Disclaimer: Guess what… not mine! Sorry if I disappointed… though I seriously doubt it, right?

Much more angst in this chapter, although there's also some fun in the first part. I'm not into full angst chapter but I think I already said that. Finally I explained Clover! Read and find out. Ill be glad to provide you with some info about it if you get caught!

Niko danced around the priest as gracefully as a ballerina. They had been doing that for the last five minutes without actually hurting each other. They were both just too fast and skilful. By this time Alucard would have probably ripped off some part of Anderson's body, but Niko was patient.

Seras saw Anderson describe a wide circle with his right blade, and Niko go down to the floor, dodging it at the same time she made a hit to the back of his knees making him loose his feet. Anderson growled but immediately rolled to the side away from her. He got onto his right knee, the left leg extended to steady himself while he adopted a defensive position on the ground.

Niko was sitting on her heels, smiling lovingly at him, the Dakki, barrel still cold, rested on her left thigh.

Anderson growled in disapproval to himself as he thought she looked lovely. Niko perfectly caught that thought, even without reading his twisted mind. For, oh, it WAS twisted. Not much saner that Alucard for that matter.

Niko suddenly thought she could take advantage of that little thinking of his. She smiled wider.

"So, Father, I take it you know Alucard?" she said softly.

"That damned beast the Hellsing use as a Hound and that I will take pleasure in exterminating." Anderson answered.

"Yes, just that one, dear." Niko said tenderly. She got up. Anderson immediately shot himself at her, blades ready. Niko docked to the first one, turning to the right for the second one. As he turned back to her she brushed her fingers over his blonde hair. She loved blond haired men! They were just so cute!

Anderson growled in dislike. He didn't like to be touched, especially by vampires.

Niko smiled as she saw him getting angrier. She could only admit she felt attracted to him. He was very powerful to be a man. It was the same kind of curious attraction she still felt for Kazuhiko, and had once felt for Gingetsu.

The Japanese girl enjoyed making his anger grow. Seras watched her leaned against the wall. In that little game of fighting, teasing and taunting him she was as wicked as Alucard.

Anderson made a fast, unexpected movement and his blade made a deep cut on Niko's chest. She gasped in dislike and shot him in the shoulder. He moaned.

They both stood looking at each other's wounds healing. Niko's eyes widened.

"So you're the so famous Human Regenerator…" she whispered admiring him a little. "You know you complain about monsters of darkness, but really, you are not better, a human monster turned by technology. Tell me Alexander, was it worth it?"

"Everything is if it means completing my mission for God."

"Alexander I fell truly sorry about you." Niko said honestly. The man stared at her, surprised by her truthfulness and the sad look on her blood red eyes. "Because I have known your religion for many years, and I know that it will turn against you some day, just like it did to people I loved long ages from now. It is a changing religion, yours."

"Don't speak of it like that." But Niko sadly noticed his rage was diminishing. Somewhere, deep inside, he knew it was true.

Niko let her gun disappear into nothingness as she walked, slowly, so he wouldn't attack her, towards Anderson. Still, he looked at her distrustfully. But he didn't move. He too felt attracted to her.

The Japanese girl stood before him relaxed. They looked into each other's eyes again, for a long while. She deliberately slowly raised her hand to his face and caressed his cheek with the back of her fingers. He let her do so staring in her eyes. Then she shifted her hand and pressed it against his cheek again, this time the palm.

Niko lowered her hand brushing her claws over his face but not hurting him. Then she extended her hand to Seras. The girl took it, a bit doubtful though because Anderson was so close. Niko looked back at the man.

"Until we see each other again, Alexander Anderson, Paladin of the Catholic God."

After that she pulled Seras close to her and walked into her portal.

Alexander Anderson stood quiet in the alley, feeling as cold as her hand had been on his flesh. He knew he would fight that girl again. He knew that because it was what he did; fight vampires. He had been told that vampires were vile creatures, beautiful and horrible at a time, that would speak to you of wonders and deceive you into your death.

He thought of the Asian girl. Where was the monster in her?

