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.
"You're units are performing quite remarkably, Xander. We're already at 150 of what our troop base was before the Valentine brother incident. Her Majesty herself offers her compliments for your suggestions." Integra commented evenly. She and her cousin were enjoying afternoon tea together, as had become routine for them after Xander's fencing lessons.
"Really, wow." Xander replied, clearly impressed as he sipped his glass of tea mixed so sweet that Integra swore it had become tea-flavored Kool-aid.
"It is quite ah honor to be personally commended by her Majesty. Of course, as an American, you might not appreciate the full scope of that. Which is why I was asked to give you these." Integra responded with a small smirk as she handed him a folder she had set beside her seat.
"Huh?" Xander asked in confusion as he looked over the papers. "Dual CITIZENSHIP! You mean I'm /British/ now?" he exclaimed in a dismayed panic.
"And what /precisely/ is wrong with being British?" Integra asked icily. "As I recall, everyone you are close to here, save Adrian and Alucard, are British. Including Officer Victoria."
Xander grimaced comically at her tone as he spat piteously, "You don't understand, Teg! Giles will /never/ let me live this down! He'll be buying me tea and dressing me in tweed within the hour the second he finds out about this!"
Integra rolled her eyes at her cousin's theatrics during his explanation, before she responded, "You are still American as well, cousin. It's not that bad."
"I guess so." Xander replied with a note of skeptical relief.
"At best, he'll only make you wear the jacket. And I think you'll look smashing in tweed." Integra continued with smirk.
"TEG!" Xander whined.
"Yes Xander?" the eldest Hellsing inquired innocently.
Xander tried to think of something to say that she wouldn't twist against him in one way or another to make fun of him for several moments before he finally sighed, and relaxed a bit. "Never mind. Ju...just never mind." he finished in a defeated voice.
Integra reveled silently in her small verbal victory over her often smart-mouthed cousin before for a moment she asked, "I understand your training with the Sword of Dawn has hit a little snag?"
"Yeah. Gramps says I have some kind of mental block holding me back from going all out with it, or something. Then he muttered about me picking up bad habits from Vicky for like ten minutes as we trained. I keep telling him I've only been at this a couple of months and I can't cram everything at once. I mean, it's not like I lack time to get used to it, right?" the youngest Hellsing reported.
"I think it may be more that he wants you as prepared a possible before you return to the Hellmouth in a couple of weeks. Unless you're planning to delay?" Integra hinted with thinly veiled hope in her tone. Well, Walter or Alucard would be able to pick up on thinly veiled hope in her tone. A layman would have assumed it was polite curiosity. Xander just wasn't sure what it was.
"A part of me wants to stay here. I'll admit that. In just under three months this place has become more of a home to me than the Harris household ever was. But...I belong in Sunnydale. I know I do. At least for right now. Besides, I'm already going to be a week late for my intro classes at Sunnydale U." Xander responded with a small shrug.
"I take it Seras is still planning to accompany you?" Integra asked after a small nod of acceptance.
"Yeah. Unless you think you'll need her here. I don't want to leave you in a lurch." Xander answered with concern in his tone.
"We're far beyond the strength we were at before Seras was ever turned thanks to you, Xander. We can spare her. It seems Rip van Winkle is only concerned with Adrian, and had moved her attacks away from Hellsing areas out of respect for her...father. She doesn't appear to be working within the agendas of the Millennium group in any case. With her avoiding direct confrontations with us, and staying away from harming the citizenry as far as we can discern, all that remains are the usual FREAKS, and the rare rogue true vampire that we can easily handle." Integra assured him with a smile.
"But what about those Castlevania rejects that attacked Vicky?" Xander protested in worry.
"We will find the source of them and handle it. We do have the vampire best qualified to track them down, after all. This organization survived far longer than any of us, save Alucard himself, has been alive. We can handle a mystery or two. Your education is important, and I know you wouldn't concentrate without Officer Victoria at your side. We can spare her, and if we get into a situation where the two of you are needed, we can call you. Alucard can reach you both anywhere on Earth so long as you let him in." Integra replied. After a pause to sip her tea, she gave a half grin as she quipped, "Besides, there's a certain symmetry with a Hellsing having a loyal mideon agent at their side."
Xander paused at her words, and sat there with a pensive look on his face for long seconds before he finally asked, "Um, Teg? You /do realize the parallels that could be drawn comparing Seras and I to Gramps and you, right?"
