Title: Family Matters
Author: DhampyrX2
Genre: X-over
Series: Impure Souls
Rating: PG-13, just to be safe
Summary: Xander has hidden family. Xander discovers them. Xander's life gets turned upside down in a way that will hopefully help everyone evolve a bit.
Timeframe: After Graduation, but before the College crap starts.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. Don't sue me, I'm poor.
Author's Note: Typical formatting stuff for the site:
underlined stuff is a foreign translation.
Bold is a sound effect.
italics is for thoughts or psychic communication
Xander stumbled out of the room, nearly tripping over himself, before he shut the door behind him. After his report and debriefing, he had experienced the one thing universally feared by the insane and the lucid alike...a severe dressing down at the hands of Sir Integra. Man, Teg is scarier than normal when she wants to be. he commented in his mind.
"Master can indeed be intimidating, Xander." Alucard responded to the unvoiced thought, as he stepped out of the wall.
"Is it your turn to jump over me for endangering myself, my unit, and all the personnel with me by 'going off on my own like a damned American cowboy'? You know, despite the fact that was what I was /ordered/ to do?" Xander wearily inquired.
"I will not condemn you for what you could not control, boy." Alucard responded with a surprisingly gentle tone; as he fell into step with Xander, who was heading toward his room and his shower.
"Well, so far you're the only one, Gramps." Xander spat half heartedly.
"Master and the Police Girl are both merely expressing worry. You know that. They have reason to feel fear about Lilith." the vampire counseled.
"I know that. And I can deal with Vicky crying and calling me a stupid git and all like she did on the way back tonight. It's Teg going off on me that doesn't see, fair. She's the one that advised up to split up and cover more ground!" Xander complained.
"My Master expresses her worry in strange ways. You must remember that she has been taught to hide any softness in her demeanor in the face of all things. She must never show weakness. Her love and concern for her family, you, is a weakness. In the face of that fact, a threat to her family may cause her to...overreact." Alucard explained.
"If you call it overreacting it must be bad, 'Mr. I'll kill all of humanity because of a handful of pretentious backstabbing assholes and their uninformed actions'." Xander commented with a snort.
"I will admit I went too far. Can you say I was wrong to want the village that burned her at the stake after she risked her life to help them in that plague to burn to the ground? That they did not deserve punishment?" Alucard challenged.
"Hey! I'm all kinds of with the punishment. I'm not exactly the kind of guy to say 'oh well, that really sucks' and forget it when someone hurts my friends and family. If some jerk hurt Vicky, or Willow, or Teg, or Buffy, or...hell even you or Giles, I'd be there for first crack at putting them in a hurt locker. It doesn't matter that every one of you could handle any problem for yourself. You hurt my loved ones, I hurt you. I'm just saying that A.) You went too far after you left the village itself destroyed. It should have ended there. And B.) Teg had no reason to go off on me like that." Xander answered.
"I know." Alucard responded with a sardonic grin. "But I have learned that those close to my Master must deal with her temper. It, like all things mortal, will pass in time." Alucard replied sagely.
"Unless she agrees to your turning her, you mean." Xander countered with a snort as he folded his arms and glared at his ancestor. The more he heard about that, the less he knew what to think about it. On the one hand, he was part mideon, and other than a few cool new abilities, he hadn't changed. He was still /Xander/, soul and all, and he still felt as he always had, fangs or no fangs. On the other hand, he didn't like the idea of anyone being turned, much less his cousin. Of course, it wasn't like it would be done against her will. Alucard had a strict policy to only turn the willing. And true mideons were nothing like the breed of 'vampires' that Angel and Spike descended from.
Xander agreed more with Alucard's assessment of the demonic revenant breed every day. They were scum, garbage, and vermin. Referring to that...species as vampires was an insult to true nosferatu like Alucard and Seras. That was why Xander adjusted so easily as his vampiric powers grew under Alucard's tutelage. It was easy to disassociate a species with rational thought and free will, a species capable of breeding naturally, and of /inter-breeding/ with humans, from a bunch of parasitic entities that took over corpses and were driven by base instincts alone. Simply put, Mideons like Alucard were the nobility of vampires. Angelus, Spike, and his ilk were orangutans with anger management issues.
"Do not overly ponder things you do not have say in. What happens between Integra and I will be her choice. If you would condemn me for it, al least wait until I've done something." Alucard warned gently.
"It's just I have issues with family being turned. After Jesse...he was like a brother to me. And then that thing wearing his face...those eyes were not the eyes of my brother." Xander replied uneasily.
"And you released him. A far better fate than forcing him into an existence like that circus freak Angelus. To force the soul into the beast's body like that is pure Romani. Vengeance at the expense of everything, even common sense. If that clan had had any brains between them, they would have made the curse permanent. I can think of no better prison for such a beast than to be trapped by a contented soul filled with joy and love. My own Romani agents would never have let that family live down the embarrassment of such a senseless curse, I can tell you that." Alucard commented.
"You have a point there. Living with Angel for eternity would be hell." Xander replied with a weak chuckle.
