Disclaimer: I do not own Trinity Blood or its characters. They are the creation of Yoshida Sunao. I do, however, own my own characters. This is the sequel to A New Star.

This is a slight rewrite of my earlier story of the same name. I will be concentrating most of the action in Rome instead of spreading it over Europe and the Near East. Not much screen time for Seth, Asta or the other Methuselahs from Byzantium. There may be appearances by the Albionians on the cards though.

Chapter 1

"Good morning, Father," the novice nun Anastasia Flamevogel greeted the silver-haired priest as she brought in the tea tray. "Good morning, Count." The pile of blankets on the cot-bed in the corner let out a grunt. Ion had been up the night keeping watch on the city in light of the mysterious disappearances the late Vaclav may have been investigating. Even with the increased Inquisition patrols and back-up form the Papal guard units, no unusual activity had been noticed. After two months of quiet, the patrols were cut back.

It has been three months since Esther's strange, almost fey, grandchild came to Rome with them. She had been easily accepted at the new orphanage Mother Eris set up in the former AX offices. Eris had recruited some future AX operatives in the form of several scrawny orphans. Of course, they were too young for any missions. For now, they were lodged in the dorms and took lessons in the schoolroom. Anastasia proved herself invaluable in the schoolroom as an assistant to Father Peter or Mother Eris.

"Any luck?" Ana asked. Abel shook his head as he stirred his thirteenth cube of sugar into his tea. "No trace of the missing nuns or children was ever found." He pored over a map of Rome and twirled his pen. The red-haired novice peered at the crosses that littered the map. They marked where each nun or child who had disappeared lived.

"Have you written to Cecil or your grandmother?" Abel attempted to change the topic.

"I have replied to Cecil's last letter. Grandmother is too ill to write recently. The incident three months ago in Albion took out a lot of her. Cecil writes that she is fading fast."

"Do you wish to return to Albion?"

"No, I will not be going back to Londinium. I don't want to go back to watch Grandma… die. I don't like the way Cecil's letters are written. They sound so… distant." Was it just him or was there a tinge of regret in the former princess' voice. "Maybe Uncle Virgil screened them. He is that meddlesome," she shrugged and twisted the end of her plait. Is it just me or is there a concentration of cases about St Helen's?" Anastasia steered the conversation back to the disappearances.

"Not really…" The cases were scattered throughout a large district populated by several churches and chapels dedicated to various saints. "The Church of St Helen." Abel frowned as he contemplated the map. Until recently, their work had taken Ion and him away for months on end. He had not exactly been in touch with the happenings in Rome.

"Three from St Mary's Convent, two from Our Lady of Peace, one each from Mary of Magda's and the Holy Infant…" he rattled off the list he had memorized by now.

"Most of those institutions attend mass at St Helen's," Anastasia concluded. "I have been speaking with the sisters and children from them."

"Ana, please take care. We do not know whether your resistance to UV light is temporary…" It would be deadly if Anastasia's Methuselah heritage betrayed her in the sun. Abel forced the terrible image of Esther's grandchild going up in smoke under a noonday sun away from his mind.

"I will stay in the shade," she smiled sweetly. "Another bit of information… The priest at St Helen's is new. The last priest left on a retreat to Bavaria, about three months ago."

"Father Ivan?" Abel had heard of the priest from his fellow AX members, especially Vaclav. Father Ivan was a charismatic preacher with looks that sent many a young nun's heart a-flutter. Ana nodded. "I understand that he is very popular. Friendly, charming, a good listener… I believe many sisters bear a little torch for him," Ana added. Their newest team member had been working hard for her keep. "I would be interested to see this Father Ivan. Excuse me. I must go help Thomas with breakfast for the little ones, since Mother Eris is taking a trip to Albion. Would you be joining us for the field trip to the Vatican Museum, Father?"

"Eris is going to Albion?" Ion yawned as he stuck his head out of his blankets. Ana nodded. "She is taking Faith of the healing hands to St Bartholomew's to see if she could be of any help to Father Hugue." Abel nodded sagely. Faith was a gem. Eris found the sickly orphan in a children's home. That little one was blessed with an uncanny ability to heal. Over the past month, she has already proved her powers with the various injuries among her fellow orphans and even Father William to some extent.

"Faith's fragile. Mother Eris will have her hands full, even with Tres to help her," Abel observed. They were interrupted by a sharp rapping on the door, screams and a series of ear-burning curses from Thomas.

"Father Abel! Lil set fire to her sheets last night, the twins are levitating the cutlery and Teensy is playing the pied piper with the rats of Rome! Father Peter and Sister Carmen are off to see Father William so I need help here!"

"Let me take care of that. Excuse me," Abel wiped his mouth with his napkin and left the room. The two Methuselahs glanced at each other.

