Chapter 1

Hitting the Ground Running

1 Year Later

"We're on final approach to Fuyuki City, Miss Victoria."

"Very good," Seras Victoria chirped pleasantly as she stood in the door to the pilot cabin, "are there any problems?"

"No ma'am, it's s actually going well."

She hummed, more to herself than anyone else, her eyes roving over instrument display for a few moments before looking back up.

"Make sure the ECM and flares are ready. The last thing we need is for the Magus Killer to make an encore showing."

"Yes ma'am," both pilot and copilot responded.

Flashing them a smile, she brought herself out and walked into the cabin as Walter finished lighting another cigarillo for Mistress Integra, a small of looks all that were needed to convey the message and then she strode by then to the other two members of the cabin, one asleep snoring softly and the other...

Her eyes focused on the figure dressed in a grey suit, ebony hair down to his chest, orange-tinted sunglasses, white gloves, and the largest shit-eating grin imaginable.

...was enjoying a snifter of blood.

Even a year later, it was still difficult for her to look him in the eye without having a shiver run down her spine at the eyes, so much like an apostles. There was only one time she had a run-in with a Dead Apostle and that was the last time she ever wanted to experience that luxury. But Vlad Tepes III was most certainly not a Dead Apostle. He was….unique, even she didn't know exactly what he was, other than what the books described him as, and not that vapid Bram Stoker shit.

Yet, the only one who knew what Vlad entailed was Integra herself, but that was because of Integra being the head of the Hellsing family, and not some sort of mistrust for her. It was intended to keep the knowledge of who Vlad, or as he referred to himself, Alucard, as a solely protective measure.

"Having fun, police girl," he drawled, his voice a silky, smooth, seduction upon her ears even now, after a year of dealing with it, had yet to fail in getting under her skin in such a primitive way.

She fought down a spark of irritation as she sat down across from him, still cursing the fact that Integra had let this Servant imbibe upon her blood and somehow gaining her memories. Now the man couldn't resist constantly calling her "Police Girl" for some reason, much to her increasing annoyance.

"I wouldn't call doing my job having fun, vampire," she retorted icily, earning an even wider smile as he swirled the blood around.

"Always so sharp with words, if I didn't know any better I'd think you hate me. Surely we are friends, aren't we?"

"More like professional-"

"Hold on a moment," he interrupted, tilting his head up to call up to the front, "I thought this was a non-smoking only flight."

The slight hunching of shoulders of Integra was the only indicator as Alucard gage a short laugh before focusing on her again, "Now where were we?"

"I was saying how we were professional-"

"Acquaintances, yes right. How boring."

She rolled her eyes at him. There were times she wondered exactly who was the older person in this entire deal.

"So, what do you expect to get out of this war," Alucard asked, taking her off-guard at a suddenly serious question.

"I expect nothing," she finally answered, looking out the window as the aircraft bounced off the ground once before settling as it landed, "I pledged my life in service to Integra. If she wishes for it, I will gladly give my life in her service."

"No aspirations whatsoever," Alucard mused aloud, a hint of disappointment lacing his tone, "for someone with the most talent in hemomancy since yours truly, I find myself disappointed that you wish of nothing for yourself."

"And what would you suggest that I want," she demanded, looking back to her master's servant.

He laughed, shaking his head at the woman.

"There's no point in discussing this, Police Girl. It would be like trying to discuss the sunset to a blind man. How does the blind man know what the sunset may look like if he has never seen it. They are merely words with no contextual basis."

She was about to open her mouth to protest when Integra's voice rang out.

"Seras, get up here."

Not even offering Alucard an apology, though it appeared he really didn't care, she got back up to her seat as the airplane taxied into the private hangar of the airport. Coming before Integra she awaited as her master and friend finished reading a paper, her eyes narrowed in concentration even as her lips were tight around the cigarillo as if she were annoyed by something.

It all came to a head as Integra leaned back in the chair, letting out a plume of smoke while the cigarillo was clenched in her teeth. At the same time she held up the folder to her, letting Seras take it and flip it open, her own reaction mirroring her master's as she read through the report.

"Is this confirmed," she asked, still flipping through the report even as her mind raced at the information in front of her.

"Last page," Integra murmured, causing Seras to flip to the last page and her eyes narrowed at the picture of two people taken just hours before. She immediately recognized the Einzbern homunculi, the white hair and red eyes a dead giveaway, but it was the second person in it that caused her to frown deeply. A woman dressed in a black business suit, her blond tresses styled into one with two bangs framing her face with a pony tail folded over behind her head to keep the rest of her hair restrained and up.

"Does MI6 have any information on the woman," she asked, looking up to Integra.

Integra shook her head, "No. In fact, MI6 has bounced it off contacts in the CIA and FSB and came up with nothing."

She looked back to the picture.

