Part Three: Seeing Eye to Eye.

"Dhampir?" Seras looked very confused.

"Yes, half human and half vampire." Integra confirmed.

"How could that happen…I mean the whole reason that vampires turn people is because they, I mean we, are…dead…and can't have kids, right?"

"Biologically speaking, vampires have all the necessary functioning 'equipment' to produce offspring." Walter informed her. "But because of the issue of death any children from two vampires are always stillborn, not un-dead. As Alucard said; dhampir's rarely occur and even if they do they often die in their teenage years either due to health or suicide."

"What kind of health issues would a dhampir have, I mean honestly…wouldn't being half vampire make them immune to most things?"

Integra filled in with what little information she knew from a book she had read once when she was younger, before the death of her father. "They are immune to most disease and infection, only the very worst will affect them but they are predisposed to suffering disorders such as bi-polar disorder (or 'manic' depression), major depression, insanity, heat syndrome, photodermatosis and anaemia amongst other things."

"Woah, that's a lot of problems…y'know, Axel didn't seem that way to me though. He was just fine, fit and healthy."

"They don't have to have health problems. It's just a common characteristic of his kind."

As this statement was aired the dhampir in question stirred and began to wake. His eyes blearily blinked open and attempted to focus. He then tried to raise his hands to rub them only to find that his entire body had been restrained. He struggled for a while but then gave up as he realised that he was going nowhere fast. "Yippee." He said without the slightest hint of enthusiasm. "This had better not be some un-dead mosquito's sick fetish 'coz if it is I'm going to do something everyone will regret and it sure as hell won't be pretty."

"You'll do no such thing." Said Integra.

He turned his head and looked at her. "Ah…am I right in thinking that my poor little self is being held captive by the infamous Hellsing organisation, or have I gone funny in the head and started seeing things?"

"You are correct in your first assumption. I am Sir Hellsing, director of this organisation; although I assume that you know this already."

"Hnh." He grunted. "I was wondering how long it would take you to catch up with me. You took your time."

"We were considering our options. There were many conflicting factors to be taken into account."

He looked down at his tightly bound body. "I take it by these extreme measures that you know about me."

"If you are referring to your being a dhampir then, yes."

"What have you done with Mishka?"

"He isn't dead if that is what you are asking." Alucard butted in before his Master.

"You…" Axel spat. "You did this, you fucking asshole."

"My, what polite language children use towards their elders these days."

"Elder; yes, but better; never!"

"You say that with such conviction yet you know it to be false. How could a bastard half breed ever hope of winning against a true blood nosferatu?"

"How do you fit through doors with a head that big?" Axel snorted.

"Jealousy is such a terrible thing."

Axel began growling…though it was more like a hiss than a true growl. "Five minutes…I could take you out in five minutes."

The No Life King made a tutting sound. "And you call me big headed."

"Alucard, stop provoking him." Integra ordered.

Reluctantly he fell silent and stepped back.

"Jaeger, I apologise for your present condition; it was never our intention to bring you here like this but it seems that Alucard took matters into his own hands."

"Well, he was trying to kill me." Seras pointed out.

"Don't expect me to apologise." Axel snapped. "You're a vampire and I make it my job to kill vampires; I'm damn good at it."

"Why do you hunt vampires?" Integra figured she may as well interrogate him as best she could while he was there so she pulled up a chair and sat down by the bed. "You are half vampire after all."

"So what? Humans kill humans all the time, and you've trained those two into killing their own."

She had to admit (mentally, at least) that he did have a point. "Do you hope to find your father? To take revenge for your mother?"

"I have no idea which clot sucker is my dad and I couldn't really give a toss."

"So what other reason do you have?"

"…killing vampires is traditionally what a dhampir does…in myths and things."

"So you are conforming to a stereotypical role?" Alucard sniffed.

"You could say that, yeah. I have my reasons, doesn't mean I gotta tell you them. Piss off."

An almost palpable sense of tension began to fill the space between the dhampir and the vampire.

"You look a bit flustered." Axel observed of Alucard. "What's up; can't read my mind?"

"Your nature makes it difficult to read your thoughts. At the moment all I am getting is your repressed vampiric instincts. They are masking your sentient thoughts."

