite, specially if you had very sharp fangs.
But sir Hellsing's interest in all things Hellmouthy and indirectly in the Scoobs had left him out of balance.
She had been very interested; interested enough as to eventually send him back, hopefully.
She had agreed to contact Giles and to at least keep him apprised of the situation, but before that there were a few formalities that had to be fulfilled (her words), after all Hellsing was a classified organization and a state secret.
Also she had promised to check on his friends, make sure they were fine, but had warned him that it might take them some time to confirm anything, at least till Monday when school restarted, they could take a look onto the attendance records.
Till then, the best they could do was to check if they had been admitted to a hospital, emergency room, arrested or taken to the morgue.
Not particularly good options, but at the moment he was mighty short on those.
She had also been rather clear that the institution was in no shape to do much for them, at least for the time being, especially with the increased FREAK activity, unless of course it was something serious, as in end of the world serious.
So, with a bit of luck, that might mean more or less two weeks, perhaps a month.
He looked down at the gloves, and paused for a moment before he pocket them.
And then she began to talk of his future with Hellsing.
The institution didn't had a policy for undead recruits, after all it had been the second time it had happened in the Institutions' hundred years of history, and the other case had happened just a few months before. The simplest alternative, for Hellsing, would have been having him go missing, since he already technically had, doing nothing would had make the matter settle for itself.
It was, after all, what Hellsing had done in the other case.
But his American citizenship could prove, in this case,to be an asset. Hellsing couldn't operate in the US, at least not without a lot of formalities or going undercover, the first implied a long time of red tape and the second, well smuggling took time, and the risk for Hellsing, and the British crown, were very high, especially the diplomatic repercussions of getting caught.
He, on the other hand, could go as a private citizen and well, keep doing the Scooby gig, except with some proper training, equipment and well, racial abilities.
Not exactly ideal, but better than nothing.
And since Hellsing was a part of the British government, the weapons and ammo could be brought into the country via diplomatic couriers and then he'd have to retrieve them from the British consulate in LA.
While low risk, it wouldn't work in a large scale, at least not without drawing suspicion towards the consulate, something that was best to avoid.
He was standing in front of the mirror, tiding up the uniform when Walter entered.
"Ah, mister Harris, I see that you have finished changing."
"Ah… yeah, Walter, thanks for the clothes" he sad pointing at the loaners the butler had given to replace the bloodied fatigues.
"It was not a problem"
"Uh… what is going to happen now, Walter?
"Actually that's why I was in here. Sergeant Victoria has volunteered to help you familiarize with the facilities."
Victoria… that name she had… oh "Seras"
"Quite correct, Mr. Harris" He said with a half smirk on his face "she is currently waiting outside, waiting for you"
Xander exited the room not too sure what he was going to find. Perhaps he was starting to feel the full weight of the night's events, but for the most part there was a strange sense of anxiety.
She was leaning against the wall with a concerned look on her face. She was still clad in the same blue uniform that had seemed to Xander so out of place.
Seras, for her part, had not escaped the night's events unscarred. Integral had not being very happy with the situation.
That had been probably an understatement, but in the end Alexander had become her responsibility, and Integra had been very clear about that, and what it implied.
Seeing the boy entering the hallway she left her position on the wall and moved towards him.
"Alexander?"
"Uh, yeah, but I prefer Xander"
"Xander" she repeated, unsure
"Yeah, as in aleXander"
"Yes, I realized as much, but you have to admit it is kind of an odd form"
"So says Seras" he said grinning
"Heh, guess I am none to speak about that either, Xander"
"Guess s…-hey, what are you implying?"
"Just that you like being called Xander" she said smiling enigmatically
"Oh," he said eying Seras suspiciously "just checking"
"We better get going, we have a lot ground to cover and I rather not be late, Sir Integral is rather angry as it is"
"Late to where?"
"Your orientation course" and having said that she began to move.
The mansion was big, that was the one way to descrive it, big and elegant.
