Part Two

My head hit the ground. Was I dead? No, I could feel everything. I groaned, holding my head as I sat up. What happened? My armour was gone and something was clutched in my hand. A stem... the rose!

Crouching then hesitantly standing up, I looked around only to be met with dark stone, barely illuminated by something, but there were no candles or torches on the walls or hanging from the ceiling. In fact, the light wasn't even coming from the stone at all.

The light was for sure below me, so I looked down only to see that the rose, still clutched in my metal right hand, was glowing. The source of light was the rose.

I grasped the stem of the rose tighter, the sharp thorns scratching against my metal palm. I still didn't know exactly what happened and how I got down here, but I couldn't lose my only source of light. Reaching out to gently graze the stone wall with my left fingers, the coldness of it seeping through my body, I began to slowly pad along, using the wall and the glow from the rose as my guides.

It seemed to go on forever. My boots, crafted out of titanium for my feet alone by yours truly, echoed off the also stone floor. Would this stone hall ever end? Finally, it did. I raised my right hand, the metal one, to have the rose's glow illuminate what awaited me. I found three tunnels, all carved with the same dark stone as the hall. The floor was still stone and the tunnels were identical. Maybe my artificial eye's functions would work down here... Never mind. No such luck. Alright, guess my only other option was to just pick a tunnel since I couldn't use technology to differentiate the differences between them.

Lifting my other hand, I closed my eyes and pointed at one of the tunnels. Opening my eyes, I saw that the tunnel I was pointing at was the one on the right. Okay, that was the tunnel I was going down.

At the start, I marched down the tunnel, now confident I was going somewhere; however, I then heard something that made me stop abruptly. Ghastly moans filled the air, and with them floated lost souls. They were coming straight toward me!

I froze, not knowing what to do as I grasped the rose desperately. Suddenly, one of them leapt at me. How could these... things even do that? It came up so close to me, but I couldn't move. I was frozen, tensed-up in that one place.

"S-s-s-siss-ster," the soul hissed. Sister? Only Ichiru called me that... Oh, my God.

"No, no, no! This is not happening. You... you are not Ichiru!" I panicked, now moving, backing away from this creature.

I jumped, however, when I felt a clammy coldness down my neck. Another one of those things. This time, it hissed my name by my ear. If the first one that spoke was supposed to be Ichiru, was this one trying to be Zero?

"Stop pretending to be my family!" I exploded. "Ichiru... Zero... They are not dead! You are just imitations of them, and I... I will not stand for it."

As I did my best to stay firm and demanding, the souls imitating my brothers stared into my eyes with their bottomless empty sockets. They then moaned once more and withdrew, a mysterious fog drifting in as they did. The fog disguised the rest of the souls, only their silhouettes visible. Then, and then, I fainted.

When I woke up, the rose was gone and so was the tunnel. I looked at my right hand, now covered by the glove. It was night-time, the full moon magnificently luminous through the window. I was on the floor... in the Moon dorm. How did I get there?

What happened with the lost souls was unbelievably lucky, but I wasn't sure that lucky would happen again.

Deciding to investigate what in the world happened, I pushed myself off the floor and strode away. Kaname would know what was going on for sure.

When I got there, however, what I witnessed shocked me. Kaname was on top of Ruka, fangs deep in her neck as her head was tilted back, their eyes closed as he drank her blood. It didn't make any sense. They hadn't been together for years now. Could it be... Was this a memory? That didn't stop my heart from clenching, however.

What shattered my heart into an infinite amount of pieces, though, was not that, but something else.

As I staggered away from the memory, feelings stirred from deep within, the air seemed to warp, time twisting into something that would only happen with a traitorous best friend. I stumbled, not able to hold onto anything for balance as everything shifted. When I was stable once again, I was met with a horrendously heart-breaking sight to behold.

Kaname, the Pureblood vampire I loved, was lip-locked with Yuki, my best friend who turned out to be a Pureblood vampire and Kaname's betrothed. Guess my luck with love sucked, even if my luck with family didn't and I got to save Zero and reunite with Ichiru. My younger brothers are whom I really needed to protect.

Everything spiralled downward from there if that was even possible. I was sucked into a void of gruesome memories and nightmares, each one flashing by one by one. The first one was that day. The night my parents died and Zero and Ichiru disappeared.