"Ana, did you sleep with the light on again?" Ion asked warily. Ana nodded. "Did those shadows…"

"No sight of them." Ion let out a sigh of relief. Esther had mentioned the previous attack by those mysterious shadows. A fear of the dark is no way for a Methuselah to live, even if Anastasia had a legitimate reason for it. He hoped Ana would overcome her fear eventually. "I am still afraid of the dark."

"Ana, if you are scared, I could hold your hand," Ion ventured.

"Thank you, Count. But you are not Uncle Cecil…" Ana replied enigmatically. "Trust me not, Count. I'm not Grandmother." Her eyes took on an icy blue cast.

"Poor, poor child," Cardinal Benedictia of the diplomatic corps murmured as she stood on the Rome train station platform. She was dressed in plainclothes. She dabbed at her eye with her lacy handkerchief. The 'poor child' was heavily bandaged and veiled because of her injuries from the fire that had claimed the lives of her foster family. She shied behind her companion. Benedictia sighed. How she wished it were not so and she could look into the eyes of the baby she had left behind so many years ago. "Father Ivan, I appreciate your kindness…"

"It was my duty, your Eminence," Ivan bowed. "Sister Hilda should see the young lady to get some rest." With aforced smile, the sister bobbed a curtsy and hurried her charge into a waiting automobile.

Rome. He had been assigned to Rome, with out of all people, Ivan Iscariot Flamevogel and that little blond bitch who had fed on him.

"I know it is hard, but bear with it. You make a lovely nun," his mentor had smirked when they presented him with his cover of 'Sister Hilda'.

"Take care of Lorelei or else," the new Flamberg warned him. Under the voluminous veils and billowy robes she favoured, the Countess Scheherazade was a very well-proportioned female with a dusky complexion and raven tresses. Isaak appeared a tad awkward around her, a rare thing for the Panzer Magier. Isaak has been around loads of beautiful women in his time, but as far as Dietrich knew, none of them had discomfited him so much.

"Why me?" Dietrich winced when Isaak gripped his arm tightly. "Because Cain says so. He feels no pressing need to rectify the issue of your existence so far. Would you like to have your innards splattered over the walls?" Point taken.

Send Flamberg aka the Countess to Albion to work on sowing discord in the Westminster Parliament, send a little she-vampire to Rome to kill the Pope. How typical of their Master. Who suggested these little deceptions by any chance? Provoke the Terrans sufficiently and they will declare war on the Empire. Isaak gets stuck nursing Master Cain's injuries back in Berlin, for now.

Surely they must have some folks working in the Empire? The Empire was always on the verge of rebellion. Discontented nobles like the late Barvon abound, ripe for the picking. Ditto for discontented Terrans. There were rumours that the Head of the Secret Service are on her last legs after surviving an assassination attempt. How on earth did Scheherazade bungle that assassination? He had glimpsed a picture of Mirka Fortuna once. A willowy female, she was already old for a Methuselah.

The plot to kill the Pope was surprisingly complex. If it worked, AX and her allies would be disgraced, the Church and west Europe thrown into chaos. Credit went to their erstwhile Father Ivan and the Pilot.

"There was a sister who had a love child," Scheherazade smiled when she related the tale. "She left her child with a good family in a little village while she went on to become cardinal. Sadly, a fire swept through their home, killing all in the family save the cardinal's daughter … What should a neglectful mother do? Seek out her child to make amends?"

It was a stroke of good fortunate the Cardinal Benedictia had entrusted that particular task to Father Ivan aka the Orden's Shadowmaster. The Orden was not one to turn up an opportunity to strike at the heart of the Church.

Father Ivan located the cardinal's daughter in a Bavarian orphanage and promptly sent her to the loving embrace of her foster family with his shadows. Dietrich had witnessed it. Cain had seen fit to assign him and his Auto-Jaggers to Bavaria to back up Ivan. One minute the child was curled up in her cot, a little girl about ten with blond curls and rosy cheeks. There was no struggle, no cries. The shadows simply engulfed the child. When they dispersed, they only left behind an empty cot. Ivan then left the dirty work of silencing the other twenty orphans and their five nun caretakers to him and his Auto-Jaggers.

Dietrich had decided back then that he hated the Flamevogel twins. The only consolation was that Ivan's twin, Dimitri, would never bother him again. Too bad he left behind a little red-haired tea-poisoning vampire…

"I'm hot…" Lorelei whined softly. "Take off your veil and fry," Dietrich whispered. He found that girl annoying.

"You're mean." Lorelei kicked Dietrich's skirts. "Fraulein Lorelei, don't play with your food," Ivan sneered as he took the wheel and started driving towards the guest house the cardinal had prepared for her daughter.

Author's Notes:

Yes, the sequel's up. Hopefully, it will be more edgy. Dies Irae means Day of Wrath in Latin, which coincidentally has been the language of the Catholic Church for more than a millennium. They still use it in today's Vatican although the Mass are conducted in English or the local language. In the Vatican City, most folks use Italian. In the Trinity Blood universe, it appears that the lingua vernacular in the Vatican appears to be Latin.