It was composed of three wings, north, south and west, and was surrounded by a rather impressive fenced park in the front and an even larger forestry area in the back that had, amongst other things, the shooting range and the obstacle course.
With Seras as a guide, he was introduced to the more accessible areas of the mansion, which mainly the troop area in the north wing and his quarters, in the basement.
The facilities were impressive, even if they were more or less abandoned. Throughout the tour he had only a few other persons and they all had been part of the repair crews that were in the process of erasing the recent raid he had herd about.
"Seras, there was something I wanted to ask"
"Uh?"
"About, you know…" he said tapping at his neck
"Oh, uh, truth is I am not an expert either, master is the one, but well, master is the master"
"Who?"
"Uh... well Alucard, uh, oh right, you haven't met him yet, well, he is the one that…."
"Oh" he rubbed his chin "uh, why you call him master?"
"Uh, well, it is because he is"
"Oh… uh… but…"
"Yes?"
"Why I am not calling you master, then?"
"I…" hey true, why wasn't he calling her master "…don't know…. Hmm… oh!" she said snapping her fingers
"Eh?"
"Well, I am still bound to master, so perhaps you are bound to him as well, rather than to me"
"…Uh… that kinda makes sense, but…"
"Yeah?"
"Uh… I don't have to call him master, right?"
"Dunno, why?"
"Cuz, well it would make people talk and they might get the wrong idea of things," he said, making a fake shudder.
"Perhaps you shouldn't have said that." Seras said seriously
"Why?"
"Well, master is known to have a bit of an odd sense of humor and…"
"Uh, define odd?"
She shot him a glance."You don't want to know" she deadpaned
"Oh," he suddenly felt like banging his head against a wall. He had an entirely too large mouth.
Giles had known something like that was bound to happen. The risks were always too high, especially for normal humans. And Xander, he had paid the price.
Although his fate was still unknown, the odds he was just missing were slim. That didn't happen, not on the Hellmouth, at least not for long.
He really should have tried to drive the kids away or to at least provide them with training, but he hadn't done that either; no, here was the responsible adult, to soft harted to consider the former and entirely scared of Ripper to even imagine latter.
No matter the angle he looked at it, now he had one more death on his consciousness. He really should have killed Ethan when he had the chance; he knew his 'old pal' was a disaster waiting to happen.
But while Halloween had not been a disaster as terrible as he had feared, Buffy had been left very shaken by her friend's disappearance.
Willow wasn't in any better shape herself and that was making things worst for his slayer.
She was punishing herself for it, and it was beginning to affect her nocturnal activities.
He really didn't wanted to voice the implications of that, but he was going to have to do something about it, and soon.
And that was when somebody knocked at the door.
Opening it, he came face to face with a middle aged man in an impeccable gray suit, and an attaché case in one hand.
"Yes?"
"Mister Rupert Giles?" the man asked.
"Yes."
"My name is Arthur Torensen, I am with the British consulate in LA. May I come in?" he said producing the pertinent identification.
Giles made an invitation gesture, even though the sun was still high in the sky. Living in Sunnydale tended to take its toll on both formality and hospitality but it was better than the alternative.
"Why, thank you. I am sorry to bother you Mr. Giles, but I have some rather urgent matters to discuss with you."
"I don't under-"
"Well, I am afraid it is a rather complicated issue, Uh, I think it would best if we do thissitting."
"Very well," he said motioning towards his apartment's lone table.
The British diplomat made its way to the table, and waited for Giles to take a seat before placing his attaché case on it. He, then, opened the case and extracted a few documents and a pen, that were then handed to the watcher.
"Because the matters I must discuss with you are confidential, I must ask you to sign this non disclosure agreement."
"What?"
"Well, this is a matter of state, Mr. Giles, but be certain that her majesty would not ask from her subjects more than they can give. Moreover, I am allowed to disclose that it is related to the events of the night of the 31st."
Giles nearly had a stroke and a heart attack.
It was rather obvious that they knew what had happened, if not all at least in part. That alone was a reason to sing, and while curiosity killed the cat, his gut feeling was telling him to do so, so after reading through the document he stamped his signature on it.
