Disclaimer: I do not own Mai-hime/Mai-otome or their respective characters.

Author's Note: Since my other story Protect, Serve, and Love is nearing it's end, possibly 4/5 more chapters left. I wanted to throw this story out there. Do I have a general idea of where this story is going... kind of. It is still centered around Natsuki and Shizuru, but unlike my other story which was focused sort of on their relationship sole, this one will have other characters as well as parings and they will have more influence in the story. This story will be based in another universe.

If you've read my other story, you know that I like slow progression and the blossoming of individuality. Sorry, no love at first sight :) So some of you might find this story slow and mundane. Which is justifiable as some times when I write certain chapters I think to myself gosh how boring, but those chapters need to be expressed, to further the story along.

I don't like summary cause it doesn't do the story justice. :P As the audience you decide whether or not the story is to your liking and if you want to continue reading it or not.

So without further blah, blahing from me... We begin our story of Betrayal.

Fatigue and tiredness wearing her down, she fumbled with the doorknob before successfully opening the door to her two bedroom apartment. She painfully made her way towards one of the bedroom and slammed the door open. That course of action was not her intent, but she was in a state of urgency. The sound startled the individual in bed awake, and upon seeing who the intruder was the slightly awaken individual groggily asked, "Natsuki, what's going on?"

Natsuki squinted, trying her best to remain calm in her situation. She smiled and looked at the twelve year old girl who was in the process of rubbing the sleepiness from her eyes. Without responding Natsuki looked around her younger sister's room for some clothes. Upon seeing none, she moved to her sister's drawer and quickly pulled out pants, a shirt, a pair of socks and then headed towards her sister's closet and pulled a coat from it.

The younger sister now in a state of confusion pulled the blankets off of her and was in the process of getting out of bed when she was bombarded with clothes, along with Natsuki's stern voice, "Nina, change into the clothes quickly. No time to waste we have to leave."

Nina grabbed the clothes and did as she was told. She trusted her sister and at the moment she felt that the fewer questions she asked the better, even though her mind was ticking with questions she wished to voice, Something happened? Where's Rad, Akane, Kazuya and Gal?

Nina's thoughts of confusion quickly transformed into ones of worry, the moment she saw Natsuki slump against the door and onto the floor. "Natsuki," Nina yelled out of fear for her sister and ran towards her, kneeling down in front of Natsuki.

Natsuki could feel her energy slowly draining from her, and worrying her sister was not something she wanted to deal with at the moment. Taking a few deep breaths to catch her strength again, she placed her right hand onto Nina's left shoulder, "Help me up will ya, Nina." Nina nodded, steadying herself as she assisted in helping Natsuki to a stand the best that she could. Nina knew that she couldn't maintain her sister's full body weight, but she would try because Nastuki was the only family she had left. The second Natsuki stood up Nina wrapped her right arm around Natsuki's back, as her left hand went to support the front of Natsuki, just in case Natsuki fell. Oddly, as she tried to find a secure grip along Natsuki's front, she felt something sticky. She pondered, What did Natsuki get her self into? What is all this sticky stuff on her?, about the substance and tried her best to see what it was, but it was in the middle of the night and the room was near pitch black thus her attempt was futile.

Natsuki flinched from the pain, but quickly brushed it aside. She knew time was not on her side and her first priority was finding a safe haven. Grabbing the extra helmet that was hanging right beside the door, which she had purchased for her sister awhile back, she placed it onto Nina's head causing Nina to squeal in fright, "Natsuki, what the…?"

Natsuki softly chuckled but quickly grimaced inwardly cursing, Fuck, chuckling is bad, no chuckling.

The siblings slowly made their way down the stairs and out the apartment building without causing any suspicion or commotion. Then again, it was one in the morning, so it was likely that, everyone was in the realm of Morpheus or too wasted to care about their presence.

Upon reaching Natsuki's motorcycle, Nina grabbed Natsuki's helmet and pushed it onto her sister's head causing Natsuki to utter, "Thanks kiddo."