Axel grinned, it was a grin along the lines of those that frequently camped upon Alucard's lips. It was then that some rather ominous creaking sounds began to be produced from his restraints and the bed that they had been attached to as he strained against them.

Before anyone fully realised what he was doing he broke free from the chins and ropes and leapt at Alucard, slamming bodily into him and bearing him to the ground whereupon he began punching him solidly in the chest. His intentions were pretty clear; he was trying to rip Alucard's heart out, with every strike of his fist you could hear Alucard's rib cage snapping and you could see his chest caving in under the force of the blows. Alucard seemed largely amused by all of this and did little to stop him but for putting up a token resistance.

"Master!" Seras cried and swiftly latched onto Axel; hoping to pull him off, only to have him elbow her in the stomach and send her sliding across the floor.

Integra pulled out a concealed gun (ever since the 'Laura' incident she had taken to ensuring that she was never without one) "Stop this at once or I will fire." Though she was only trying to make sure that he did not attack others in the room such as Walter and herself for she knew that Alucard would be just fine and Seras could take most of what was dished out to her.

Axel proceeded to ignore her and increased the ferocity of his attack as Alucard began to laugh. His chest finally gave way and Axel's fist slipped inside the cavity the collapsed ribs created, burying itself deep within the cold, dead contents of the vampire's torso, surrounded by splintered bones.

With a look of primal triumph in his eyes his hand grasped the un-dead heart he had been searching for, but the elation was short lived as yet again he felt the cold metal of the Casull pressed against him; this time to his stomach rather than the back of his head.

I am a true immortal. Alucard sneered, though he was talking through telepathy due to his current lack of working ribcage, diaphragm and lungs to carry out the task of verbal communication. You can tear out my heart if you like but it will only be a minor, temporary inconvenience, whereas for you a gut shot will put a considerable dent in your life span. You are too human.

"I told the buxom bitch over there that I was as human as the next man. Well, guess what; the next man turned out to be you."

But I am no man. Now be a good boy, dhampir, and remove yourself from me. I don't have time to play your games. With that said he fell through the floor, leaving a frustrated Axel behind to curse his departure.

"You're lucky that you amused him." Integra told him, still with the gun aimed. "If not we would have been scraping up what was left of you with a shovel. Now, calm down. Don't make me call the guards on you."

"I have every right to rip your bloody head off right now." He growled, his fingers arching into claws against the floor. "And don't you dare tell me to calm down. My self-control if far beyond anything you're ever going to achieve."

"You could have fooled me." Mocked Alucard as he phased through a wall back into the office, with his chest and clothes unmarked and with another contented grin on his face.

"Miss Hellsing, unless you want a blood bath on your hands you'll get your toy hellspawn out of here and keep him far away from me; he is pushing me to my limits." Axel warned, still on his hands and knees with his head down.

"How?" Walter asked, stepping forwards between Axel and Alucard. "To be frank, he has hardly said or done anything to warrant such and attack."

"It isn't the words or actions." Axel aid through gritted teeth. "He's trying to mess with my head and call out my vampiric side. If someone doesn't do something fast he may end up forcing me into a fit of bloodlust and I don't want that."

"Alucard!" Integra's voice reached a new level of annoyance.

"He's nothing I can't handle. I just want to know how powerful his vampire half is; how strong his father was."

"I told you, goddamnit, I don't care about my dad."

"If you knew more about your father you would know more about yourself."

"I DON'T CARE!" Axel roared at him. "Get it into your thick skull, you putrid walking corpse! You haven't the foggiest idea what you're doing to me! Fuck off away from me!" he was breathing harshly and every muscle in his body was beginning to tremble as he fought against himself. He refused to give in to the feelings that the crimson garbed nosferatu was provoking in his mind.

Seras, still on the floor, felt her heart go out to him in sympathy for in his tortured face she saw the conflict that she too faced; the two halves of his being fighting for supremacy. Even though for a time she had accepted her vampirism she had eventually returned to her attempts at retaining a sad kind of human life. Without standing she scooted over to him and, much to both his and her own surprise, laid a comforting hand on his shoulder, then to Alucard she pleaded. "Master, please stop it!"