"The Einzberns wouldn't hire nobody as a bodyguard and the Magus Killer only operates with Maiya Hisau, so that leaves…"

"A Servant," Alucard's voice came up from behind her as he snatched the file out of Seras' hand and took a look at the picture.

"A homunculus," he drawled, his tone laced with amusement, "killed one or two of those back in the good ol' days, sadly, I proved that when you cut them open ether doesn't come out. A shame really, would have made their deaths more interesting considering they didn't scream enough when I killed them."

"Hmm," he trailed off, his eyes narrowing at the other woman for awhile, before he just shrugged and tossed it to Seras.

"Welp, I'm going to take a leisurely stroll through the city, catch you all later," he then proceeded to phase through the floor of the airplane and was gone.

This development led to a sigh from Integra as she massaged her forehead.

"I really hate when he does that," she murmured to herself.

"Should I go after him," Seras asked, not exactly liking herself for even suggesting it, but it was for Integra and she would...suffer silently if it was what she willed.

"No. We need to ensure that the defenses are complete at where we will be staying. The last thing we need is the Magus Association or the Magus Killer himself to pay us a visit. Walter?"

"Of course, Sir Integra, right this way."

Fated in Blood

Everything had been going splendidly up until now, Tokiomi Tohsaka thought to himself in annoyance as he listened to the report from one of Kirei's Assassins. Kirei had taken the initiative in posting an Assassin at the airport to monitor the traffic in case of any surprises.

Unfortunately, there were surprises in store to his consternation.

"And what does Kirei say of this latest development?"

"They are still awaiting orders from the Church."

That would make sense. The Church had maintained a status of neutrality throughout the purge of the Hellsings, but in actuality they had been the pressure in the shadows that caused the Magus Association to hunt down the Hellsings and wipe them down to the last woman. It was not in the Church's interest that there be any practitioners of the dark art of hemomancy considering it's origins and the fact that it had been at odds with the Church for hundreds of years. No one in the Association was exactly sure what caused the Church to suddenly demand the termination of the Hellsings, only that it had happened.

And now all that was left was Sir Integra Fairbrooks Wingates Hellsing. Who had just landed in Fuyuki City.

The last thing that was needed was the addition of an unknown variable to an already unstable situation. The Magus Killer could be contained, but if the Hellsings got involved, with their knowledge of the Grail Wars and brand of sorcery, it could get ugly quickly. He didn't know enough about Integra outside of meeting her several years ago at a function where she was just a young child, nothing was there that could provide him with an idea on how she was going to act during this.

Maybe it would be best if he extended an invitation to her to speak. He had no involvement in the purging of the Hellsings and their families did go back a ways. Of course, having Gilgamesh on standby would be necessary, he would rather not prefer to get into a fight with The Hound by himself if it came to that.

And maybe they could work out an alliance.

Of course, once he was done with them he'd have them killed. It wouldn't be right if he didn't.

Fated in Blood

While Tokiomi was busy deciding on what he would do with the interference of the Hellsings, there was an entirely different debate going on inside the Fuyuki Church between father and son over the information. While they had alerted Tokiomi as to the presence of the Hellsings, it was the other information that they had withheld that was their current source of distress.

"Are you sure about this," Risei asked Kirei.

"You know that Servants can detect other servants as long as they aren't in spirit form," Kirei responded, "Assassin was close enough to the Servant to positively identify him as one."

"Hmm," the elder Kotomine hummed in deep concentration, "the Hellsings have never been one for getting involved with the Holy Grail War, but then again, we have pushed them into a corner to where they would be desperate enough to get involved in the quest for it. But the question is exactly who they would choose for their…," he trailed off, before his eyes widened.

"What is it," Kirei asked.

"I need to contact the Church, I need to confirm something," his father replied, his usual coolness gone as he began moving away from his son and deeper into the church.

Fated in Blood

"And here I thought this would be entertaining," the subject of the conversation going on in Fuyuki church talked to himself as he strolled down the streets of Fuyuki City. This had been the first time he had been allowed to actually go into the public and he had honestly expected at least some amusement and not this...dull affair.

It almost made him wish for the good 'ol days. At least those days were exciting and left him plenty of things to do, you know, killing, mutilating, impaling on wooden poles in service to the Church Good times, well, at least til the Church decided to backstab him. They always seemed good at that for some reason even noe. The backstabbing that is, in more ways than one, both literally and figuratively.

Nope, none of this was interesting at all. There was none of that verve that came with the life or death struggle that was simply living day-to-day. Peace, it seemed, had made these people soft and pitiful.

Not to mention they were so dependent on technology to avoid getting their hands dirty. That disgusted him almost as much as suicide (well, he was a good Christian), a society that waged war by pushing buttons or never seeing the life fade from their enemies eyes as they bled out. It was just so...impersonal and lacking that human aspect.

