Chapter One: D is hurt repeatedly.

The room was pitch-black, so dark that night-vision ceased to function. The youth, well, he would have been identifiable as the youth from Castle Iocus had there been some light, was beginning to feel that he was in trouble. His delicate ears could hear something stirring in the dungeon around him. He walked slowly, carefully through the darkness, stopping when he reached a wall. He placed his left hand upon it and it came away coated in slime. Something like an old man's voice pierced the silence with a grumbling expletive. The youth turned away from the unascendable partition and began to search for another way out.

Without warning he flicked his hand toward the darkness and was rewarded with an angry growl. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a handful of wooden needles, each as long as his hand. More of the creatures were gathering, calling to each-other with bark-like growls. He heard a small scuffle ensue from where he had thrown his first dart. He looked at his bloodied thumb, not because he could see it but because of the minor dramatic and expository effect.

"Dimension-ripping beasts." His voice was older than the rest of him, like water over stone.

"You do know that blood is mighty conspicuous to those things, don't you?" a second voice replied, apparently from nowhere and sounding suspiciously like the beautiful youth had when he'd cursed… That was him cursing, wasn't it? (1)

The pretty man clenched his left hand into a fist and released it. There was no point talking to it if it was feeling unhelpful.

He hit the floor, feeling movement overhead as he did. He threw a spike into the air but hit rock, not flesh. The creatures drew closer and he counted roughly fifteen in all. He drew his sword, not that it was going to do much good. He swung it thrice and hit naught each time. It kept the monsters at bay but they were still circling. If only he had his smoke bombs to confuse them. He'd left them in his saddle, with his horse that was grazing outside. Dhampires weren't exceptionally well known for their luck…

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D the dhampire vampire hunter was engaged in a fight for his life against monsters that could phase out from under him, or appear behind him in the time it took to blink an eyelid. Sensors on the bottom of their jaws allowed them to 'see' heat. He was giving off enough to be noticeable to them. They had enormously powerful noses and each drop of blood made him as obvious as a tall man in an orange suit with Tourette's syndrome. D didn't like so much colourful imagery in his diet but his hand did and it seemed to be rubbing off on him. He did not like Dimension-rippers either, the closest he'd ever gotten to doing so was when he'd found out they'd eaten the geneticist behind their creation. He was aware of the fact that he was at a distinct disadvantage. He was going to have a difficult time hitting them as well, he had already ascertained that they felt the sword coming in advance and jumped dimensions before it could hit them.

"Ah." He said quietly to himself.

He bent his knees and waited for another beast to approach. He listened intently for the sound of paws moving over rock and then waited until he could smell its breath. The creature exhaled loudly, tensing for a jump. D made a wild swing as the monster launched itself at him and rolled into it. He hit the dimensional portal just as it was closing and then he kept on moving. He found himself bathed in light and with vision he could win. The creature bowled over as he ran at it. He aimed beneath its exposed ribs and pierced its heart before it could regain its footing. It collapsed, releasing an ugly cry and an awful stench. D ignored this and cleaned his blade on the animals' long fur.

As he stood, he checked for other adversaries and found that there were none. He turned gracefully and surveyed his new surroundings. He was in a long, white corridor. Eerie, sterile light was coming from bars hooked to the ceiling. The ground beneath his feet was hard and slippery. It had a geometric pattern inscribed upon it but it wasn't rock or tile nor was it a synthetic material he was used to. There were doors on either side of him. It was probably a laboratory from the days when vampires had such technology.

There was nothing for it but to start walking.

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After traipsing up and down stairs and along corridors for twenty minutes, D remained trapped inside the lab. He had an ever-increasing map of his new home, as his left hand had called it but he was no closer to understanding its nature. The metal-work on the doors was unlike any he had ever seen, sturdy but far smaller and lighter than those used in a normal vampire castle but the doors themselves seemed to be only plywood coated in a thin polymer. The process must have been industrialised because a smithy would have been incapable of creating work of such magnitude and no decent carpenter would produce such shoddy work. There was clearly no craftsmanship involved here and he was vaguely disturbed by how unguarded everything was. After some searching D encountered a door unlike the rest. It was not connected to a room, it was thicker, presumably a fire door. A sign indicated that an alarm was attached to it and D did not want to risk disarming technology that was currently alien to him. He pressed his ear to it on the off-chance and heard approaching footsteps. He backed away into a nearby alcove.