Alucard, however, had no intention of doing so. He sensed something about the half breed child; felt that there might me something worthwhile in his vampiric side. The boy's sheer gall and determination reminded him of Paladin Anderson and if he could somehow awaken the darkness inside him he felt that Axel might become a creature worth the effort of fighting.

"Alucard, I order you as your master to cease this nonsense and leave us until further notice." Integra demanded.

He had no choice but to obey. With a sigh he released the small hold he had on the boy's mind. "Yes, my Master." Then he ambled off the way he came; through the wall.

"It's OK, now. He's gone." Seras said encouragingly.

"Get your hand off me or I'll rip it off and make you eat it."

Seras wanted to hit him. Here she was, willing to forgive and forget and all he could do was hurl more abuse. "There's no reason to be so rude, I was only trying to be nice, even after what you did to me."

Walter came over and helped her up. "Come now, Miss Victoria, he has just had a very troubling experience. He's probably just a little off sorts and is actually very grateful."

"In your dreams." Axel sat up and held his head. "Can I go home now?"

Integra lowered her gun, though still held in his direction, on her lap. "Please try to see this from our point of view, Jaeger. To us you are an uncontrolled teenage boy, running around and killing things in the middle of the night and generally going about things in such a way that you may jeopardise the secrets we are trying to keep from the innocent, ignorant public."

"I won't stop." He said defiantly. "It's what I do."

"You don't need to. It is our sworn duty, not yours. We are more skilled in these matters. As they say; leave it to the professionals."

"Doesn't matter. I won't stop."

"Why? You still haven't given me a reason."

"I don't have to give you a reason. Damn, you sound like a friggin' social worker."

"Well, I'm not. I'm just trying to assess the situation. If I'm to decide what is to be done with you I will need an answer to my query."

"Fine." He said and took a minute to stop the last of the shaking before he finally gave her his motive. "I can't just live a human life and pretend I'm something I'm not. I tried that but I just got confused. It's hard to be both but it's even worse to be one or the other. Ignoring my human half will make me hurt the people I give a damn about but neglecting my vampire half only makes the bloodlust stronger and harder to control. Hunting is my way of letting of some demonic steam to keep the monster in me quiet."

"Do…do you drink blood?" Seras asked. He now seemed so small, crouched down on the floor. He looked defeated in some way.

"Sort of." He confessed as he removed the wristband and glove of his right hand, rolled his sleeve over his elbow and held up his arm. It was covered in bite scars, showing bright white against the slight tan of his skin. "The craving just gets too strong sometimes. My mum offered to try and work out a way to get hold of transfusion blood from the hospital or animal blood from a butchers or something…but I won't take the blood of anything or anyone else, I won't even eat rare steak, I won't give in. I refuse to be that weak." He suddenly gave a soft laugh and stared nostalgically at the wall. "Heh, Theo always used to make jokes about the funny noises he's hear me making in the bathroom even though he knew what I was doing. More than once he said I could take his blood…said it would be alright because we were family…I didn't…" his words trailed off into silence.

"Jaeger." Integra addressed him to pull him out of the fog of the past. "If the reason you do your hunting is to keep yourself in check and ensure that you do not loose control then I cannot force you to stop. However, neither can I put the safety and secrecy of the Hellsing organisation at risk."

There was an awkward silence in which Seras began to chew her lip and Walter began to fidget…both out of anticipation and nervousness.

"Therefore," Integra continued, "I have no choice but to offer you work here."

Axel finally looked up and locked eyes with her. "Eh?"

"Of course you would be free to continue your daily life at your own home but instead of running off on rogue missions to satisfy your vampiric needs you would be allotted appropriate assignments by me."

"What's the catch?"

"You will have to learn to get along with our resident vampires as you would more than likely be working alongside them."

He fell silent.

"There is something else that I don't understand about you; why do you seem to hate vampires if the only reason you hunt them is as a release mechanism of sorts."

"For the same reason you hate them; they're scum. They ruin people's lives and don't belong here. A vampire raped my mum, made me a fucking hybrid monster, lost my brother his dad and stole his life, vampires screwed up everything."

"I can understand that but still; not attempting to kill your co-workers will be part of the deal."