"Has Alucard taught you how to regenerate yet, Xander." Integra asked, seemingly ignoring his question.
Xander knew better as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up when he answered, "No. He said it would come as I gain in strength, but I might be decades away from mideon level healing like Grandfather Adrian has, much less coming close to what he or Vicky could. And Vicky pales against him."
"Then please refrain from making inferences about Alucard and I, or from mentioning them should they magically befoul your brain in the future.." Integra warned in far too calm a voice for Xander's liking.
"Gotcha." Xander squeaked as he sipped his tea.
"You and the boy will be leaving for a time quite soon, Police Girl." Alucard commented a few nights later. Xander was training in the use of his whip with Adrian, who knew far more about the Poltergeist King's work, and the Belmont methods, that his father did; which gave him time to counsel his fledgling on a few things.
"I know Master. I must admit, I'm excited. I've never been away fro so long before. And getting to study in college with Xander is quite thrilling. But...I'm frightened too." Seras admitted in subdued tones.
Alucard scoffed lightly as he responded, "You will be gone a few months at a time at most, Draculina. We both know you and the boy will want to spend those puerile human holidays here with your family."
Seras smiled fondly at her Master's mockingly scornful tones. It was good to know some things would never change. "Well, we wouldn't want to leave poor Walter with only one person to modify new weapons for." she timidly teased.
Alucard favored her with his typical mad grin and a throaty chuckle at her response. After a time, he took off his Lennon shades and looked deeply into his fledgling's eyes as he asked, "I have offered it to you once before, Seras. You refused, not wanting to be without my hand to guide you. Now, as you prepare to go off with your chosen, will you accept it? Will you become full nosferatu? You have already become more than so many of your peers can ever hope to be. Will you take that next step?"
Seras met red eyes with red as she pondered what Alucard was asking of her. To accept his offer was to break the link between them. She would no longer be merely his servant. She would be a vampire in her own right, and under her own power alone. She would be alone. Only...she wouldn't. She would still have Xander, and Sir Integra, and Walter. Even Master would not be /gone/ from her life. If these past months had taught her anything, it was that he cared for and watched out for his family. She would still be family in his eyes. All this would do is change their relationship. Not end it... "I am ready, Master." she answered solemnly.
Alucard's grin threatened to split his face in two at her answer as he rolled back the sleeve on his right arm and offered her the exposed limb. "Then drink of me, Seras Victoria. Drink and grow strong. For tonight, you are no longer merely my fledgling. Tonight you become my Childhe." he replied seriously, paternal pride dripping from his voice.
Seras gulped nervously as she inched toward Alucard's forearm and opened her mouth. Every doubt she had ever had about this moment screamed at her to pull away as he fangs began to rest on the flesh of her Master's arm. Those fears and doubts washed away in a sea of power and joy when his lifeblood his her tongue, however. Soon all she felt was the power, pain, and ecstasy that come with being born fully into the night.
Birds and bats and animals of the forest took flight all at once, as the skies themselves rumbled in approval. The No Life King had made another, and the world waited with baited breath to see if she would be a boon or a plague upon them all.
"Vicky." Xander breathed as he looked up from where he and Adrian were training with the whip.
"Father." Adrian commented with far more subdued and loaded tones in his voice.
"She accepted it." Xander commented, realizing what had happened almost immediately.
"It would appear so. Father certainly took his time to guide her. Never before has he allowed someone to choose when they were ready to free themself from him. Your young Seras is to be commended for earning that faith from him at the very least." Adrian commented.
"Are you okay with all this, Alucard?" Xander inquired of his great-grandfather using the name he was best known by among the Belmonts. For Xander, Adrian would always be Alucard, and Vlad would always be Gramps.
The dhampir prince was silent for a time before he replied, "It was one of only a handful of times I can recall him turning someone for what I would agree were the right reasons. Of those, she's the first to start off so well. Lilith, whom he turned to save her life, loathes me and is unstable. Lisa and Mina, whom he was trying to save in his own twisted way, ended poorly. One was destroyed in the overzealousness of your ancestor Abraham and that Texan. Mina fell into a bad marriage that soon ended, and hates father with a passion. I just fear Seras will have an uphill climb as a child of Dracula."
"Good thing I'll be there to help her." Xander replied seriously.