Nina smiled, letting go of Natsuki so that Natsuki could get onto the motorcycle first. Waiting for Natsuki to situate herself on the motorcycle before she, herself got on it. When it suddenly dawned on her that they were out in the streets. Wondering what the sticky substance was, she lifted her left hand into the illuminating light from the lamp post and gasped in stupor, unable to fathom if what she was seeing was actually what she was thinking, This is blood, Natsuki's blood. My sister's blood. Natsuki's bleeding? Why is she bleeding?

Nina tensed when Natsuki startled her by placing a hand on Nina's shoulder, "Let's go kiddo, we got to get out of here." When Natsuki didn't hear a response or see any reaction from Nina she asked out of concern, "What's wrong Nina?"

Nina turned to Natsuki her left hand slightly raised and she questioned on the verge of tears, "Why are you bleeding?"

Natsuki looked at Nina's blood covered hand, then went and opened the left side of her jacket, looking down she sighed. The handle of the knife was still protruding from her shoulder, while the other end was still impaled there as well. Her eyes trailed down her chest following her own trail of blood that was now soaking her left side. After escaping the incident she had left the knife alone, knowing full well that if she pulled it out, she'd most likely be dead from blood loss. Given the situation she could understand her sisters confusion, as she looked at Nina who was now in tears, causing her to sigh, "It's not that bad, it's worst than it looks Nina. Now hop on, we have to go."

Nina sniffles and nodded, crawling onto the motorcycle before wrapping her arms securely around her sister's waist, trying her best not to inflict anymore pain to Natsuki. Nina figured out that if there was a knife protruding from her sister's shoulder, then most likely she was hurting else where too. The gesture didn't go unnoticed as Natsuki inwardly smiled, starting up the engine of the motorcycle before speeding off into the night heading away from the city.

xxxxxxx

She yawned and looked at the clock situated diagonally at the right end corner of her desk, slightly surprised that it was nearing two in the morning. Shrugging off the time she went to pick up her cup of tea, sighing upon noticing that the tea had gone cold, while she had been engrossed in her task. Yet, she pondered, I could always wake Mai up. However, it is rather late at the moment. She concluded after her little discussion with herself, that she would manage for the moment without her tea hot. Sipping on her tea, she inwardly stated, It's not the same, but it will have to suffice.

She didn't flinch or show any reaction when a voice blurted, "Boo!" She could hear the individual who attempted in startling her sigh, "Look Viola, it's not fair when you cheat."

She smirked from the comment and played stupid, "I have no idea what Juliet is referring too. And if Juliet would not mind, I'd like for her to…"

Juliet interrupted slightly irritated, "Yeah, yeah, yeah I hear you. You know you have to stop doing that though, it really isn't fair."

Shizuru placed her cup of tea down on her desk, looking up she saw Juliet sitting on one of her seats with her legs stretched out, her foot comfortable on top of the coffee table, "Juliet knows very well that I do not cheat."

Juliet scoffed, "Look Shizuru, you know very well that with your...," she paused wondering if she really wanted to get into a discussion with Shizuru, internally thinking, That Viola, I might be able to outwit her. Sure you can Juliet, like last time. True, but last time she… Ah she's probably…

Shizuru chuckled causing Juliet to grunt, "Juliet knows full well that, that is not my intent."

Juliet exasperated slumped back into her seat, "I didn't come here to discuss that. I just wanted to report back to you before calling it a night." When Juliet didn't hear a response from Shizuru she started talking, "Apparently something big happened in Windbloom tonight. From what I gathered from my informants, it was a heist that went south. First District is taking responsibility and credit for taking down the notorious DS group."

This time Shizuru interrupted, "Juliet is talking about the Duran Specialist group, am I correct?"

Juliet nodded before explaining, "Yeah, they're supposed to be like a modern day Robin Hood group who prides themselves on stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. What I don't get is why give what you stole away. If it were me I would've kept it."

Shizuru cleared her throat, "Unlike Juliet some of us are not greedy."

Juliet laughed, "It's not called greed Viola. It's called keeping what you find as your own, and besides if I put all the effort in to it, I'm going to keep it."

