A/N: Yaye!!! People like my story!!! I'm so happy! ...I hope none of the people seem out of character at all...I'm trying to make it as real-Hellsing-episodey/manga volume#something as possible!!! If I need to change something, please let me know! I want this to be something that everyone'll like! Much appreciated to everyone who's reviewed and commented and stuff, and please continue to do so! It helps soooo much! By the way, and I'm really serious about this, if ANYONE thinks that I did something wrong, PLEEEEASE tell mee!!! It'd help a lot, 'cause I want this to be incredibly accurate ((for a story that's in between the manga and show...ehehehe...))
Disclaimer: .....oh come on people, it ain't mine...poo it...but you WILL see my name someday! Be it on books or in movies or shows! Hellsing is owned by Kohta Hirano and the people that made the show thanks to Hirano-san's genius!
Again...Thanks sooooooooooooooo much for reading!!! It brings macabre thoughts to my freezing ice cold dying black-holed heart...
CHAPTER 3:
Celia Pares woke up with a loud gasp, sitting up straight from her warm, comfortable sleeping position. She sat on a huge bed with large blankets covering her body, the pillow behind her far too big to even resemble her real bed.
Could this end up as another dream? The child winced and reached the back of her head with her small hand in pain, feeling a large bruise...
Her eyes widened in surprise. A bump...did she bump her head in her sleep? Gripping the blankets that lied on top of her tightly, she suddenly remembered the wounded eye from the 'dream.'
She knew for a fact that that wound had actually happened. The stinging pain had thundered through her head when she had sat up so abruptly.
Did she hurt herself in her sleep? Did she hit her head on the board and somehow manage to violently stab her eye with something?
That...or, had what had seemed a dream really become a reality?
She glanced around the room, not recognizing anything within it. The child sat upon a huge bed, with four posters and what seemed like a roof far above her. A wooden table sat nearby, as well as a chair or two to match it. Celia saw no windows around the dark chamber. She only spotted one door, located on the far side of the room.
Her right eye throbbed horribly, and she pulled up her hand to cover it in pain, but something already took that job. A patch covered her eye, bandage or not, she could not tell, but it did not soothe the pain at all, simply hid it away. The gigantic sweater she wore slid down, uncovering her arm, which had some bandages around it.
"Ah...You're awake. Thank goodness." Someone spoke with a relieved sigh.
Celia turned her head quickly towards the door and saw a man standing in the doorway, looking at her with warm, friendly eyes, his hands held together behind his back. He looked like he would have reached possibly well over his fifties or so, but Celia didn't know; she couldn't count all that well, except up to the very age the man looked.
"How are you feeling, child? My name is Walter." He bowed from his waist, and Celia blinked at him in confusion.
"Um...I-I'm Celia Pares..." She mumbled, still curious as to where she had woken up. In reply to his respectful bow, she nodded her head, feeling rather lost.
"I serve Sir Integra, whom you'll be meeting soon, as her butler and guardian." He stepped into the room and pressed his gloved hand against her small forehead. "I've been caring for you these past two days, and Miss Victoria has been so kind as to allow you to stay in her chamber to recuperate."
"Re-recuperate?" What did that mean? She wondered.
Celia watched as Walter moved over to the table, picking up a wet, cold washcloth from an ice container. "You have a slight fever at the moment. I'm certain that you're simply hungry, but I don't believe that we should take any risks," He turned towards her as he folded the washcloth. "Don't you agree?"
"Oh...?" She blinked and reached up, feeling her own forehead. "I-I don't know..."
"It's all right," Walter chuckled, pressing the washcloth against her head. "You're safe now. There's no need to be afraid of anyone here, Miss Pares. Master Alucard has been watching over you as well."
"M-master?" She mumbled. What did he mean by 'Master?' Her head felt soothed by the cloth's coolness as the thumping in her mind lessened. "Mas- master Alucard...where is he?"
"Oh, he probably further down in the basement, resting." Walter and turned his back to Celia, preparing something on the table. "Even a powerful no-life-king, such as him, needs to rest during the daytime."
"Does...does that mean I'll have to rest too?"
"Most likely, unless you cover yourself in plenty of clothing to cover your skin." The butler looked at Celia and handed her a juice box with a clear straw. "Drink this, my dear. You'll feel much better once you've had something to eat and drink."
The child gratefully took the box and sucked the liquid up from the straw. The clear plastic then turned to a dark red for a while as Celia continued to drink until she created loud noises through the straw. She had practically inhaled the red liquid. At some point during her long sips, she developed the question in her mind of why it tasted so familiar.