There was another awkward silence. "Alright." He said quietly. "But only if you make sure that Mr. tall, dark and gruesome stays out of my head."

"Agreed." Integra rose from her seat and holstered her gun. "This isn't the place to discuss further arrangements nor the time. There are things that I must urgently see to. Tomorrow will be better. Now, I can either have someone drive you home and pick you up in the morning or you are welcome to stay here."

"I'd best get home; I'm gonna need to talk to my mum about all this." He stood up. "Can I have my stuff and Mishka back now?"

"Of course. Seras, will you please bring Jaeger's belongings and release his dog from wherever you seem to have squirreled them away."

"Yes, Sir." She said with a habitual salute and hurried off, wondering if the husky was awake and, if so, whether or not it would try to kill her again.

As she jogged purposefully down the hall she found Alucard leaning nonchalantly against a wall with his arms crossed and hat shading his eyes. He was turning his sun glasses over in one hand.

She paused before him. "Master, that was a cruel thing to do."

"I was only encouraging what should come naturally to him." he said, defending his actions.

"It only comes naturally to part of him, the rest is human and you have no right to try and force him to be something he doesn't want to be."

"You seem to be forming some kind of attachment to him, Police Girl."

"I am not!"

"Remember that you chose to turn to the shadows and you accepted what that would entail so don't pass any regret you have into a protective mothering of the dhampir. He's no more human than you are. He's just a vampire with a heartbeat and delusions of a pathetic humanity that he never had in the first place."

"Well that's not what he believes. He controls his vampire half-"

"He keeps it caged inside like an animal." He interrupted, closing his fist around his orange tinted shades and nearly breaking them in the process. "And even when he allows himself to let it out he keeps it on a short lead. He is denying himself a vital part of his being. He needs to learn to let go."

"You were listening weren't you?"

"Yes. He needs to choose."

"Choose what, Master?"

"Dhampir's, as I said before, rarely survive into adulthood. Though it seems too hard for him he must allow one side to become fully dominant. He must sacrifice part of himself or her will tear himself apart trying to satisfy all of his needs and desires from both halves of his nature. Humans and vampires cannot co-exist on the same planet let alone in the same body and mind. You should know that."

"Well if he does choose you should let him do it in his own time, you shouldn't force him."

"I caught a glimpse into his mind, Police Girl, and what I saw in there was that his internal war is reaching its peak. Unless he does something soon he is likely to either commit suicide or go mad, possibly even developing a kind of Jekyll and Hyde personality. Either he will kill himself or we will have to kill him once he has broken. Do you want that?"

"No." she admitted. Axel have been given a bad lot in life from the start and she couldn't bring herself to hate him for only being a confused, lost young man in a world set against him. She had been given the choice but he had never had that luxury, it had been forced upon him and his family like a slow spreading cancer that would eventually consume all parts of the peace he had forged and struggled so hard to maintain. "We should inform Sir Integra so she can have a talk with him about it."

"No, that won't work; she would never accept it not consent to it happening."

"Why not? If it's as serious as you say then surely-"

He stopped her with a single raised hand. "Police Girl, there is only one side that the dhampir may choose without causing greater conflict and that is his vampiric side."

"What! How!" What was he thinking! She just couldn't understand it…why must he choose his vampiric half? "That's not right!"

"I can justify it." He said, toying with his shades again and checking they were not broken. "If he chooses his human side fully his vampiric instincts will just grow and grow until he snaps and looses what little control he may have had. But if he chooses to turn fully to the darkness and become a true vampire he can learn to guide his instincts, just like I have. I am not a slave to my desires; I just happen to enjoy fulfilling them. He doesn't have to in the end but he must accept vampirism first."

No matter how many times she ran his words through her head Seras could find no fault…but still…she refused to believe it. "I have to fetch his things." She told him to excuse herself and moved on down the hall.

Alucard watched her go.

It's up to us, Police Girl, we must help him make the choice; the right choice. He called to her mind.

When she turned to reply, he was gone.

"You've no right to force him." she told the empty hall and opened the door to the room Mishka was held in.

-

At the same time that Axel was being driven home, Integra was pawing through a brand new report.

This one was very intriguing as it was about the Hunters. A few Hellsing soldiers had covertly followed a Hunter back to a kind of meeting place in the ground floor of an abandoned tower car park where at least twenty of them were gathered.