+break+

It was nine o'clock in the morning.

Gingetsu ravelled the towel around his small waist and ran a hand through his white hair. He cleaned the mirror of steam as he started to shave his face. Blue-green eyes looked back at him from the reflection. He stared at them a minute.

He didn't even recognize himself there, in the mirror. He didn't know what he liked and what not. He didn't know what his favourite colour was. He didn't know the day of his birthday. He only knew his powers. His earlier memories were those of the Research Lab. He very well remembered the pain, the screams, the tests. And yet he could not bring himself to remember his mother's face. However he did recall seeing fear in her eyes as she looked at him. Fear and disgust. Good thing they paid them in the Lab, good they gave good money to buy their son. It was the only happiness he had brought to his family.

Gingetsu finished shaving and got dressed slowly. Then he went to Kazuhiko's room to make sure he wasn't sleeping. He didn't find him there.

Kazuhiko was in the kitchen, already sitting at the table and drinking tea. Gingetsu looked around. He didn't see the butler.

"Where's Walter?" he asked sitting at the table too. Kazuhiko raised his shoulders, still reading the report sent from Japan.

"I'm not his mother Gingetsu. I don't know where he is." The Lieutenant frowned, so Kazuhiko looked at him curiously. "Did you need him for something?"

"No. Finish your tea and follow me."

Kazuhiko did as he was told, obedient. Then he got up and followed his superior around the house.

For about fifteen minutes they wondered through the hallways not going anywhere in particular, apparently. Finally Kazuhiko started running out of patience.

"May I ask what we are looking for?" he asked irritated.

"No."

Gingetsu needed him to be quiet. His senses, although powerful, were not strong enough to hear the minor waves emitted by a cable using only his ear. He needed to sense it, to feel its proximity.

Finally after half an hour he got what he was looking for. It was an intelligence room with many computers. It was empty save for one only person.

Gingetsu and Kazuhiko walked towards Walter's back, silent as air. They stood behind him looking at the computer monitor, quiet.

It was the Japanese Army page, the Only Agents Zone. Walter was definitely more skilful in technology that they had both thought, because he had gotten through the passwords and security systems.

Kazuhiko leaned forward and ran his eyes over the words in the file. He knew them just perfectly: It was his personal file.

"Oh, they just always translate that name wrong, your English translators, don't they?" Walter gulped and turned to stare into Kazuhiko's gaze. It was angered and cold. "It's Azurite, not acquired. It's a country." He straightened back as Walter got up and faced them both.

The butler was worried. He was aged and alone facing two young and very powerful men. He didn't even know how powerful Gingetsu was. But he suspected he could stand at Alucard's level in a fight. Now that was something to worry about.

"I hope you found what you were looking for Walter, cause you are not doing this again. That's not a request."

"I strongly advise not to lie, Walter." Gingetsu said so coldly Walter almost backed off. "What did you find out about us?"

"It is only natural that we look into you background, Lieutenant." Walter calmly answered. Gingetsu stayed still.

"That wasn't my question." He said very low, but clear. Walter shook his head.

"I did not get much. I only found trivial stuff on Kazuhiko. Your file is completely blank, Lieutenant."

"…"

Kazuhiko rounded him and disconnected the computer, calmly. He then turned back to Gingetsu.

"What shall we do?"

Gingetsu thought for a moment. He looked at Walter.

"Go upstairs and tell Sir Hellsing that if she has a question I will answer, as long as she makes it to my face." He said as if talking to a dog. Walter however serenely obeyed. But as he walked on the corridor he heard them talking again.

"Are you looking forward to getting shot, Gingetsu? Anyway what are you going to tell her?"

"Anything she dares ask."

"I highly doubt she is shy about the questions… and I'm not looking forward into telling her anything related to my past. Particularly an explicit part of it."

"Then don't. I highly doubt she is interested in your past."

+break+

"First of all, Lieutenant, if you don't mind, I would like you to remove your visor."

Gingetsu stared at Integra a long minute, silent. Then he reached for the visor and took it off, folding it and placing it on the desk. His green-blue eyes looked at Integra as coldly as Integra's blue eyes were looking at him.