Walter seemed incredibly surprised at her action, but smiled as Celia held it up to him with a sweet, childish smile. "Thank you...Mr. Walter." She said, almost forgetting about her wounds. Her injury then throbbed in reminder as she grew more awake and aware, and she winced lightly in pain, covering the bandaged eye with her hand.
"Ah...of course, your wound is still healing." The Angel of Death pulled her hand gently away from her face and lifted the bandage patch. "It's fortunate that you managed to sleep through the process."
"Huh?" Celia looked up at him in confusion.
"Our doctors closed up your wound, but I'm afraid that you're permanently blind in your right eye."
"...oh..." She whispered. The child flinched as he began to unwrap the eye patch from her face; and some of the bandages peeled off of her skin like a Band-Aid.
"It looks far better than it did earlier, though."
She blinked again. Walter looked at her blinded eye, glazed over, still holding the original teal color of her eyes, while her left had turned into the Hell's fire red, proving her vampyric ethnicity.
"Before the surgical procedure, your eye looked as if someone had stabbed a large piece of splintered wood through it."
Celia's eyes widened in shock and nausea and she clapped her hand over her glazed eye at the thought. "R-really?"
"Yes, but now you simply have scars, thank goodness." He took some fresh bandages from the table, holding a large amount of gauze in his hands as well, and he walked up to her. "Now hold still."
He wrapped the white material around her right eye. "We'll replace your bandages a few times everyday, until you're prepared to do it on your own, understand?"
She nodded lightly. "Yes, sir..."
"Oh, don't call me sir, Miss Pares, just Walter would be fine."
"Um—but..." She looked up at the butler, clenching her small fists to keep a tight hold on her determination. "My mum always told me to be polite to everyone older than me..."
Walter sighed lightly. "Well, if you wish to honor your mother doing so, then I suppose it's all right."
The child smiled triumphantly. He wondered how she could do such a thing after such a tragic loss.
"Now we need to get your ready for your meeting with Sir Integra."
Celia nodded again, but paused. "Uh—I-is...Sir Integra nice?"
"Well, she doesn't appear to be so, but she is a very compassionate woman. I'm sure she'll understand your plight and pain, and give you patience. Alucard, himself, asked her to meet you in person, rather than through military orders and means as she did with Miss Victoria."
"O-okay..." She mumbled. A woman whom everyone addressed as Sir? Integra sounded like an incredibly strict, unmerciful woman.
"Don't worry, Alucard will be there. He wants Sir Hellsing to allow you to stay. He knows very well that you have no where else to go." Walter rested his hands into his pockets. "Unless you'd rather stay at an orphanage..."
"But...but Sir Integra sounds—um—seems..." Celia's voice faded in her fear.
"She's a good leader. I'm certain that she will give you the respect you deserve; you did survive the peril of three vampires, Miss Pares."
"She hates vampires, though...doesn't she?" Celia looked up at Walter.
"Most of them. However, if anything, she'll certainly tolerate you in the least; she makes an exception to Master Alucard and Miss Seras Victoria, so I'm sure that you won't be any problem."
"...Okay," Celia smiled lightly, comforted by that thought. If Sir Integra accepted Master Alucard, apparently a true vampire, then it only made sense to have the ability to stand a five-year old vampire child...right?
"Here, dress into this." The butler handed her a pile of red and black clothing. "When you're dressed, I'll return and show you the proper way to act before you meet Sir Hellsing."
"Oh—um...y-yes, sir!" She said quickly, unfolding the dark clothes. Walter smiled and turned to the door, leaving the room and closing the exit gently.
The girl tugged her large, bloodied up shirt off and quickly replaced it with her new clothes. It looked like the clothes of a soldier, only red and black. She blinked as she brushed a few wrinkles out of the outfit like her mother did before the incident. She shrugged the thought away and turned her head to try and see the back of her outfit. "..." She sighed and stared down at the floor. "Maybe...um—was this supposed to happen...?" Her eyes watered and she quickly covered her eyes with her arm and shook the thought away. "I—I can't think about them anymore..."
"That's right. You can't, you shouldn't, and you won't."
Celia looked up and around in surprise, recognizing the voice. "Uh—M- master Al-Alucard?"
"You are now a vampire; a being that must walk in the darkness of night and sleep in the light of day. Your only family is those whom you have transformed into vampires, and those who transformed you. The 'family' you lost a few days ago no longer exists."
"Ah—um..." She paused, still wondering where he had hidden. "S- so...you—you're sort of my...my dad?"
Alucard chuckled at the question. "It isn't that sort of family. We are only blood related because I drank your blood. To become a true vampire, a true no-life-king, and a true family member, you would have to do something that even Police Girl refuses to do."
