AN: Hi, I haven't written fiction in ages, but the current turning point in Vampire Knight has so much potential that I just can't resist. This will probably be AU as soon as the next chapter of the manga comes out, but I plan to stick with this. Anyway, be kind, but let me know your thoughts.

I know parts of this are vague, but I'm intentionally leaving a few mysteries that will be revealed as things progress. But I appreciate feedback, so let me know if there are any gaping holes that make no sense.

Disclaimer: Not mine. Alas, none of them at all.

Spoilers: This will make a bit more sense if you're up to date with the manga, but if you're reading fanfiction, you're probably a fanatic anyway.

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*One year after the execution of the council*

Yuki Kuran resisted the temptation to look back for the source of the shoes tapping on pavement behind her. Instead she focused on Rima's back as it swung left and right, faster and faster through a maze of alleyways.

Rima's breath came out in soft huffs between pursed lips. How dare they make this task any more distasteful than it already was? Such vigorous exercise -- particularly down grimy, narrow pathways -- was not something Rima was fond of. She'd much rather be lounging on a couch, poking Shiki with a stick of pocky.

Then again, they'd all been doing things that were rather out of character these days. This mission, after all, was supposed to be Shiki's responsibility. But Shiki was somewhere in a hotel room, 20 miles behind them, nursing a stab wound to the gut and a scratch, a scratch, across his pristine, apathetic facial features. A model shouldn't have to suffer such injustices, and the corners of Rima's mouth twitched down into a frown.

'Glided into a frown,' she corrected herself. These were dark times, but a model had to maintain some sense dignity to hold herself apart from the rest of this godforsaken world.

As the racing footsteps behind them grew louder, Rima yanked Yuki into a faster run with a tight grip on the pure-blood princess' forearm.

What should she do? What would Shiki have done? Rima decided that when she saw him next they'd have to sit down and have a conversation, yes, with actual talking for extended periods of time. She loathed to waste her time chatting about something as dull as combat strategy (she could almost yawn just thinking about it), but the murderous vampires closing in on the duo were a clear sign that it would be useful knowledge.

She shifter her weight to her right foot as she veered left, blond pig tails whipping around and Yuki swinging behind like a kite on a thread. She swung Yuki right past her and shoved her ahead up a fire escape.

"Rima?"

"Up, keep…go up…have a plan," Rima replied as she backed up the first few steps.

As set of shadows rounded the corner and Rima unleashed a wave of daggers charged with a touch of crackling electricity. A few found their mark, but more figures flowed out of the alley.

She turned and began climbing after Yuki, throwing daggers each time she tuned up another flight of stairs. A burst of green energy sizzled past her hair.

Yuki paused her flight, wishing there was something she could do, but half-way up a building in some dank side street was no place for her Artemis Rod.

Both girls yelped as the stairs shook. With a burst of pureblood strength, Yuki broke off a piece of railing, cement from the wall still clinging to it, and she flung it at the vampires beginning to climb the stairs below. It shattered with the incredible force, sending shards of hot shrapnel at their pursuers.

'Doing things we aren't accustomed to, indeed,' Rima thought, as she vaulted up the last few flights.

They took off across the roofs. Yuki smiled as she spotted Rima out of the corner of her eyes – a blur of blond crouching then lunging forward to the next landing. Perhaps, if things ever got back to normal, Rima could do a ninja movie. She'd make one heck of a stunning, passionless ­­killer, although it might unhinge a mortal to see this sort of Rima, the sort even scarier than the one out of pocky. Yuki took a little pride in herself whenever she got a giddy little idea like this that would have been worthy of the old Yuki, a carefree school girl. She was happy to be properly at Kaname's side, but it all could have gone so much better.

With the council gone, the nobles had reached around blindly, grasping for a new equilibrium of power. The more they looked, however, the more the balance swung out of control like a pendulum picking up momentum with each stroke. Too many people had tried to plug the power vacuum at once, and the pure bloods had just sat back to watch the fun. Entire families had been burned to the ground, thousand-year-old households had been ripped asunder. A few pillars of power had emerged: an alliance of savage level E vampires rumored to have a brilliant leader looking to flip the scales of power, a group of second-tier nobles aiming to be the next council lead by a man named Otono, and a series of other mobs, many with pure bloods pulling the strings from backstage.

