I have adopted this fic from Melkor44 and the first 2 chapters are not mine in any way, shape, or form and all credit goes to him for the general timeline that was given to me. Know that I have simply copied these two chapters directly, including AN's after this and wasn't involved in producing them including beta'ing.
No, it's not Reign In Blood, but it's writing; after watching Blood+, I knew I was going to write something...I just didn't know what it would be. However, I've decided on this.
This is my answer to the age-old, "what could have been different about Saya freeing Diva," but with (in my own humble opinion) a very severe twist.
I'm also going to mess around some with the timeline, and tweak the powers of the Queens, but not very much.
Anyway, I think I'll just get on with it.
She was cold...bitterly, frostily, angrily cold. The rags she wore couldn't keep any heat inside of them, and this cage was only damning her to a fate worse than death. Her eyes, an impossibly deep shade of blue, began to glow; fangs protruded from her mouth, her face twisting into a macabre depiction of beauty, and she growled.
"Saya..." Her voice was graceful, even in such a harsh tone, and beautiful to listen to. "...please come back as quickly as you can. I don't want to stay here!"
It hopefully wouldn't be long before the other girl-her "friend," whatever the word meant-would return with a key to unlock the door of the room and she could get out. Saya had even given her a name, and it was the first thing that someone had actually given to her. Since before she could even remember, she'd been inside this tower; it was cold, it was lonely, and it made her sad.
That was when Saya had come along, when she was at her lowest...and it had, truly, been painfully joyous to hear another person's voice instead of simply seeing someone come in and leave.
"Saya...come back."
"Haji, I need you to stay here."
The dark-haired man looked at her strangely, as though she'd asked him to destroy the moon. For the two of them to be separate from one another was sheer insanity; they ate their meals together, went everywhere together, had played together as children, fenced together, bathed together, shared a bed, and had been absolutely inseparable-though such a thing hadn't initially been welcomed by either of them-since they had met.
"You know why I can't do that, Saya. I trust you, and I know you trust me, but I will not feel that you are safe unless I go with you."
"Please..."
He did not relent. "Absolutely not. Whatever is in that tower is clearly very important to you, and that makes it important to me as well; I promise, though I shouldn't need to, that I will keep whatever secret you seem to be so eager to hide from me."
Saya pouted, but knew that she couldn't hold out for long before the need to help her friend overrode all else. "Fine," she said, looking and feeling like a kicked puppy, "you can come with me."
With that said, he followed her as she ran up the tower. Even as he went, he noticed the strange colors of the place-roses of all colors except for white, pink or red wrapped around the yellow stones, and a black one in particular caught his eye-as well as the song that someone within this place had begun to sing. He listened to it, taking it in, and knew from years of playing cello that it was a perfect counter-melody to the piece that Saya had crafted.
'Could such a coincidence be possible?' He asked himself, charging forward until he was just behind Saya.
Her hands were trembling as she put the key into the lock...
"Diva!"
The singing stopped as her name was mentioned, and Diva looked over to find a beautiful girl with a handsome man behind her.
"Saya?" She squeaked. "Who's that?"
He looked directly at her, trying to remain at peace with himself. Joel kept a girl, let alone one who looked almost exactly like Saya, locked away inside of a tower? Or perhaps Joel didn't know about it?
"My name is Haji."
He was furious. There was no way that the two weren't sisters, and nearly identical ones at that-their only difference was in the color of the eyes; Saya's were a dark and mottled red, while Diva's were a deep blue...and Diva, dressed in nothing but torn and near-blackened rags, with barely enough of the scraps to maintain modesty, truly made him feel pity.
"You may be my friend, and I yours, if you wish."
'Well,' he supposed, 'there's no going back now.'
He almost smiled at the happy look that took over her face, and he did smile when he realized that Saya had opened the bars to the cage that kept her further penned inside.
"You're free now, Diva. Let's go."
"Wasn't I...wasn't I going to sing at some man's birthday party?"
"You were, that's right." Saya confirmed. "Until I found this."
It was a medium-sized book, with The Book of Joel printed on the cover; this was Joel's diary, and it detailed exactly what Saya-and Diva-were: twin sisters, of a race known as the Chiropteran, and Queens of said species. Their blood could turn humans into less powerful forms of Chiropteran, and could bring back the near-dead as Chevaliers who were between Queens and their subjects in terms of power; Chiropterans fed off of blood, be it human or otherwise, and were at their greatest power when they had recently taken in the blood of a Chevalier. Greatest of all the information contained within, however, was this: Queens did not need to sleep if they fed routinely
"Because of what we are, Joel lied to us and separated us. He betrayed me, he's hurt you, and someone needs to answer for it."
Haji's expression turned grim as he remembered what had happened at the cliffs, looking to his right hand.
"Feed on me, then. I am a Chevalier, and I will serve you until I die...you must be hungry, am I right?"