"...W-what is it?" Celia smoothed out the clothes she wore again. "What would I have to do to be in a family a...again?"
She heard no reply. The child turned around in circles, searching for the nosferatu that spoke to her. "M-master...Alucard?"
"Miss Pares, are you all right?" Someone asked from the door.
"Oh—yeah...um—come in," She mumbled, reaching out for the boots nearby. As she plopped herself onto the floor, the door opened with a creak.
Walter stepped in, carrying some belts and a soldier's hat.
"Oh, you look perfect. I wasn't sure if it would fit, so I brought some accessories for you."
The girl looked at the belts for a minute curiously then looked back up at the Angel of Death. He nodded and she smiled lightly, and picked out a silver one, wrapping it around her waist, fitting it through the loops in her dark pants.
"You'll need this." The butler held out a silvery-gray colored bowtie, larger than Celia's hands.
"Um—Th-thank you!" She took the tie and studied it curiously. What would she use it for?
"Here, allow me to help," Walter grabbed the bow from her hands and wrapped part of it around her neck, below the collar of the clothes, then tied it like a bow, the large tie pieces hanging below it in front of her chest all the way to her stomach.
"There. Now it's time for the finale." He rested the black and red hat on her head. It had silver belts, straps, and buttons decorating it.
She smiled happily, and then blinked as the hat sank over her eyes before she released a small giggle. "I like it! Thank you, Mr. Walter!"
"You're quite welcome, Miss Pares." He returned her smile with his own and knelt down next to her.
"Now then...do you know the proper etiquette of a Hellsing Organizational soldier?"
"Um—," Celia shook her head and held up her small fists to show her determination again, the sleeves of the outfit fell over her hands and wrinkled at her grip. "Not that I don't want to! My brothers had signed up for the navy...! They showed me how to march and carry a big weapon...but-but I couldn't lift it to try...and they always made fun of me when I tried to copy them when they marched..."
"Then we'll just have to teach you the right way." He rested his large hand against her back. "Stand up straight, now. Keep your chin up as well, always look straight ahead."
She nodded and obediently did as he told her.
"Don't tense up; just stand straight, with your shoulders relaxed and knees slightly bent so you don't lock your legs."
Celia did so excellently.
"Excellent! You're almost ready to meet Sir Hellsing."
Celia smiled and raised her arms just above her head adorably in a small celebration, and her hat fell over her blind, bandaged eye. She made a small squeak and lifted it up from her eyes.
"Next, did your mother and father teach you manners?"
He received a positive nod. "Yes, sir!"
"All right, then we'll skip to the final lesson." He straightened his hand and brought it up to the front of his temple. "A salute."
She watched and blinked.
"When receiving orders, or addressing any officer, you salute to them."
The child looked at him in wonder, and straightened her own small hand, and rested it against her temple. "Like this?"
"Yes, very good," Walter then stood up and opened the door. "After you meet Sir Hellsing, Alucard wishes to speak with you. Also, I'll have to help you memorize the Organization's oath, and give you the Hellsing Code- of-Arms."
Celia nodded quickly and followed after Walter before suddenly running into a stranger's leg.
She fell back with a small grunt and looked up, seeing a young woman with striking orange hair looking down at her. "Oh! Hello there," The woman said, kneeling down. "My name is Seras Victoria." The woman smiled warmly.
"...um," Celia stepped back and hid behind Walter's leg, gripping his black pants.
"Oh..." Victoria watched her in confusion. "What's wrong? It's all right...I'm a vampire, too!"
"..." Celia stared at the floor, embarrassed for running into her.
"Don't worry, Miss Victoria. She's simply shy. She isn't one to warm up to very many."
Seras sighed. "I suppose..."
"Come along now, Miss Pares. We wouldn't want Sir Integra to get impatient."
The child nodded and ran after the butler as he headed upstairs. She glanced back at Victoria before quickly hastening her steps after Walter.
Seras Victoria sighed again and watched them leave before walking into her chamber. "I'll just try again later...This place must have frightened her when she woke up." The Police Girl pouted lightly. "But I wish she could've thanked me or something for allowing her to stay in my room..."
She glanced around the chamber then slowly closed the door. Blinking, she spotted a juice box on the table. "What the—?"
The vampire approached the table and picked up the small juice box, the straw falling out of it, red liquid dripping from the end.
"No..." She sniffed the drink, and her eyes widened. "That little girl...is-is she drinking blood already?"
Victoria heard the echoing trademark of her master's chuckle before it slowly faded away like a second thought.
"Master..." Victoria whispered, turning her head towards the door. "Why?"