Gingetsu and Kazuhiko were sitting in comfortable chairs in front of her desk. Walter stood in a corner at their backs. Kazuhiko was not pleased on that, but he couldn't ask him to leave, so he decided to ignore him.

Integra thought for a moment as she lighted a small cigar. She had many questions to ask that man, each fighting to be first. She calmly put her thoughts in order. She looked at Gingetsu crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair.

"Are you human?" she asked. Kazuhiko raised his eyebrows, glaring at Gingetsu a skeptical look.

"It's hard to explain, but technically, no." the Lieutenant coolly answered.

"Be more specific."

"I'm what the Japanese Government calls a Clover. Here I believe you call us sorcerers."

"So you are much stronger then a human."

"Yes, I'm much stronger, faster and have hypersensitive senses such as hearing and seeing. However those are not my only powers." He looked at Kazuhiko a moment. Though the Captain glared at him, he obeyed his silent order. He took off his left glove and showed her the modem in the back of his hand. "That is a modem. We use it to summon weapons and technology. Clovers don't need modems."

"That means you can summon all kinds of things without any modems?"

"Theoretically I should be capable, but I'm not because I am a low class Clover. I was classified a Two Leaf, when the levels are for and they go from One Leaf, to Four Leaf. I can only summon all kinds of weapons and unlimited communication resources. "

"And the Four Leaf would be able to…?"

"The Four Leaf, if she is still alive" he looked at Kazuhiko form the corner of the eye. The Captain flashed at him in anger and looked away. "would be practically impossible to defeat. She would be almighty, as I believe you call it."

"She was a woman."

"She was a girl." Kazuhiko said softly. "She was about thirteen."

"She died?"

Gingetsu answered. "Officially she was declared dead in an accident at the Fairy Park outside Japan. Kazuhiko was with her." Kazuhiko internally thank him for not telling her the whole truth. He didn't say they had reasons to believe she was still alive.

Integra fell silent for a moment watching Kazuhiko. She was taken aback by the deep pain in his brown eyes. She had thought him a dumb cheerful man. A judgment mistake, no doubt.

"How does the Government know who is a Clover?" she asked finally.

"They make tests. The division in charge of finding Clovers used to be called Clover Leaf Project. They had originally planned to use the Clovers as war weapons, but the project was shut down after what they very politely put as 'a mistake'."

"What happened?"

"They pushed a Four Leaf too hard and he lost control. There were a hundred scientists in the First Research lab, along with three One Leaf, four Two Leafs and three Three Leafs. The Four Clover killed all the scientists before the Special Army Division got in the Lab and managed to kill him."

"I thought you said they were almighty."

"I said almighty, yes. Not immortal."

"What happened to the other Leafs?"

"The three brothers that were Three Leafs were moved to another Lab. The Clovers below that level were either set in freedom or, like myself, placed in the Army. Many of the One Leaf had no powers other than some knowledge of the future; nothing the Government was particularly interested in."

"How old were you back then?" she asked, but this time with a personal interest.

"I was sixteen. I was the oldest. The Four Leaf was only ten."

"Ten years old?" Integra gasped. "And he killed a hundred people?"

"And two of the Two Leafs that tried to stop him."

"Even with their powers combined they didn't stop him?"

"I said the Four Leaf can not be stopped Sir Hellsing. Even if we had united all of our powers against him we still would have lost. Adding to that, he was completely out of control."

"Did you fight too?"

"…" Gingetsu stared into her eyes without speaking. Finally he brought himself to say a few words. "The scientists took my life away once. I wasn't going to give my life for them again. The others asked my help but I denied."

"You… let them die."

"Yes."

"I believe everyone in this room will agree with me, if I say that sometimes you have to do what you have to do." Kazuhiko said low. Integra and Walter looked at him a bit confused. He was looking at Gingetsu. "Are you sure you want to do this Gingetsu? For now I'm the only one you've told."