Thunder crashed and lightning flashed outside. I couldn't sleep, so I cuddled with our parents on the couch. Zero and Ichiru were in bed, comforting each other like usual. All of a sudden, the front door slammed open and a particularly bold flash of lightning illuminated her silhouette. Our parents gasped, jumping up and drawing their weapons. I was confused until the woman bared her fangs.

Vampire.

A Pureblood vampire, in fact. It took me a little longer, but then I sensed the unusual scent, mixed with their incredible power, that only Purebloods had. She lunged and our parents dodged, but even they, two of the best hunters, were no match for a vengeful Pureblood. There was rage burning like fire in her eyes. Whatever had happened, this female Pureblood was out to kill.

"No!" I screamed, jumping in front of our parents just as she was about to strike. She paused for a split second, allowing me to brace myself, and then the blow came.

I screamed and screamed as I felt her hand in my eye and when she took it out, I couldn't see out of my left eye. Holding my right hand to my eye, the only thing I felt was the stickiness of blood. When I saw out of my other eye what she held in her hand, I couldn't suppress my horror. As she laughed evilly and uncontrollably, her hand covered in my blood, I saw it. There it was. Pinched between her forefinger and thumb, was my left eye. The one that was missing.

She didn't just stop there, however. Although our parents protested, she dropped my eye and, using the same hand, sliced off my right annex at the elbow in a flash. My fore, the hand still connected, dropped from where it was up against my empty eye socket to the floor, blood spurting from the stump like an erupting volcano. I didn't have any screams left in me. As a fourteen-year-old at that time, it was too much to experience.

My body dropped like a stone straight to the floor. I couldn't move, but out of my right eye, I saw the female Pureblood as she moved to my parents. In one fluid motion, she ripped apart both of them brutally, blood splattering against the walls. I couldn't watch.

I was going through it all over again. It was happening. Locked in my worst memory, I didn't even notice time was twisting again until light brightened the world, driving away the darkness. Uncovering my face and looking up, I gasped in happiness. Standing in front of me where I had collapsed, was Zero.

"Zero, my little brother... you're alive! You're okay," I breathed, my voice still hoarse from all that crying and screaming.

"But, Jade... I'm not okay," Zero cried softly.

My mouth opened slightly. What was wrong? Who hurt Zero? I soon got my answer.

"You didn't save me, Jade. Why didn't you save me?" Zero's voice broke.

What? I went on the quest that the dream told me about... Why wasn't Zero saved? Why couldn't I protect them? How did I fail?

My tear-stained face, which had broken into a content smile, contorted into an expression of despair. Someone came up behind Zero, identical to his shadow. Ichiru!

Something was happening. Ichiru, now in the light, was fading as he moved closer to Zero. By now, the sides of their bodies had merged together.

"Zero, Ichiru? What's happening?" I asked the both of them.

"Jade..." Zero murmured. Only a small part of them was left separated.

"Sister..." Ichiru murmured. Zero and Ichiru fused into one.

"Save us, Jade!" they pleaded. Unison, their pleas continued. I reached out to them, to comfort them, to promise them, but they too warped away.

I jumped up, running after them. I wouldn't lose them. Not again. I was too late; however. By the time I got to where they were, the light had already been replaced by the orphanage where I spent my life after that female Pureblood attacked. My little brothers were gone and I was destined to be forever alone, having not saved them. I didn't deserve to be a Kiryu. I was a disgrace.

The orphanage was cold and exposed, with occasional sounds of abuse amidst the darkness. I was lucky, I never got beaten. I kept my secret completely hidden and never spoke unless spoken to, but I did witness the mistreatment of others.

I felt my weightless body being picked up, sensed a Pureblood, and heard a soft voice that sounded eerily like Kaname's. I had to be dreaming. Kaname was with Yuki. He would never want me, a disgraceful human girl with cyborg parts. It was safe for me to confess to him, for it could only be a dream.

With the scent of fresh pine around me, I professed, "I love him. I love you, Kaname."

In my dream, Kaname answered back, "I love you, Jade. I have since I first met you and I always will. Please don't leave me. I can't live without you."