"Indeed. Now get cleaned up, and get some rest. We will work on training you with the Sword of Dawn tomorrow." Alucard commanded.
Xander let out a huge yawn as he responded, "Sounds like a plan. See you tomorrow, Gramps."
"You were a bit hard on him, weren't you, Sir Integra?" Walter asked once Xander had left his cousin's office.
Integra merely sat there, seething, as she smoked her cigarillo and stared blankly out the window. "We could have easily lost him tonight, Walter." she finally said after a long, tense, pause.
"A risk each of us takes every night in this war, Sir Integra." the retainer countered.
"But not one I would send the last of my family willingly into. How is it right that he is alive by the grace of a madwoman vampiress alone, as I sat here and pushed papers?" she asked the elder Englishman.
"We all do our parts, Sir Integra. You once asked if I wished I was still out there among the carnage, fighting at Lord Alucard's side as I had through your grandfather's and father's tenures. I said I was pleased here, at your side, doing what you required of me. That was not merely something I said to reassure you. What we do is important as well. Hellsing needs commanders and organizers as surely as it needs troops, both standard, and special. You fight when the need arises. That does not mean you should be on the front for every battle." Walter advised.
"Or that I should condemn my own flesh and blood for doing what I instructed him to do?" he asked with a twisted grin, as she appreciated the irony in her tirade.
"He understands that you are concerned for him, Integra. And I know Alucard will make certain he does not take it too personally." the Angel of Death replied.
Integra heaved a little sigh as she responded, "Heaven help us all when we have to rely on that vampire for reasonable counsel and emotional support."
"You must admit that he has been remarkably helpful in Alexander's development." Walter defended.
"Of course. He cares for his family. If he could disassociate from them Rip van Winkle would never have been a problem. He would sacrifice anything for his get. It is Alucard's only real weakness." Integra mused.
"You do find the strangest common grounds with him, Sir Integra." Walter commented in a gentle tone.
Integra was silent after that as she continued to stare out the window.
Alucard stood atop the tallest spire atop the Parliament building, above Big Ben. He had apperated there to think as he looked out over London, the Thames flowing steadily behind him.
"What are you up to, child? What is going on in your head? Why do you keep me out of your mind like this?" he asked the air, as if he expected an answer.
Surprisingly, he got one. "I can not reach you fully anymore, Samiel. They...did something to me. I can barely hear you any longer." Lilith's voice replied as it carried on the wind.
"Why do you still call me the Angel of Vengeance?" Alucard asked.
"Because you are. You carry out her will, striking down those that displease her. You are the one that will strike me down for attacking her in their name. They never said she was yours." Rip van Winkle answered.
"If that were so, I would have ended you then. Why do you run from me, daughter. Why do you not let me help you? You already seem to temper yourself as you never have before. You could come with me." Alucard offered.
"I cannot." was her only reply.
"Why did you not come after Alexander when you had the chance? He is of Adrian, and you loathe your brother." the No Life King asked after a time.
"He is yours. You claim him, you train him, and you give him your face. He is hers. She claims him, and she is yours as you are hers. I will not stand before the wrath of Samiel again. I will not attack you." the wind whispered.
"Will you ever come before me as a daughter, so that I can look upon you again?" the red clad vampire asked.
"I do not know. I love you, Tata. Papa" Rip van Winkle said, before her hidden presence faded altogether.
"And I you, fiicÄ. daughter" the No Life King answered solemnly as he turned to watch the waves in the ever flowing river from his perch.
Xander was surprised to see Seras Victoria in his room as he came back from the shower dressed in a t-shirt and his PJ bottoms. He was certain she would be angry at him still for the 'risks' he took.
"Vicky. What can I do for you?" he asked in self conscious whisper.
Her answer was to rush him and try to hug the life out of him as she wept.
"Hey, now. It's all right. I'm here. Nothing happened to hurt me." the White Knight soothed as he help the weeping strawberry blonde.
Sob Sniff "I know, you silly git. But you've never seen what they can do. I could have lost you." the Police Girl mumbled into his chest.
"I know. But it's a risk we have to take. And Auntie Lilith didn't raise a fang against me. Or even a claw. She just wanted a better look at me is all. Nothing to worry about." Xander comforted as he maneuvered his sudden passenger to the bed so he could sit down with her.
Soon Seras had settled herself into his lap as she continued to cry out the fear for his safety she had been forced to hold in for the most part until they were alone. She simply couldn't express her true terror, however belated it may be, in from of the men. Only here, in Xander's arms, could she finally gain that release.
Once she settled down a bit, Xander adjuster her to a slightly more comfortable position as he smiled gently at her and asked, "Feeling any better now?"
"Yes." sniff "But, can I stay here with you tonight. I just want to hold you. I want to remind myself you're okay." Seras asked timidly.
Xander's grin grew as he replied, "You never need an excuse to get me to agree to Vicky snuggling. It's one of my favorite pastimes.", before he kissed her tenderly on the forehead.
The vampiress giggled a bit into his chest as she muttered "Goof."
"Guilty as charged." Xander responded proudly. Soon, they were spooned together in his bed, as he held his love through the night to reassure her of his presence.
END PART 20