The door opened loudly and permitted the entry of one individual. Their footsteps were heavy, and from their frequency he predicted a large man. What he saw from his dark nook was decidedly female, pale calves tapering to heavy boots. He could hear the muffled laughter of his parasite, questioning his sexuality if he was mistaking women for tubby men. He ignored it. When she finally came into full view he saw that he was dealing with a girl, six-foot tall and well-built. He was taken-aback slightly by her appearance. Most of the women he met were stunningly beautiful and slim. This one was cute enough but busting out of an inappropriately revealing uniform. He had to admit that his pride was a little bruised by the fact that she hadn't noticed him yet.

She cocked a giant rifle onto her shoulder and he rethought his previous assessment. He'd meet her later on, when he'd ascertained how competent she was. She glanced backwards, eyebrows drawn together in a frown. D melted further into the shadows. In profile he saw her bite at her lip, displaying prominent canines. She was nobility. The strangest (and that was saying something) noble that he'd ever seen. She turned towards the corridor and he followed.

The girl made a beeline for the corridor he'd arrived in, taking experimental sniffs whenever she hit a crossroad. He stayed out of sight, listening for the squeaky sound of her feet hitting the floor. It took her a minute to reach the beast that he'd left. He heard her sharp intake of breath. She fumbled for a short while, pulling something out of a holster. Her breath came out shakily, even though she technically didn't need to breathe at all.

"Captain, do you copy?"

Radio static and disjointed words responded. The girl whimpered a little, they must have been too far underground for radios to work. D waited for her next move. She was loudly circling the corpse. Crouching now, sniffing the air once more. The corridor was deathly quiet apart from the soft hum of the lights. She stood again.

"There's someone else here." She said quietly and to herself, she looked at her watch and then glanced around again, skittishly.

D decided that was probably a good time to reveal himself. He stepped quietly into the girl's line of sight. His black cloak trailed behind him, as if stirred by a gentle breeze. He did not say anything but kept his eyes firmly focused upon her. The girl gasped at the sight of him.

His left hand rolled its eyes.

Now that he could see her face D was again a little surprised to see that she was not an ethereal beauty like most vampires were. The girl was blonde, blue-eyed and as solid as she'd seemed earlier. She froze, lips parted and gun dropping toward her side. She pointed a finger limply toward him, mouth gaping like a fish.

"M-master!" She managed after a lengthy pause, "Master, what on earth are you wearing?"

"That's a new one." D clenched his fist again to shut up his symbiont.

"Master, I…" The girl seemed to be avoiding looking at him if possible, "Master, you're supposed to be at home, I mean, I think we should all go home now and look for your red hat and that fancy tie-bow thing you like so much and then I think I should go to bed, please Master."

He was glad that the odd noble was non-threatening but her behaviour confused him. He was no ones master and he never had been. He was also expecting a more fearful reaction to his presence. Most vampires responded to him in two ways, fight or flight. There was a third option but it too involved screaming of a sort and was only slightly less messy than the others. He eventually decided to respond in the way he did to all excitable women. Monotone and short sentences.

"My name is D; I do not know who your master is."

The girl blinked, clearly perplexed. Her hands tightened perceptibly on her weapon but she did not raise it. She was tense but he could just tell she knew better than to take him on. Her eyes darted toward the creature on the floor then back toward him. She started to smile gormlessly.

"Oh, your name is D and we have never met before, obviously." She hugged her giant rifle to her bosom, "Wonderful, lovely, yes."

"Yes."

"Did you kill the… dog-thing?"

"Yes."

She shifted away from him slightly. She began to gnaw on her lip, exposing her pointed teeth yet again.

"What is it?"

"A dimension-ripping beast. I followed it here." D decided to start volunteering information because he didn't want to be standing in the hall all day.

"It doesn't have any eyes, does it?"

"No."

"Ah."

"Yes."

"You look like a… That's a very interesting ou…" She drew a hand over her eyes, "You're not from around here are you?"

"No. I hail from the same region as that beast."

"I think that maybe you should come with me. Sir Hellsing should know what to do." She didn't seem sure on the last note. He was guessing that her cohort would not look so kindly upon him. It was probably a risk he'd have to take.

"My name is Seras." She smiled, shyly this time.