"Indeed it is, grandson. Indeed it is. Now, let's see of we can get that fireball burst spell down before you head back tonight." Adrian agreed.
A week and a half later, the day came for Xander and Seras' return to America. The last evening had a small party with the Hellsing command staff, the original soldiers that trained Xander, and all his family in England except for Lilith at a rented hall in London due to the fact that Adrian flat refused to enter the Hellsing manor, but wanted to be there to send Xander off.
"Xander, when you arrive at Los Angeles, I want you to rent a room and stay there until the next day. I've made arrangements with my legal firm to transfer certain accounts and holdings to you and the branch there will help facilitate the transfer." Alucard mentioned as he and Xander stood back to watch Integra sniping at an intimidated Adrian about games of canine tag due to his relics.
Xander looked the card over carefully at his ancestor's words. "Wolfram & Hart? You have lawyers, Gramps?" he asked skeptically.
"As most monarchy systems fell, it was a better way to handle my assets in the changing world. I also wanted to sue a pathetic revenant vampire for slander who is using my name and a few cheap spells from his human life among the Romani to impersonate me. My ties here prevent me from hunting him down as I would prefer, and he's proven a master at dodging a summons. I actually caught some pathetic revenant in the thirties grousing to himself about how 'Dracula' owed him money for a wager made on a football match. As if I would ever gamble, and with trash like that, no less. I'd sooner embrace the Judas Priest as a brother." the no Life King explained with a sneer. After a pause to sip at his blood, he continued, "I will warn you, they are run by elder demons, and are evil. Still, they do good and thorough work, and you don't have to hide your lack of aging with them. I've used them for various property purchases and civilized dispute and such for nearly three hundred years now."
"Evil lawyers, that's too easy to even make a joke about." Xander said with a wrinkled nose.
"Yes, well, the gentleman I spoke to on the phone asked me to let you know you should speak with a junior attorney named Liliah Morgan from their 'Special Projects' division to finalize the transfers. She'll be ready to meet you at 12:30 local time for a business lunch to hash everything out." Alucard instructed.
"Vicky and I will be sure to stop by, then." Xander agreed.
Speaking of Vicky, she chose that moment to walk up to the pair and hand the White knight one of the two glasses of blood she held, before she took a sip of the other. "What are you and Master here whisperin about love?" the Police Girl asked curiously as Xander snaked his arm around her waist to hold her to his side.
"Just discussing Gramps and his evil legal aid." Xander quipped with a grin.
"Evil solicitors. That's too easy for you." Seras commented as she leaned into Xander with a sigh of contentment.
Adrian hurrying up to them cut any response Xander could have made short. "Alexander, I have to be going. There's no telling where Rip will strike next, and I have to be ready for her. Thank you for letting me attend you good-bye party. I'll call you once you've settled in. Seras, good luck and take care of my great-grandson. Father...I love you, but you two deserve each other." the dhampir hurriedly said, before walking briskly toward the door.
The three remaining people with mideon blood watched with varying degrees of amusement as Adrian hurried off. "Well, my Master must be rather pleased with herself. I'm off to enjoy her god humor and charm. Take care, children." Alucard commented before heading off toward where Integra had a devilish smirk on her face.
"I think I may remember the look on Grandfather's face for the rest of my life." Xander quipped with a huge smile.
Seras giggled a bit as she responded, "Hey, now. You've been on the receiving end of one of Sir Integra's arse chewings before. Can you really blame him for running after that?
"Not in the slightest." Xander conceded with a wider smile.
"There you go, then." Seras replied smugly as she leaned up and kissed Xander lightly on the lips.
"So, you sure you're ready for tomorrow?" Xander asked as the pair strolled through the rest of the party to stand in a balcony on the north face of the hall.
"As ready as I can get to attend university in the States, I suppose." Seras replied with a nervous grin.
"Yeah, well you don't have to worry about a thing." Xander stated confidently.
"And why is that?" the Police Girl asked as she tried to hold in a giggle when Xander started to puff out his chest in a Superman pose.
Xander dropped the pantomime super-hero posture to lean down and gently kiss Seras on the balcony under the stars. "Because we'll be there together. That's all that really concerns me right now." he whispered as he pulled back for a small breath, before leaning in for another kiss.
"Well, you've certainly convinced me." Vicky whispered back as she accepted the kiss eagerly.
END PART 21