"Very well, now it just only need notification and… there," he said, after properly stapling and sealing the paper before returning it to his attaché case.
"Now, let me be clear, Mr. Giles." He said placing the signed agreement back onto his case "Her Majesty's government is aware of your affiliation with the Watcher's Council and, of course, what goes on in this little town at night."
"I… see."
"Actually you don't, at least not yet," he said handing over a folder to the watcher. "Two nights ago, on the early hours of the first, we came across something you lost, actually MI-12 did."
"MI-12?" he said, puzzled, while opening the folder.
"Why, yes. That was the part of the reason for the non-disclosure agreement, MI-12 is a secret of state, one whose disclosure to unauthorized persons carries a very harsh sentence," the diplomat took another look at the watcher "Mr. Giles, are you felling well?"
"How…?" he asked, pointing at the open folder. Within it there was a rather thorough file on Xander. There were a thousand questions in Rupert's mind and not for the first time, they all wanted to be answered first.
"Well I suppose, it could be best if I explained MI-12 first, to eliminate any possible misunderstanding" he said, giving the watcher yet another folder.
"MI-12, better known as Hellsing, is the royal institution tasked with the protection of the English soil from the undead threat. It had been so for the past hundred years."
"But… there hadn't been a vampire in England in the past…"
"Well, I wouldn't say that. However we are very good at keeping things under wraps, don't you think, Mr. Giles?"
"I-I… yes, it seems so, " he said, while cleaning his glasses, "but how Xander…"
"I am afraid we don't know all the details, but, what we do know is that your friend appeared in the path of an MI-12 operation, not far from Bransgore and got himself quite involved. What happened afterwards is, well, my reason for being here."
"Uh?"
"Are you familiar with the terminology 'No life King'?"
Rupert eyes widened. They were a very unique and rare form of undead, vampiric in nature and yet unrelated to the Aurelians. Sometimes called true nosferatu, especially by themselves, they did have an ego issue; they were, if anything, virulently hateful of the Aurelians. At least according to all reports he had come across.
"I am, but what does it have to do with Xander's…"
"What you will not find in that report is that the MI-12 operatives sent to the New Forest were a No life King and his thrall. They did managed to neutralize the situation but, it was a little too late for young Mr. Harris."
"B-but the report says he is fine."
"It is a matter of semantics, Mr Giles, after all he isn't dead."
And then it hit him. "Are you saying that Xander was…"
"Yes."
"Good god."
"Yes, quite, but that is not the only thing we have to discuss. While I am here on Mr. Harris request I am also under Sir Hellsing's orders," he paused to study his fellow countryman, "you see, Mr. Harris wanted to inform you that he was fine, in relative terms of course. On the other hands this is also a business trip, Mr. Giles."
"Could you please elaborate on that, uh Mr. Torensen."
"Of course, Mr. Giles. You have to understand that Sir Hellsing doesn't share the operation procedures of the council, and while she is quite unable to lend a direct hand to the matter, at least not without risking an international incident, she is willing to do so in critical situations. Therefore she needs to be kept up to date on the happenings here." he handed another folder to the watcher, "this is were you come in, Mr. Giles."
"I see."
"Let me be more clear with you, Mr. Giles, Her majesty's government is not asking you to resign to the watcher's council or to spy on them for us, but to keep us apprised of the comings and goings in this town."
"Can I think about it?"
"I am afraid I must leave with your answer, Sir."
Rupert paused for a second collecting his thoughts, in reality he did not have much of a choice, but…
"Very well, I'll agree, but only if I can inform some persons of Xander's situation."
"You mean Miss Summers and Miss Rosenberg?"
"Well, yes."
"There shouldn't be much of a problem with it, but I'd ask you to wait from telling them the full story till I could arrange the proper paperwork" he said sliding a document in front of the watcher "in the meantime, please sign here and here."
"What is this?"
"Why, your induction onto the MI-12."