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A/N: Yeah, the title's lame, but it's done! AND it's the first chapter I've been happy with in a while! YAY! Also, in other news, my co-author, TsugumiAngelus, has also agreed to assist me in making a dojinshi manga. She will be posting both the manga volumes and my story chapters on her deviantart account, NekoKingdomHeart. Nothing much is there now, only a little preview of the volume one cover. The manga will probably come out a lot more slowly than the book, because of the sheer number of steps involved in making a manga. First she must sketch her general idea of the page and panel layouts, then I must read them to make sure I like them, then we meet and discuss, she repeats the draft process as needed. Once I am happy, I print her some blank panel pages with word bubbles for her to draw on, and then she makes it look all pretty! Since we are both notoriously slow workers, don't expect to see the prologue until next month at least. Keep looking for updates, though! And please keep reading!

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Chapter 14: Hard Day's Night

“So what happens now?” Sir Integra asked after they had returned to the Hellsing manor at about midnight, lighting herself a cigar and sitting down behind her desk. “If those really were the keyblade masters in that container, what do you do?”

Mia shook her head. Arthur, seeming convinced that he was a smaller dog than he was, was trying to climb up onto her lap. She pushed the canine down and answered. “I… I don’t know… I should probably call Cid and find out…”

“Do that now. And as for the vampires?” She gave Alucard a suspicious look.

Alucard, who leaned against the wall, eyes closed, clearly brooding over something or other, grunted faintly, a clear dismissal.

“I’m sorry, that didn’t sound like an answer, Alucard.”

“Apologies, I didn’t know you were addressing me,” Alucard sighed, clearly lying. “They are no longer issues. I have taken care of them.”

“Did you kill them?”

“I did not.” He said, placing a careful inference on the word ‘I’.

“I see,” she said, mistakenly assuming that Alucard meant that he personally did not kill Neko and Halo. “Very well.”

Mia looked away to hide her furrowed brow, pulling out her new phone and searching through the contacts, eventually finding one marked Cid. She pressed the call button, only to be greeted by an annoying female voice that told her that the signal was too weak.

Mia stared at the phone. She nodded, closed it, stuck it in her pocket. “Alucard, can you take me back to the place where we met, please? I might get a better signal.”

Alucard looked up. “Gladly. The night’s far too young for me to sleep, anyhow.”

Mia smiled and stood. “Come on, Arthur!”

The dog got to its paws, yipped, and followed Mia, growling a little at Alucard as they passed. Alucard ignored the dog, straightening. “Hear that, Lady Hellsing. She says ‘please’.”

“It’s a miracle,” Integra drawled, clearly annoyed.

“Is there a ‘thank you’ in there as well?” he asked.

“If you help me!” Mia laughed.

“I may be in love,” Alucard sneered jokingly, drawing a heckled sigh from Sir Hellsing.

“Remember your orders,” the woman grumbled, considering her cigar.

“Yes, yes,” the vampire responded in annoyance. “I’ll be good.”

Mia smiled. She was probably being too trusting, but… she somehow knew that he wouldn’t hurt her.

So she walked away from him without fear. She trusted Alucard… And she trusted Arthur.

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“Neko, you’re going too fast!” Halo shouted as they swung around a corner so fast she nearly fell into her sister’s lap.

“Son of a b***h!” the short-haired vampire roared. She gripped the steering wheel so hard her knuckles turned white. Her purple Lamborghini ripped through the night like a slug from a .45. Her teeth gnashed with rage and she was bent forward, the picture of road rage. “That b*****d thinks he can just dismiss me like that?! WHO THE HELL DOES HE THINK HE IS?!”

Halo sat up again and readjusted herself so she leaned into the window and rested her forehead on it. Her sister’s rage was making her head sting. She knew her sister wouldn’t like what Halo was thinking. She just thanked the good Lord that Neko hadn’t been blessed with the strength Halo had in the psychic ability department. “He’s our father.”

Neko hit the wheel with such force Halo feared it would break. “That--that--WANKER is not our father!” she shouted. “You said it yourself!”

“I did. But now that I think about it…” She closed her eyes, getting ready for a nuclear explosion. “Just because his name and motivations have changed, it doesn’t mean that father isn’t still in there. When you mentioned Mina… It was just like being near him again…”

“You know what? Screw it!” Neko hissed. “I don’t even care! I just want to leave this goddamn city and not come back for another two hundred years! Then, I can lose my mind and we can do this all over again!” She paused. “Think he’ll still be with the Hellsings two hundred years from now?”

“He thought so.”

