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Something half-heard, a voice drifting through decades of sleep: “Would you mind if I shared the cell with you, sir?”A child’s voice. A girl. Who?“Just for a bit, I thought…I imagined there might be something handy in here like a knight who’d protect me from the bad guys…” She’s in danger. From what? “Leaving a corpse down here for twenty years…what were you thinking, Father?”Father. A Hellsing, then?“I don’t want to die…I really don’t…”Good. A startling riot of noise, the door slamming open and men shouting and the girl shouting and a gunshot and——blood, hot rich human blood, her blood her soul her life—Awakening. Sight and smell and taste, knowledge from the blood that she is Arthur’s daughter and she is the rightful heir and she must not die. Rise up, seize the nearest man and rip him open, drink for strength and power to tear through the rest and see them fall like lumps of meat. Catch their bullets, hopeless fools with useless weapons. This one is also a Hellsing. Ah, Richard. The son Abraham never trusted. Leave him disarmed and bleeding but alive so the girl—Integra—can decide his fate as is her right.Kneel before her, not the knight she asked for but a dragon in the shape of a man. Look into her eyes. Though shocked and frightened, she looks back and does not quail. So young and so brave. Master.Richard shouts again, desperate in his failure. Even this wretched excuse for a Hellsing won’t accept defeat, it seems. Take the bullet meant for Integra, brief bee-sting spark of pain invigorating after such a long nap. Tell him he is unfit to be head of the family, make him realize it is Hellsing quality, not blood, that ensures loyalty. Wait for the order to kill him.Sudden movement as she grabs a dropped gun off the floor and levels it at her uncle. Oh, yes. She is wonderful. When she speaks, her voice is as steady as her aim. “What’s your name?”Courtesy, even now! Little one, you wanted a knight? You are a knight. “Alucard. That’s what your family has called me.” Your family, to say: I am your inheritance. I have seen what your forefathers could do. Show me what you will be, you who bears their name.She pulls the trigger.