"That is precisely why Juliet is working for me. Now if she would be so kind as to continue on with her report." Shizuru calmly stated prior to sipping her tea, causing Juliet to smirk, "Sure thing Viola. So the DS's target was a very rare sapphire. Unfortunately, something went wrong and they got caught."

Juliet paused then pondered about it for a few seconds before rewording her last statement, "No, make that, they all got killed, except for Kruger. Kruger's whereabouts are unknown. So First District is tearing the town inside out to find that person. What I can tell from my very intuitive senses is that either they weren't that good, at what they were doing or they got set up."

"And why would Juliet say something like that," Shizuru commented wanting to hear her thoughts behind the remarks.

Juliet shrugged, moving her hands to place it behind the back of her head; her eyes focusing on the ceiling while her thoughts worked themselves out, "Well, the DS group has been around for what…5 years. Given when the citizens first heard about their heist it wasn't anything big. Stealing is nothing new. However, they continued their heist and each one being tougher than the next. Some of their heist, in my opinion were too risky to try and pull off. And you know me Shizuru I'm a risk taker. This latest heist should have gone without a hitch. And don't tell me they got sloppy, these thieves seem to pride themselves on their ability to handle the job. So my end conclusion is that they got setup."

"It would seem someone wanted them eliminated." Shizuru spoke out of the blue. However, before Juliet could respond Shizuru spoke again rather calmly, "And… it would seem we have guests. Would Juliet be so kind as to accompany me to greet the guests?"

Juliet stood up slightly irritated, "You see that's what I'm talking about. You are a cheater Viola." Shizuru stood up from her seat and slightly stretched her body before smiling, "I have no idea what Juliet is referring too."

xxxxxxxxxxx

Nina managed to drag the unconscious Natsuki towards the wall before slumping against it in exhaustion. She tried to calm herself, while listening to the raindrops hitting her helmet, That was way too close for comfort, she mentally told herself. A few minutes after regaining her composure she took off her helmet and Natsuki's helmet to check on the status of her sister. Nina sighed in relief, when she could see Natsuki's warm breath in the cold rain, but she also knew that her sister was in trouble and she needed help. Nina stood up and tried to get her bearings, to her left was where they came from, to the right was where they were headed and not too far in front of her was a gate. She knew she had no other option but to ask whoever it was that resided on this estate for some help. Tears mixed with rain flowed down her cheeks when she recalled the near miss they recently just had. Wiping the tear mixed rain from her face she stalked off towards the gate.

After leaving the city limits of Windbloom, the two had remained silent, yet Nina knew that Natsuki could not continue in her current condition, so she yelled out that they needed to go somewhere. Natsuki really didn't know where to go and her goal was just to get as far away from Windbloom as they could.

They were thirty minutes outside of Windbloom when it started raining. Natsuki knowing she was slowly loosing her consciousness had slowed the speed of the motorcycle. Nina knew that something was up the moment Natsuki started slowing down, then fifteen minutes later, Natsuki started swerving. Natsuki was having a hard time concentrating on the road which was slowly starting to blur for her. She was using all of her remaining strength just to remain awake, she wasn't able to hear her sister calling out for her to stop. In her last moment of thought Natsuki faintly heard Nina yell out her name.

Nina yelled for five minutes for Natsuki to stop and when Natsuki's body when slack in her arms, Nina reacted as fast as she could and tried to keep Natsuki steady, while reaching for the handles. Yet she was too far back to reach for the handles so she grabbed onto Natsuki as securely as she could around the waist and pulled the two of them off the motorcycle before it skidded across the street. Nina's head slammed against the hard pavement and Natsuki's weight knocked the wind out of her as they rolled twice before coming to a complete stop in the middle of the road. Grasping for air she managed to squirm out from underneath her sister's weight.

Her predicament now was to find some means of shelter and help. So here she stood in front a big gate with an emblem of multiple snakes intertwining with one another smack dab in the middle and it was locked. She glanced around, noticing a name on a plaque that was nailed to the wall near the left gate. She approached it so that she could make out the name in the dark and it read, Kiyohime Estates. Nina shook her head, telling herself she had to focus. Running towards the motorcycle, she knew Natsuki always kept a spare set of tools for picking locks under the seat. Scrounging around as it was too dark and the rain making it hard for her to focus, after a brief minute she finally found what she was looking for.