"They can keep a secret. Otherwise the Hellsing Organization wouldn't exist. But I…"

"Do you want me to…?"

"Yes."

"Ok. Sir Hellsing this is still uneasy grounds for both of us, so if you don't mind… I will be short and go to the point."

Integra nodded.

"The Clover Leaf project started thirty years ago. They first found Gingetsu when he was four years old. Gingetsu had developed his powers since a very young age and couldn't really control them, so his parents didn't know how to handle him. They were afraid. When the Project was released from the Army to search among civilians the first Clover they found was Gingetsu. They offered his parents a… rather interesting sum of money to buy his tutor rights. And they agreed."

"They sold you Lieutenant?" Integra asked with a knot in her throat. He looked up at her.

"I'm having trouble understanding how you don't believe they would be capable, considering your uncle actually shot you."

Integra stared back at him with a look in between anger and coldness. He had been doing some research of his own. That was understandable after all. Only he had been much more effective at hiding it. She glared at Walter for a second. Then she looked back at Kazuhiko.

"Go on."

"Ah… yeah. After his parents gave in his tutoring rights, they took him in the Research Lab and made a tattoo on his right wrist that is some kind of his power source. And they started doing tests. I don't think either of you want to know what kind of tests… but know one thing: he still has scars."

"Can I see the tattoo?" Integra politely asked. Gingetsu didn't react. Like if he wasn't listening. The three of them looked at him a second. He seemed lost in thought, or in memories. For the look on his eyes they weren't pleasant.

Finally Kazuhiko touched his shoulder. Gingetsu turned to him, still a bit far away look on his eyes.

"Yes?"

"Sir Hellsing asked to see the tattoo on your wrist." Kazuhiko answered quietly.

Gingetsu nodded clearing his head. "I apologize." He said quietly and pulled up his sleeve, standing and showing her. It was not a simple tattoo. It was like two leafs of a clover and a little stalk. Inside it had some words, in the center, "Clover". Below it, smaller words, "Clover Leaf Project". Above it, a simple 2. In the right leaf, up, a bar code with the numbers written below it, very small.

It was a fine-looking tattoo. Integra would have liked it if she hadn't known the story behind it.

She suddenly saw a large scar across the palm of the hand. Like if he had been attacked and injured by a huge blade. She raised her eyes in a silent question.

"I was attacked by on of the Three Leafs." He explained sitting back.

"Why?"

"The Three Leafs were triplets. Their parent's didn't even bother in putting them names, so they were called A. B and C. A was very aggressive and violent, but B and C were kind and polite. They got along very well, and A got jealous and killed B, because he wanted C for himself. C stayed in the Lab a while after that, but he didn't like it there and now that B was dead it was worse. So he decided to leave the Lab. He escaped. The Clover Project guards were sent to retrieve him but he quickly disposed of them so they sent me to get him back."

"But you are lower level."

"They supposed C was tired of using his powers against the guards, and of the shock of the outside world. Anyway I was commanded an order and I followed it. When I found him C was on the edge of exhaustion. He didn't fight me. I took him to my department and contacted the Magis, or Magicians as you call them."

"Who are they?"

"The Council of Magis." Kazuhiko answered. "They are five generals that are in charge of the whole Army, including the Clover Leaf Project. They were the ones that shut it down and ordered the destruction of every Clover. It takes five Magis to restrain a Three Leaf."

"And a Four Leaf?"

"…" Kazuhiko looked down. "That's why she was alone. Always alone."

"The Magis" Gingetsu decided to change the subject o Kazuhiko could recover. "ordered me to hold C until A was settled down and was no longer a danger to his brother. But C got fond of me and A knew it. He got jealous again. He traveled along the "minor waves" the electromagnetic waves emitted by cables, and got to my apartment. I had explicit orders of protecting C, and considered anything threatening both of us an enemy, so I summoned my sword. But C stopped me and started talking A out of his idea of murdering me. However A attacked me and I didn't react fast enough to summon my sword. Although I don't know really how much it would have helped. He used his powers to attack and made a deep cut on my hand, my chest and my shoulder, running from right to left, and also cracked the wall behind me all the way from the ceiling to the floor. He kept saying he was going to kill me because C liked me and was happy with me, even though he was not with his brother. So C stood between us and threatened him with killing himself if he kept killing people. That made A come back to his senses, and he left. After a few hours, after cleaning my wound and finally making C sleep I contacted the Magis. They said that C would have to go back to the Lab, but I knew he didn't want that and I had my own bad memories of the Labs, so I offered he could stay with me. "

"And they agreed?" Integra couldn't say she wasn't interested anymore. She was caught in his story.