“Damn him, that… FRESHMAN!!”

“Did you just call father a ‘freshman’?”

“I’m running out of insults.”

Halo sighed, looked back out at the dark buildings flashing by, and ventured, “I can’t help but wonder, though…”

“What?”

“We’re his daughters. Shouldn’t we be… following him, no matter what his choice?”

Neko spasmed, causing the Lambo to nearly swerve into a lamp post. Fortunately they missed, but Neko did bring the car to a screeching halt that nearly slammed Halo’s head into the dashboard.

“You okay?” she asked quickly.

“Yes,” Halo said calmly, swinging her hair back into place.

“Good. Now I’m going to scream at you. WHAT THE HELL, MAN?!”

Halo winced. “I’m just saying… We promised once that we’d follow him into hell if that was what he asked of us. Would we break that promise now?”

Neko glared. “Two words: Hell, yes. That’s my final word. I’m a big girl now--I don’t need his approval!”

“But… he’s our father…” And there was something else. The blond girl. Halo hadn’t taken much notice of her at the time, but looking back… Something…

“So what?”

Halo looked around at Neko. “So I’ve decided. I’m going to him.”

“You do that. Get out of my car.” It wasn’t angry. As often as Neko did get angry, she never got angry at Halo. It was just a statement. They were splitting ways, at least for now.

Halo lifted the car door and stepped out without another word.

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“It was a complete accident, turning Nicole. One has to be a virgin to become a vampire in this world--I don’t know how it works where you’re from or even if there are vampires there, but it’s more or less why our species has become… well, threatened of late, for lack of a better word. And of course there’s more that goes into the process than that, but I don’t even fully understand it, so I can’t fully--oh. I’ve gotten off-track.

“Anyhow, Nicole was a barmaid. I think you can imagine what happened. I mean, even a vampire likes alcohol and… I was young… and… stupid. I drank of her and made her by accident. Of course, this was the eighteenth century--not even vampires left their children in those days. So I took care of her. Taught her everything I knew.

“Nicole was… one of the best daughters I could have ever asked for. She absorbed everything like a sponge… she had a natural inclination towards the sadistic. No qualms with what she had to do to grow stronger as a vampire. I think Helen was the only thing holding her back.

“Helen was Nicole’s birth sister. They were, in fact, members of an aristocratic family that had fallen into debt when their house had caught fire. Nicole’s family lost everything. She was… so caught up with if Helen found out what she was, she rarely fed, even when she needed to. She could avoid going out in sunlight--fatal for an evening walker and for young vampires--but eating human food makes a vampire ill. Though, I think, Nicole would have borne all that for her younger sister.

“But then Helen fell sick. I forget quite what disease she had contracted--all I know is that at the time it was quite incurable and quite fatal, as were many illnesses at the time. Nicole begged me to save Helen and I… I could not refuse her.

“I came to Helen under the guise of a doctor. I asked no charge, so her family welcomed me.” He heaved a heavy sigh here. “How her mother wept in thanks. Her father even suggested that I consider courting Nicole. Oh, I respectfully declined of course, but I wonder if it was because he actually had liked me, or if he was desperate…? Never mind.

“Helen was… so calm as Nicole and I explained to her. She always was like that. She never said a word, only asking a question now and again. I gave her a choice, but I could tell by the look on her face that she knew she had none. I once often saw that look on the faces of lambs brought to slaughter. And so she became.”

Mia looked up at Alucard. The chill air and mist pressed around them beneath the forest’s canopy and made her hair on the back of her neck stand up. “Do you… regret it?”

He paused, stopping. The shadows of the trees left him in complete darkness. She could see the reflections off his sunglasses though--two orange, catlike spheres hovering in the night. A shiver shot down her spine.

“Never,” he said quietly.

“Is that so…?”

Arthur whimpered and chomped on Mia’s skirt, tugging at her. Something was about that the dog didn’t like. Mia turned and got on her knees to tousle the dog’s ears. “How old are you, Alucard?”

He paused as if thinking. “Five hundred and seventy-eight,” he answered. “Or thereabouts. When you’re immortal, you don’t bother keeping track anymore. How’s your… signal?” He said the word as if he wasn’t quite sure what it truly meant.

Mia pulled the cell phone out and tried again. This time, just three consecutive beeps. “Busy? Who could he be talking to?”

Alucard sighed heavily. “He picked a fine time…” He examined his gloves, clearly bored.

“So what happens to you if you’re outside when the sun rises?” Mia asked, ignoring Arthur as he licked her face.