When she got back to the gate she went straight to work, a few minutes later she heard a click and she smiled. Inside she was gloating, Glad I made Natsuki teach me how to pick locks. Her moment of victory short lived, she pushed the gate open just enough, so she could drag Natsuki through without hurting her anymore than necessary.

Nina made it half way up the road towards the mansion when she fell on her knees in exhaustion. Breathing heavily she looked at Natsuki. She had no choice but to leave her sister behind, run as fast as she could and beg whoever owned this place to help her. Nina's head was pounding from the impact of falling off the motorcycle, but she quickly pushed it aside. With her decision made, she checked on her sister and made her sister as comfortable as she could underneath the shelter of a tree. Satisfied by her work she stated to Natsuki, knowing full well Natsuki couldn't hear her, "I'll be back Natsuki, just hang in there, please…" Nina's voice started wavering as she burst into tears, "I don't want to be left alone."

Her moment of outburst was brief. Quickly wiping her tears away, she took off her coat and placed it on Natsuki, hoping that the coat would add some extra warmth for her sister until she returned. Without a second thought Nina sprinted towards the mansion.

When she got to the mansion's door she was exhausted, relieved, overwhelmed, but all she really wanted was for someone to help her sister. She was on the verge of knocking when it swung open. She stood there dumbfounded, or in a state of shock, but she couldn't react. It was as though her mind was overloaded with too much and it just went blank in order to protect her mental state.

"Yo, squirt what's up?" Upon hearing those few words Nina broke and collapsed into none other than Juliet, muttering, pleading, crying, "Help my sister, please… if you don't she's going to die. I don't want her to die. She's all I have left. Please, she's bleeding to death. You have to help her. Please… please…"

After Shizuru and Juliet left Shizuru's office quarters, Shizuru had told Juliet to go and greet the guest, because she had to fetch someone else first. Juliet had been puzzled by her statement but brushed it off. Juliet wasn't sure if Shizuru meant greet the guest at the door or the gate. So she was in the process of heading out, and immediately after opening the door she was surprised to see Nina. What shocked her even more was when Nina clung to her pleading for her sister's sake, as though if she didn't cling tightly enough to Juliet, her sister would perish.

Juliet took a deep breath and by some odd miracle managed to pry Nina off from her waist, "Okay squirt. Just tell me exactly where your sister is."

Nina sniffled, "I left her on the driveway coming up to your mansion. I made sure she was comfortable and out of the rain underneath some trees. Please, she's hurt badly, you have to help her."

Juliet was about to speak when someone else spoke, "I already found her, she's about half way up the drive way, under a tree on your left side as you head out."

Juliet turned around raised an eyebrow upon seeing more than two people standing before her, "I thought you said you were only going to get one more person."

Shizuru was about to reply when the person standing next to her stated, "She did, but these two apparently woke up because someone broke onto the compound."

Shizuru softly spoke, "Juliet should retrieve her sister so that Yohko can tend to her, while I get acquainted with our other guest who seems to be on the verge of collapsing herself."

Nina looked between the five of them while they interacted, and before Juliet left she placed a hand on Nina's shoulder, "These nice people are going to look after you while I go get your sister alright."

Nina too exhausted simply nodded. Right now she was just thankful that there were people who could help her sister. After Juliet left the group to retrieve Natsuki, Shizuru had ushered Nina into the living room, which to Nina was huge, then again she had never really been inside a mansion before so she kept gawking at everything. After sitting down Nina suddenly felt completely drained, but before she was allowed to pass out Shizuru had some questions.

Shizuru sat down beside Nina, without wanting to startle or scare the girl she started with introductions, "My name is Shizuru Viola and I own this mansion and the estate surrounding this mansion. To my left are Yukino, Haruka and Yohko. Can you tell me your name?"

Nina looked at all of them her eyes were starting to get drowsy. Struggling to stay alert she replied sleepily, "Nina, my sister is Natsuki. Please don't let my sister die."