Yuki wanted Kaname to do something, but she never brought it up. She suspected that he must want to do something, too, that he almost regretted massacring the council. His enemies had seized on the action and declared him mad. He'd always been a little odd. What an eccentric thing, living alongside humans, and Ichiou had always implied he was rather ungrateful, hadn't he?

So Kaname watched from the shadows, protecting his sister and looking for an opening.

This scroll, in the bag clutched to Yuki's chest, was supposed to help nudge that opening a little wider. Kaname had been out looking for it when she had received an anonymous note, hinting it was nearby. She gone out alone and found it in a musty antique stall, on a shelf between a stuffed sparrow and a wooden globe. The blood red letters supposedly said something about ways to control humans. That was what all these groups seemed to be after.

Someone had followed Yuki back to the Kuran estate where she had been staying, and they'd just barely managed to get out of the flaming building. Shiki had gotten that lovely cut out of the mess.

Now they were headed to another Kuran estate -- Yuki had no idea which one -- and Shiki was to follow behind.

They didn't know which faction was following them, but it didn't really matter at this point. A glint on the horizon pulled her out of her drifting thoughts. What had it been, a few seconds of reflection?

Suddenly, Yuki was skidding to a halt and Rima stopped as well, spotting the dark shapes shooting up on the next roof. She turned only, so see them closing in from that side, as well.

'No,' Yuki breathed out. She shivered thinking what they might do to her. She'd heard that the level E vampires would rip into a pure blood and drink without regard for their status simply as a sign of defiance.

Yuki shifted and summoned her weapon. Rima straightened, knife clenched in hand. Someone screamed.

Thwack. Metal plenged into flesh. A slash across a neck, followed by a slurping gargle of blood. Hack. Shwing, Thunk. Thud.

Rima stood frozen, the same knife in hand. She hadn't moved. She tilted her head just to check that the cold presence to her side was indeed still Yuki. Neither of them had moved. Slash. Slash. Slash. Thud. Thud. Thud.

The shadows fell with the flash of a sword, lit by the orangey glow of far below streetlights. Rima caught a silhouette as it leapt and plunged its blade down through two shadows.

The figure paused and stepped toward the two girls. Yuki suddenly realized it was quiet. Were their assailants all dead?

"Kaname," Yuki sighed with a slight smile.

He must have sent someone after them, and Shiki must have redirected this vampire in their direction. The figure took another step.

"You shouldn't be here. The east end of town isn't safe anymore," a male's strained voice whispered.

Yuki stepped forward to respond, but Rima cut in front of her.

"Who are you?"

"Rima that's rude," Yuki spoke up, turning toward Rima.

"I'm sorry, my mistress would be displeased if I answered that," the man whispered again. The enemies were dead. Why did he keep whispering?

Yuki and Rima snapped their heads back toward their savior, a distinct uneasiness settling over them.

"It's good to see you though," another whisper.

Then he was gone.

"Wha…" Yuki stared at the empty space, only to realize the vampire was headed straight at her, no he was already passed her, then gone.

"Oooookay, that was odd," Yuki's breathing evened out and her muscles slowly relaxed bit by bit.

"Weirdo," Rima's voice took on its usual disinterested tone with just a trace of lingering edginess.

"Yeah, he.. Rima. Rima! It's gone, the scroll is gone."

Rima lazily turned to Yuki, but her eyes betrayed a pinch of fear.

"He took it, that, that, that … jerk took it!" Yuki was shaking on the verge of tears. Had she failed Kaname? What sort of vampire had the so called Scroll of Human Enslavement now? Who was that lone assassin – a rouge or a servant?

"Yuki, what's that?"

Yuki blinked and bent to pick up the little slip of paper at her feet. She read the scrawled writing. There were just two sentences and a little smudge of blood. It was the same handwriting that had been on the note that had hinted that the scroll was in the antique shop to begin with, and her heart jumped when she saw who it was addressed to.

"Kaname, Stay away from the sea. Mistress would be displeased and you might die."

It didn't make sense. There had been some rumors of dark goings on near the bay, but this was just ridiculously vague.

She turned to Rima, but Rima's eyes were still fixed on the handwriting. Did she understand something that Yuki had missed?

"Rima?"

Rima didn't budge.

"Rima? Hey, now…"

"Shiki..."

"What about Shiki?

"Shiki won't believe it."

"Won't believe what?"

"Takuma…"

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AN: Muahaha. What's going on? Next chapter we'll check in with Kaname, Kain and Aido to learn more about this dark future.

Anyway, read, review, you know the drill.