Well, it would be best if he got down to business, he came to the conclusion, sliding into a darkened alleyway to allow him to work his magic unobtrusively . From both of his sleeves came a deluge of blood that seeped onto the ground for a time before it finally stopped. A few moments passed before the pools of blood began to rise from the ground and began to take shape.

It was a rule of the trade that any intelligent mage had familiars that could do their bidding and with hemomancers there was no exception to this rule. However, for him, his familiars were more exotic in that they were Eldritch abominations because he used them for psychological reasons generally.

From the rightmost pool emerged a dog, its eight red eyes gleaming before six of them closed. Baskerville, which he had given its name just recently, was his first and favorite of familiars, for a myriad of reasons, but foremost because the dog was an extension of himself both in the field and in combat.

The second pool didn't take any shape, instead it served as a doorway, out of which came hundreds of razor teether bats that attached themselves to everything.

And then they were both gone, disappearing into pools of blood to complete the mission he provided them.

Now, what could he do to kill the time?

Fated in Blood

In the end, he didn't have any time to kill. Instead, his familiars had made him aware that there was another Servant present in the area, which resulted in him pursuing them. Lo and behold, to his surprise, it was the same Servant-Homunculi tandem from his master's folder. In any other situation, he would have likely engaged his target, but he was curious. Why would a Servant be so blatant in showing their presence to make it easy for their fellow Servants to pursue them? Furthermore, just who was the Servant really?

That was the question that most interested him. Call it a whimsy, but being locked up for so long had left him a scratch that was hard to resist. How he longed for some combat, but he was cautious. He had a lot of time to learn caution after all, it would not do to have a repeat of the last time. So instead, he kept just outside the range of sensing and kept his familiars following them until they had led him to the docks and to another Servant that had deliberately made himself known.

As a result, he was rewarded with watching the blonde revealing herself to be of the Saber Class as she engaged one that was easily recognizable as a Lancer. Both fighters were quite capable in their own right, with Saber's hidden sword, and Lancer's cursed blades, it almost made him want to join in and make himself known. But there were others watching, he could feel it even without his familiars, so he kept to the shadows, a decidedly different move than than what would normally be expected of him.

Of course, he could eliminate all the flies that buzzed about, but where would be the fun in that. Life was a struggle and who was he to take it away without giving them a chance. Though, he could make an exception for the master of Lancer, the man was a maggot not even worthy of being dog shit with the way he treated his Servant.

Smirking, he started phasing into the ground, intending to deal with him posthaste when he had made his decision. Fortunately for that master, and unfortunately for him, that all came to a stop as yet another Servant showed himself, riding in on a chariot of all things. If it wasn't so curious he would be laughing at it the circumstances and the Servant, who had a teenager riding with him, obviously his Master, suddenly calling out all Servants to appear.

The question was should he? He honestly had no care for this Servant, if anything, he was stunned that this Servant was supposedly Alexander the Great. The Servant seemed to be nothing more than a loud-mouthed buffoon looking to suffer an early exit in the Holy Grail War.

Though, it seemed that someone did take exception to the challenge, made evident by the gold-clad Servant that had perched itself upon a lightpost to look down upon everyone. Talk about the ego on that one.

It was as the gold-clad servant began ranting about how he was the king of heaven and earth, did Alucard finally stir from his position, a wide smile breaking out on his face as Archer revealed his weapons and aimed them out towards the gathering.

Well, it's about time I get to join the fun, he thought to himself, finding himself looking forward to it, as he chose to go with his other mode of entry.

Fated in Blood

"That's his noble phantasm," Kiritsugu muttered, the NV scope of his Walther resting solely upon the new Servant as it prepared to attack. The entire battle had been continuously escalating since Lancer and Saber had entered combat with one another. First, with the appearance of the previously-believed-to-be-deceased Assassin, then the appearance of a Rider, and now the same Servant that had killed an Assassin last night.

His gaze dropped back to where the master of Lancer was, having finally made his appearance. He could eliminate him now and free up Saber to get Ilya out of there, but the problem laid with what the other Servants and their Masters would do in response to his assassination. Considering that they weren't armed to deal with Servants, it would likely not turn out well for them if the Servants chose to engage Maiya and himself.

It was as he was considering his options that his attention was ripped away as a bat flew by his head. At first he paid no attention to it, until his mind replayed the image that the bat had red eyes.

Red eyes, he immediately turned towards where he had seen the bat, but it was already gone as laughter reverberated throughout the docks and the bat he had seen before became thousands all coalescing into a point to the left of Gilgamesh, the laughter still growing before it finally ended and a single figure stood there, dressed in a business suit of all things.

"Am I late to the party," the figure asked, looking around, his orange-tinted sunglasses scanning over the various Servants with a smile on his face, "or am I just in time for the fun?"