Shizuru noticing the state of the young girl decided the questions could wait, "Nina, we will do our best to help your sister. In the mean time you need to get out of those clothes before you sleep or else you will get sick. We wouldn't want to worry your sister now would we?"

Nina nodded and was escorted by Yukino out of the living room. A few minutes of silence and Haruka couldn't hold in her curiosity anymore exclaimed, "What is going on?"

Sadly no more questions or answers could be stated as Juliet barged into the living area, "Yohko, she's lost a lot of blood. You got to do something."

Yohko stood up, "Lay her down here and I'll see what I can do."

Juliet as best as she could, placed Natsuki on the couch. In between breathes she stated, "Found her leaning against a tree alright. There's a fucking knife that's stuck in her shoulder and I don't know if she had any other wounds because she's covered in blood."

Yohko went about her task in removing what clothing she could before ordering, "Juliet, I need you to grab some towels and a bucket of warm water. After I tend to her shoulder wound I need to clean up all this blood to see if there are any other wounds." After Juliet left Yohko stated to Haruka, "I need you to hold her down. There's a chance that she'll regain consciousness when I pull this knife out and I don't want her struggling too much." Then Yohko addressed Shizuru, "If she wakes I need you to calm her down, until she passes out again. Once that happens she most likely won't regain consciousness for awhile."

Shizuru raised an eyebrow, but nodded followed by Haruka. Yohko got on the couch and positioned her knees in between Natsuki's head, before placing both of her hands on the handle of the blade. She had to do it swiftly. Taking a deep breath she looked to Haruka who pretty much held Natsuki's hands down on the couch with her own, and had her body slightly across Natsuki's body just to be on the safe side.

The moment Yohko removed the blade from Natsuki's shoulder, Natsuki cried out in anguish, her eyes fluttering open. She was in pain, tired, and exhausted. Trying to focus on her surrounding, she struggled realizing she couldn't move. Blinking a couple times she noticed someone was pinning her down and someone was directly hovering above her. Unable to focus on her surrounding due to her fatigue she lashed out, whether it was in fear or anger, she wasn't sure, "Nina. Where is she? What have you guys done with my sister?"

"Natsuki should calm down. Nina is fine, she's sleeping." Shizuru stated, hoping that would suffice and for some odd reason Natsuki halted her struggling.

Natsuki swiveled her head in the direction of the person who spoke. Even though her eyes were being difficult and wouldn't focus for her, she could clearly see the crimson orbs of the person who spoke to her. Feeling her energy and strength slipping from her grasp Nastuki cleared her throat, "If you hurt her I will kill you."

Shizuru stared at Natsuki mesmerized by the emerald orbs that were overflowing with emotions even though the person was being defiant. Shizuru unflinching from the threat calmly replied, "Nina is safe and so is Natsuki, rest now and we will talk more when Natsuki is healthier."

Natsuki captivated by the crimson orbs that seemed to see through to her very being didn't really register what was said. She blinked a few more times before succumbing to her blood loss and exhaustion.

Yohko continued on her task immediately after Natsuki lost consciousness and Juliet having witnessed the confrontation softly chuckled, "Wow, didn't think I'd see someone live after threatening you like that Viola."

"Since Juliet is still very much alive, she should know I am not some sociopathic killer." Shizuru responded as she stood up from where she had been kneeling then add, "I leave the rest to you Yohko and Juliet should tend to their means of transportation. We wouldn't want someone finding it now," but was interrupted briefly before she could finish by Haruka, "Yukino and I will tend to the premises."

Shizuru smiled, whether it was due to the fact that Haruka despised being told what to do or by the fact that she was fatigued and really just wanted to sleep, yet the arrival of these siblings especially in their current state had piqued her interest.

To be continued...

Are you all lost yet... :) It's a start, and more characters will be introduced in the next chapter. Hopefully you all enjoyed it. Thoughts, comments and reviews are always welcomed. Writing is a means of expression, so your thoughts, comments and reviews are your expression, which speaks volumes about you or so I think. ;)

Updates will be sporadic, so you'll all just have to be patient. My focus is on my other story.