"Well it wasn't easy." Kazuhiko answered. "As a matter of fact he almost didn't make it. You see, the reason the Clovers are held in labs or under control is because they cannot get together. Figure, if the Council of Magis has to be complete to restrain a Three Leaf they wouldn't be too happy with two Leaf living together, specially if together they made five leafs. Nobody would be able to stop them save the Four Leaf and she was out of the question. So Gingetsu here did something I'm still very pissed at him for doing, so C could stay with him." He added in a growl, glaring at his friend. Gingetsu didn't answer.

"What did he do?" Integra asked politely, seeing Gingetsu was staying quiet. He probably was lost in memories again.

"He allowed the Council to place a bomb on the back of his head in case anything happened." Kazuhiko growled low.

"Run that by me again." Integra's eyes widened behind her glasses.

"Sure. Gingetsu had an explosive set on his skull in case C had any fun ideas. Call that a insure policy."

"Does C know…?"

"His name was Ran." Gingetsu suddenly interrupted. "Not C. Ran." Walter and Integra stared confused.

"Gingetsu gave him that name. And no. Ran never knew of the explosive. Good thing he was calm. Suu, however did know."

"Suu?"

"The Four Leaf." Gingetsu answered. "That was her name. It meant "four". They always had a twisted sense of humor."

"Ran…?"

"He died." Kazuhiko answered in a whisper and looking at Gingetsu. "The Three Leafs don't have stable cells. They age very quickly. In the Lab that was controllable but outside in the open world, even with Gingetsu… "

The Lieutenant stood and walked to the window, out of words. Integra felt sorry for him, but not pity. She wasn't a pity kind of woman. And he wasn't the kind of man that would have appreciated pity.

He looked out the window, silent, for a long while. Finally he turned to Integra, eyes warm for the first time.

"You call Alucard and Niko undead, Sir Hellsing." He said cryptically. "But under what consideration do you call people like Ran or me living? I don't even own my life. At that respect the only difference I have with Alucard is that I breathe. At least, Ran and Suu are now at peace."

He lowered his eyes again. The room fell thick in silence. Kazuhiko stared at the floor. Walter and Integra couldn't speak.

Gingetsu finally moved and reached the visor. He looked at it for a second. "Perhaps sometimes you have wondered why we both use the glasses all the time." He added. "Alucard and I, I mean. Perhaps you think it's to isolate from the world. But it's not that. We are already isolated."

He put the visor back and looked at the window once again. Then he turned his back to it and walked to Kazuhiko.

"If you don't mind now, I would like for us to be excused."

"Yes, yes, of course." Integra whispered. She was stunned and hurt. For a moment the usual words came to her, 'May the Queen and the God be with you…' but she held them. She felt them empty for both of them.

Gingetsu and Kazuhiko left the room in silence.

Walter and Integra looked at each other feeling their own souls heavier with the bargain of what they now knew. For once, Integra allowed her mask to crack and Walter saw her sadness.

The silence between them was heavy and thick. So were their hearts.

OK. To make a long story short, there's the story of the Clover manga by CLAMP. Sad, isn't it? If you think about it compared to Gingetsu, Integra was a happy camper when a child. And wait until you know about Kazuhiko… 00.

That's sixth. Next chapter the Hunt starts. We will be meeting some new people as well. It'll be much lighter too. I mean the atmosphere.

Ok, thanks to you all for reading.

(Ishtar Darkside you rock)

(So does my editor CrypticShadowWriter: you RULE)

Namariel out!