Order 9: The Watcher

London, England – Present Day

The moment the cell phone rang, it was answered – giving almost no time for its sound to split through the otherwise quiet night air. Across the street from the Hellsing mansion, an unnoticed figure stood in the black shadows of trees, watching the front gate intently. His attention was unwavering as he brought the phone to his ear.

"Dieses ist Geiger."

This is Geiger...

The man said into the phone and waited for the voice on the other end to speak. As ordered, he had followed Rain, undetected by her as she had traveled across the city of London to this place – the Hellsing Mansion.

"Haben Sie sie gefunden?"

Have you found her?

The voice on the other end answered in German.

"Ja. Wir haben 'Das Erste' Childe aufgespürt. Sollen wir mit dem ursprünglichen Plan fortfahren?"

Yes. We have tracked 'The First's' Childe. Shall we proceed with the original plan?

The man who introduced himself as Geiger answered, a smile tugging at the edge of his lips as he spoke to his superior. There was a pause for a moment before the mysterious voice replied:

"Nehmen Sie sie gefangen."

Capture her.

"Sorgen Sie sich nicht, Doktor. Die Falle ist eingestellt worden."

Do not worry, Doctor. The trap has been set.

And as quick as that, the conversation was over and the man on the other end hung up. Slowly, Geiger lowered his phone from his ear, his gaze never once leaving the gates since he watched Rain deteriorate into a cloud of mist and slip through the dark green metal bars. Why had she gone willingly into a lion's den? Grinning, he suddenly shook his head – it didn't matter. She could go to the Queen of England herself; it would have little effect on her fate. The truth of the matter was; she was not the hunter, but the hunted.

"Poor child..." He said to himself as he slipped the cell phone into his trench coat pocket. It was only a matter of minutes before he saw the dark mist recede back out from the fence and drift swiftly down the street away from the mansion. To any unsuspecting by-stander who may have been watching from the shadows like Geiger was, they would have been surprised to see the mist, as it drifted silently, transform into a young woman. But this was what Geiger had been waiting for. Watching Rain from his place in the darkness, he watched her as she slipped into the shadows, becoming undetectable by any mortal who may have been walking the streets at night.

"Clever... But we can still see you..." Geiger said softly, the sly smiling growing on his face. Strangely, the air beside him began to darken even more as suddenly the shadows began to concentrate into the form a cloaked figure, about the height of Geiger, floating several inches above the ground beside him. Beneath the folds of its hood, a glint of silver could be seen covering its chin, but other than that its face remained hidden.

"Let the hunt begin." Geiger whispered, without even looking over his shoulder towards the figure by his side. The figure said nothing as it followed Geiger silently in the direction Rain had gone.

"A great evil..." Rain whispered to herself, gripping both the Kosmos and Kronos blades tightly by their hilts. Something was in the air, but she couldn't tell what. She felt tense as the hair on the back of her neck rose. Whatever it was, it toyed with her senses – coming close and then falling away before she could pinpoint where it was coming from. Could it have been Iscariot, like Walter and Integral had mentioned? She couldn't be sure. Stopping for a moment, she breathed in, tasting the air. But in mid breath Rain stopped short of a full breath.

"No... Not Iscariot..." She said softly, lifting her head upwards. There was familiarity in the smell, but at the same time, it tasted stale and tainted. She listened closely to the sounds around her. Clenching her teeth together, Rain sank farther into the darkness, border lining the confines of her physical shell. In the distance, her ear focused in on the sounds around her. It was quiet, perhaps too quiet.

Trees gave way to more concrete as she sank further into the city of London. As she moved, the world around her suddenly grew empty and nothing but its shell remained. Rain looked around; there were no sounds of cars, people or animals. Not even the faint hum of street lights could be heard. It was as if the world around her had suddenly stopped. Her eyes narrowed as she immediately stopped dead in the middle of the street of what usually would have at least had some signs of life nearing the hour of dawn. Something was coming and she could feel it. Her grip on the Kosmos and Kronos swords tightened even more, as a slow breath escaped her lips. Suddenly, her ear caught wind of something moving not far in the distance. At first it sounded like a scratching sound, but as Rain's attention zeroed in on the slowly approaching noise, her opinion change. It didn't sound like scratching at all; it was shoes, scuffing against the concrete ground as someone walked. Rain turned in the direction of the sound, watching and waiting quietly for the source of the sound to make itself known. After a few minutes, the shuffling was accompanied by a moan and a gurgle rising in someone's throat. Then Rain's eyes caught sight of movement coming into sight beneath a street light not far down the road from her. A human – or was it? It looked like a human male, but it was stumbling, arms outstretched with contorted facial expressions as it was walked in her direction. Lifting the Kronos blade up, she pointed it at the approaching creature.

Silently, Rain caught a taste of death on the air that breezed past her. The ghoul only growled and gurgled as it continued its advance.

"Unnatural creature..." She whispered to no one in particular. The strange sounds that came from the ghoul before her began to multiply. Suddenly, from several more directions, she heard noises similar to those of the first ghoul rise up in the once quiet air.

Breaking her gaze with the first ghoul, Rain glanced around, over her shoulders to see more creatures like the first closing in around her. Instinctively, Rain readied the Kosmos and Kronos, all the while, her expression remaining blank. Closing her eyes, she calmly awaited the ghouls to come closer. Once they had made it into a close circle around her, she attacked. By stretching out both her arms on either side of her, the blades that she held reached past the circumference of the circling ghouls. Without hesitation, Rain turned full circle, bringing the blades with her. Decapitated heads fell to the ground, immediately silencing the gurgling sound that had risen in her ears. The last ghoul standing was given an extra bit of attention as Rain brought both the blades down into its head, slicing directly to the ground so that the undead creature fell in several pieces to the ground.