“The same thing that happens to you humans if you’re up too late,” he said. “The sun itself has no effect. Not anymore.”

“Sorry. You… probably think I’m annoying.”

“On the contrary. You are the most entertaining woman-child I have ever met.”

The way he said that was not as a compliment, but more like he was commenting on a vaguely interesting talent of a servant of his. She didn’t feel particularly insulted, nor did she feel proud of herself.

Suddenly, Arthur whipped around and began to bark loudly at a bush. Alucard looked up briefly and then away, unconcerned. A black rabbit bolted from the bush and shot past Arthur, who gave chase. Mia, concerned for the bunny’s safety, managed to throw herself onto the large dog before he could get too far. The rabbit halted just before the next bush, turned, and sat back on its haunches, examining them.

“What are you doing here, Helen?” Alucard asked, not looking around.

To Mia’s alarm, the rabbit, after rubbing its paws over its ears a couple times, suddenly grew quite large all at once. Its ears receded into its skull, changing position, its muzzle shrank into a simple nose. Its almond-shaped red eyes became almond-shaped human red eyes with dark, thick lashes. Some of its fur grew to ridiculous lengths while in other places it simply vanished or, even more strangely, wove itself into clothes. Its tail vanished, its proportions changed, and, next thing Mia knew, standing before her was the young, long-haired vampiress she had met at the warehouse.

“Halo,” the girl corrected Alucard patiently.

The vampire gave very little in the way of concern. “I told you I would
be forced to kill you if we ever met again.”

Halo hung her head. “I know. But I have changed my mind.” She had a strangely proper accent, like Sir Integra’s but fading.

Alucard blinked and looked around. “Changed… your mind?”

“Yes. Neko doesn’t think we should listen to you anymore, but…” She put a hand on her chest. “I do. You’re my father.”

“You and Nicole have parted ways, then? Oh, dear…”

Mia looked up from her wrestling match from the dog, who was still trying to get away and maim Halo. “Why ‘oh, dear’?”

Alucard stepped out into the moonlight and crossed his arms. “Helen and Nicole rarely disagree, but when they do…”

Halo laughed nervously. “Bad things always happen,” she completed.

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The music thumped heavily. The club was an epileptic’s nightmare, totally dark except when the lights flashed on for the briefest of seconds. Green and pink laser lights swung over the heads of the people packed onto the dance floor, all adorned with cheap luminescent necklaces and bracelets. Over all hung a cloud of smoke. And at the bar was Neko, just as annoyed as she had been earlier.

“Give me a beer,” she barked at the bartender.

“ID?” The man replied blandly.

“I’M TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-THREE YEARS OLD!” she roared. “GIVE ME A FRIGGIN BEER!!!”

“ID?” he repeated.

Neko sighed and put her chin on the bar. “Dr. Pepper’s fine…”

The barman sidled off to get her order and someone started laughing at her. The music was so loud that she wouldn’t have heard him if she were human, but as it stood she found it incredibly annoying. She whipped around to see who it was.

Anywhere else, he would have looked like a freak, but in a place like this, he matched like milk matched with cookies. He had ridiculously spiky, blight red hair than Neko would have thought he had glued in place had it not actually moved as she looked at him. His eyes were a bright, emerald green, very angular, and rimmed with eyeliner. Below each eye he appeared to have drawn with makeup--or quite possibly have tattooed, considering this town--a black triangular mark that gave him an oddly punkish look. He was tall and lean, oddly so for a man. His waist was so thin she imagined even a human could snap it like a twig if they really tried. He was the only one she could see without one of those dorky glo-sticks or necklaces, wearing instead a black coat with a hood, zipped up the front, black gloves, light black pants, and equally lightweight boots. He was doing a poor job of hiding his laughter and was nursing a cocktail of some sort that Neko thought looked incredibly yummy.

There were two things she knew about this guy. The first was that she hated his guts already. The second was that she was going to eat him.

“What’s so funny?” she snapped at him.

He looked up at her and smiled--no, sneered at her. “You.”

What kind of person just came out and said something like that?! Neko glared. “You p***k!”

“Didn’t your mom teach you that it isn’t nice to call people names?”

“Didn’t your mom teach you that it isn’t nice to laugh at people?”

“Touché,” he admitted, raising his glass to her. He took a sip and grimaced. “Yuck. See if I ever come here again!” He looked at her. “You want it, lady?”

“Neko. And no. I got something I like more. What’s your name?”

The man put his drink down and looked around to face her. “Axel,” he said, tapping the side of his head. “Got it memorized?”