"Haji, what are you thinking?"
"You said that someone needs to answer for what Joel did; I'm simply bringing about the way to obtain such an answer."
Diva had already bitten into his neck before Saya could stop her, and released her hold on him a few moments later.
"It's your turn, Saya. You saved my life, and for that I am eternally indebted to you-take the power you need."
She wouldn't; her entire upbringing had raised her to believe that such a thing was base, immoral, and disgusting. Joel had-
Wait a second...why should she care about what Joel said? He'd separated her from her little sister, made that same sister suffer! Why would she listen to the teachings of someone who did something like that?
With more finesse than her younger twin, Saya drew blood from Haji; her eyes glowed, now a vibrant crimson of rage, and she simply leaped from the side of the tower all the way to the ground...Diva followed, beginning a game of chase that was really just a way to see who could reach Joel first-despite rarely using her legs to walk, she was actually outpacing her elder sister by several lengths.
Many minutes later, they arrived just outside of the main ballroom where the event was being held; Saya held a French sabre in her hands, while Diva didn't have any kind of weapon with her. A trail of bodies had already been made, and everyone not already inside of the ballroom-which only had one entrance-was already dead. Diva had been dressed up to match Saya, and their dresses were colored to match the other twin's eyes.
"And we enter...now!"
Haji arrived just as Saya struck down the door. "I'll guard the exit for you...do what you will."
She quietly whispered her thanks, charging off after her sister to begin the vengeance she would take.
Diva was simply ripping people apart, drinking their blood, and laughing; to her, this was what Saya had described as a "game." She loved the color that spilled out from them as they stopped moving, the color of Saya's eyes, and wanted to see even more of it. She felt herself grow warm on the inside, which made her feel even happier, and her eyes widened before she moved on...the only thing she didn't like was that they made so much noise before they were made to have silence.
Saya had foregone any notion of style, instead choosing to simply hack and slice away at people who were close enough to her; she was fast enough, and strong enough, to cut through most of them in one blow. The shock of their initial attack had essentially worn off, however, and people were starting to respond. Guns were fired, striking the twins...who promptly ignored them and simply continued killing the mass of people.
Haji simply sat at the entryway to the ballroom, killing anyone who attempted to escape, experimenting with the speed and power of his right hand.
Limbs were chopped and torn off, bodies were mutilated beyond all reason, and nothing could harm the pair so long as Haji's blood continued to circulate through them; eventually, amidst a room of corpses, a single man stood alone.
"Why...why would you do this, Saya? Was I not good enough as a father?"
"You lied to me." She said. "You betrayed me. You took my family away from me! YOU TOOK MY SISTER FROM ME! YOU USED US AS AN EXPERIMENT AND TO MAKE A MOCKERY OF US!"
She would not be appeased by anything less than his head...so she took it. Diva had her fill, of course, tilting his head back and draining him dry of blood, but Saya had to be symbolic and behead him with her sword.
"Haji, go load up the largest carriage we have with Joel's gold. Diva, come with me and I'll pack you some clothing to wear; Haji, I'll get your clothes and the cello as well. When everything is done, we're going to burn this mansion to the ground..."
The glow faded from the eyes of the twins as they moved, and Haji simply shook his head before moving to the treasury in the basement. It would surely take several trips to carry that much gold, and there wouldn't be nearly enough space to actually travel with all of it. He would do as Saya asked, however, because that was his self-appointed job and his duty as a Chevalier.
Saya and Diva moved to what had once been Saya's room, and then to the closet filled with everything from dresses and skirts to suit-coats and dress shirts.
"You and Haji shared this room?"
"Yes." Saya said as she continued to pack the clothing into her large suitcases. "Why does it matter?"
"It doesn't...I've just never shared a room with anyone, that's all. Do you like him?"
"Who, Haji?"
"Who else would I be talking about?"
Saya ignored her younger sister's last question. "I'm not sure. He's been my friend for almost as long as I've known him, and he's always been there for me, and we do everything together. I've just never really thought about it, I guess. He's never brought it up, and I've certainly never said anything, so I'm also uncertain of where he stands on this issue. I wouldn't say no to him if he chose to court me, but neither will I go out of my way to get him to make advances on me."
"I think that makes sense. It's clear that you two like each other, but it may only be as friends-I'm certainly not one to judge!"
The pair laughed, and continued to pack all through the night.
When they were finally ready, at long last, Haji had come up to them and told them that he was finished as well; he'd managed to make everything fit snugly, and there was room under the seats of the carriage for the things which they had packed. They made their way down, with Haji lighting fires as they went, and left the place as the light of dawn peeked upon the burning blaze that was the Zoo.
I'm unsure of whether this will remain a one-shot, but for now just think of it as complete... I'm also not very fond of how the writing went with this, so I'll probably re-work it at some point.