"A waste of time..." Rain said to herself, looking down at the tainted blood on her swords. Droplets of blackish-red blood dripped to the ground while Rain stared at the pieces of ghouls. Looking upwards to the sky, she knew that finding a place to rest for the day would be more of a priority than searching till dawn for more pieces of Frost. Turning slowly away from the death lying at her feet, her eyes suddenly fell on Geiger, who stood not from her in the middle of the street. He was dressed in a black trench coat; strands of his short black hair fell down in front of blue eyes that stared with a gaze unwavering at Rain.

"Who are you?" Rain pierced the silence with a cold voice.

"My name is Geiger and it is a pleasure to finally have a chance to meet you, Child of the First." He spoke in a thick German accent and immediately upon hearing his voice; Rain brandished her blood covered swords.

"You are one of 'them' aren't you?" Rain hissed in disgust. "Are you here to try and take back what is rightfully mine?"

"No." Geiger answered, showing no emotion as the woman growled at him. "I have been sent here to take back what is rightfully ours." He replied. Rain took a defensive stance, lifting up the Kronos so that it was aimed at his throat.

"If you move, I will kill you." Rain barked, showing no signs of relent. "All I ever wanted was Frost and you Nazi dogs thought it was your right to destroy him! You deserve the same fate as what you inflicted upon your victims."

"The First is not dead." Geiger's words cutting the air like a knife. His words, repeated over in her mind so many times that she lost count.

"Liar..." Rain replied, her voice now quiet as the aiming of her swords became suddenly less steady than before. Geiger had caught her attention, even though she tried desperately not to show it. "He died in my arms at the Auschwitz Death Camp."

"For an immortal, you think in such mortal ways." Geiger said, walking towards her, unafraid of the threat that she held in her hands. "You do not belong here, Child of the First. I have come to take you back to where you will belong. Come with me and I promise I will bring you to the First."

"The promise of a Nazi is a mouthful of lies." Rain said, refocusing her attention on her target. "I believe none of the words you speak."

"How can you be so sure? So much has happened in the sixty years that you've been asleep." He continued, stopping only inches from the tips of her swords. "I swear that the words I speak are true. The First lives."

Geiger lifted his hand, making a motion to push on of the swords out of his direction.

"Get back, human!" Rain hissed through clenched teeth, and in a rapid manipulation of the sword that Geiger had attempted to push aside, Rain quickly slashed Geiger's palm. "Next time you will loose more than the skin off your hand!"

Geiger's eyes narrowed in abhorrence as he looked at the gash across his hand.

Slowly he stepped back and turned from her, making it seem as if she was a waste of his time until he said: "Naughty little girl..."

Her attention was rapidly taken away from the man before her as soon as her eyes caught sight of her exhaling breath. There was mist rising from her lips as she exhaled a breath of air. This wasn't anything out of the ordinary until strangely the vapor began to crystallize. Thousands of tiny shards of ice remained hanging before her in the still air. Time stopped, or at least Rain felt it did. Her vampire eyes were filled with shock as they stared at each individual splinter of ice.

"It can't be..." Rain whispered, a tear falling to her pale cheek, which trailed downward for a moment before turning to ice. Slowly, Rain managed to look away from the beauty of the icy shards that caught what little light there was in the hours before morning. She looked to Geiger, who now had a sly smile across his face.

Unexpectedly, Rain felt something cold encircle her neck. Spinning around, Rain felt the icy touch turning to a tightening grip. She gasped, startled as she found herself suddenly unable to breath. Before she had a chance to take a step back, she felt something cold close in around her body and pull her forward. Looking up, her eyes caught sight of a silver mask, shrouded in the folds of a black cloak. It was smooth, except for the two shadowy eye slits that looked down at her.

She felt weak as the swords dropped from her hands to the ground.

Hanging in the unknown's arm, she felt her lungs freeze within her chest and she felt that if the creature would cease holding her up, she would collapse under her own weight.

"Rain!"

Distantly, from the cold darkness that was closing in around her, she heard a familiar voice. Casually, Geiger looked over his shoulder to see who it was.

"And who might you be?" He asked, smirking as he looked at both Walter and Celes, who was aiming her berretta 9mm hand gun at his face. "How charming, is this how you greet everyone you meet? Unfortunately for you, it is futile. You can't kill me, girl."

"She can't. But I can." Another voice whispered, taunting him from Rain's direction. With suddenly narrowed eyes, Geiger looked back towards Rain to find he was staring into the barrel of a gun. His gaze shifted quickly from the gun to Alucard who was also pointing another gun towards the masked figure that held Rain. "And I can kill your little pet as well. Allow me to demonstrate."

Rain heard the gunshot in what felt like an eternity before it hit the figure directly in the forehead, causing it to loose its hold on her body as it recoiled back. The ice crystals that had been hanging in the air suddenly fell, chiming softly as each shard hit the ground. Their sound echoed in Rain's ears as she was unable to stop her limp body from being taken by gravity. Closing her eyes, she fell to her knees and then the ground. Seemingly dead until after a few moments her eyes suddenly flew open as she was able to take her first breath. Coughing as she gasped for her, her lungs ached. She gripped her chest, the frozen feeling gradually subsiding.

"Your efforts are in vain, my friend." Geiger said to Alucard whose attention was on the figure, whom at first had been knocked back by his assault, but slowly regained his composure. Rising up, he towered over Rain's fallen body and easily stood at Alucard's height without any effort. "You cannot kill the First."