It took a while but she eventually found them both an exit. She kept her back exposed the entire time.

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"Wait here." Seras placed a hand on his shoulder, not noticing him flinch in surprise and then walked out of the building.

D lurked inside the strange building's atrium, watching as Seras exited the clear doors. He had never seen the like before, how did they manage to reinforce them? Perhaps there was some way of producing less brittle glass in this place, it would be worth researching. While D was musing about applied chemistry someone tall and dressed in red came into view. The glass and the distance blurred his features slightly. Seras hunched slightly and made some small gestures with her hands. The man, at least he presumed this one actually was a man, straightened and barked something at her. The girl recoiled, posture meekly subservient. D reached for his sword.

He had barely taken three steps before the man was on him. He was fast, aggressive and completely unpredictable, almost diametrically opposed to what he'd seen of Seras. The violent noble fired two shots from a large pistol and D was forced to block them with his sword. Compared to the ugly sounds of gunpowder, his blade was pure poetry. His opponents face split into an insane grin, one that was oddly familiar. D ignored it and went onto the offensive. He feinted to the left then struck with ungodly speed. His opponent's right hand fell to the floor, severed at the wrist.

The noble kept advancing, cackling with a distasteful amount of glee. D could see Seras by the doors, clearly wanting to intervene but unable to do so. The fallen appendage started to dissolve into blackening ooze. The stump warped as well, transforming into a dog with six eyes. Hell hounds had become extinct on the frontier but they were once common as pets to the nobility. The dog snarled at him.

Clearly slicing off limbs wasn't going to get him anywhere fast. He threw a volley of needles at the vampire and took off at a run. He aimed his sword at the nosferatus heart and pressed forward. The other man bent dramatically backwards at the knees, the blade knocking his glasses and hat askew without causing any damage. He pressed his gun into D's chest before he could change direction and fired off another round. Seras cried out and D flinched. He retreated and started to circle. The vampire in red was grinning inanely, his unbound hair flowing manically about his face. He looked very familiar.

Someone who looked like that…

His black hair was tied backwards and his face was staring out over his empire. His blood-red eyes were bright and cruel. D was told that he looked just like his sire but he disliked this comparison. Their world was ending, or so he was told, time and again. Their time would come and no one would mourn their passing. He was asked what his plans for that future would be but he'd been called inside before he could reply.

Someone who looked like that used to read him bedtime stories about eviscerating his enemies. Most people had called him 'Lord' or 'King' and sometimes 'Majesty'. His mother had called him Dracula-dearest and he'd called him…

"Father."

"Huh?" His opponent went slack-jawed.

D used the moment to his advantage and smacked him one. He hit him right on the nose and was rewarded by a cathartic crunching sound. The hounds, a few more had sprouted, sniffed at his cloak during this moment. The biggest barked and then started licking at his hands. He patted its head absent-mindedly. He'd named all the hounds during his childhood. They'd all been called "Kaiser."

His adversary remained upright, although his neck was twisted uncomfortably to the side. His eyes swivelled in D's direction, pupils shrinking down to slits. His mouth thinned and stretched even further than it had when he was smiling. Seras had begun walking towards them, one hand outstretched, offering aid.

"Master, this is D. He killed one of the monsters that have been appearing around London." Seras again ignored propriety and touched D's shoulder, further freaking him out.

"I know him, Police girl," his face softened slightly as he addressed her, "How did you get here Junior?"

"Dimension-ripping beast."

"And here I was hoping you got here on your own steam. Oh well, Seras, I would like you to meet my son from an alternate dimension. D, this is my beloved servant Seras. Later you will no doubt meet my dearest master, Lord Integra Wingates Hellsing. Wonderful woman, I'm sure you'll agree."

"Master, you told me that vampires can't have children. They can only turn people… didn't you say that?" the girl was looking rightly bothered.

"Alternate Dimension, Seras."

A mumbling came from D's left hand. He unclenched it and raised it upwards.

"Drake, is that you, you old bastard?"

"Lefty, I was hoping you were dead!"

Both D's hand and D's sire started to laugh, congenially. Seras looked on in abject horror. D made a mental note to include bombs in his personal inventories from now on so he could avoid an event such as this happening ever again. Then armed mercenaries entered the building and started shooting at him.

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(1)Of course not, silly. Lithe young men don't deign to curse like emphysemic sailors.