The soldiers reported witnessing one terrified Hunter being dragged over and tied to one of the load bearing concrete pylons supporting the floor above by two of his fellows. A third then proceeded to cut out the wretched things heart and then stab the disembodied organ with a wicked looking knife. Once it was over the crowd dispersed and left, the heart was placed in a wooden box and taken away but the dust of the Hunter's body was left behind…apparently the heart was not seen to turn to dust and even though the men were a distance away they had clearly been able to see that the heart had been a glossy black rather than the matt red-brown it should have been.

It was all very strange.

"Alucard." She called evenly.

The vampire in question obediently appeared, this time minus the shades, which were presently hidden about his person, and again the room shrank with him becoming the focal point. "Master?"

"What do you make of this?" She passed him the report and he flicked through it, taking in as much as he could from the pages as they blurred past and from Integra's own thoughts.

"I've not heard or seen anything like it before." He admitted with a shrug.

"In all your years you've never even known anything even vaguely similar?" she asked, just to clarify.

He nodded and took off his hat, allowing his unruly mop of thick black hair to frame his face. "In this matter I must confess that I know as little as you."

"There is also this. This symbol has started appearing on walls all over London." She held up a photograph of a brick wall emblazoned with a painted image of a black heart bearing two cruel goat-like eyes at its centre. "There seems to be no pattern to their placement. The police are, for now, putting it down to a new gang or religious cult. So far I too had thought the latter but after this Hunter execution incident it seems that this heart symbol may well be linked to them as they began appearing not long after the first Freaks began to be kidnapped."

"Interesting…" Alucard purred as he inspected the photo she held. "It seems that your soldier boys are getting no closer to useful answers."

"Unfortunately, you are correct. So, a new course of action needs to be sought."

"And what might that entail?"

"That, I am still deciding but for now I think I need a talk with Jaeger. From what was reported some time ago about the 'message' he left in the mausoleum meeting place we can presume that he may know something of value…and we need all the information we can get."

"Are you sure that allowing him to be a part of the Hellsing organisation is such a good idea?" he just had to ask.

Integra wasn't surprised that he knew about her decision for she hadn't really expected him to go far after she had ordered him away. "It was the only available option at such short notice. You heard my reasoning; no doubt, do you have a problem with it? I know that he did attempt to kill you but don't expect any sympathy as it was your own fault that he was pushed that far."

"He is a dhampir, an accident waiting to happen; a disaster made of flesh and tainted blood."

"It was all that could be done. I'm open to better suggestions."

"Well, if he is to be a Hellsing member I would like to be able to make my own investigation into his father's identity. No one has been able to analyse dhampir's but it is common that they acquire powers the same as their vampiric parent. If he doesn't know how to use such abilities properly…well, just think about it." he let Integra's own mind conjure up the consequences of a teenage boy struggling with possible health disorders alongside uncontrolled vampiric powers and a fragile state-of-mind.

"I suppose it might help…alright, you have my permission; though I know damn well that even without it you would go ahead regardless. Just remember that this is not to interfere with any missions you should receive."

"Of course." He said with a respectful bow of his head, but the action was purely for show. "Is there anything else?"

"For now, no…oh, actually there is one other thing."

He waited expectantly and replaced the hat.

"I suppose that you would like to be present when I question Jaeger over the Hunters tomorrow."

He nodded and fished around the inside of his coat for his shades.

"So long as he does not mind I have no qualms with you attending, however, if you step out of line around him I will personally ensure that you will regret it. You seem convinced that he is some terrible danger, so heed your own words and don't get him worked up. Do I make myself clear, Alucard?"

"Oh, completely transparent, Master." And with that he vanished from sight.

"One day." She told herself out loud as the cold wave of air he left behind where his presence had previously been filling it warmed again. "I'll make him use the door."

To be continued………

Author's Note – Again, thank you for the reviews. I hope you continue to enjoy reading this. I will aim to finish it though it may take alot of chapters to get there.

Think it's worth the effort?

I'll apologise for it being so OC based at the moment; I just want to get the new characters established before I plough on with the actual plot. Just bear with me and pleaselet me know what you think.