Chapter 4
1984, Bordeaux
"You mean to say that these… monster things are a new form of vampire?" Joel exploded, standing as his hands slammed down on the desk. The desk trembled and splintered from the force, but David, standing compliantly in front of said desk, did not even bat an eyelid.
"Chiropteran," He corrected. "These 'monster things' are a new form of chiropteran. From what we can tell, they are the Chiropteran's version of our Level-E's, only they haven't fallen to their state; they simply seemed to transform directly from humans into these… chiropterans." David answered; the hand that reached up to loosen his tie the only sign of just how stressful he was finding the whole situation.
"Well why on earth are they doing that?" Joel exclaimed, sitting back down again with a thump. David cleared his throat, and Joel's eyes instantly shot up to his partner's poker face in suspicion. "What is it? Why are the humans transforming?"
"The most traditional method out there. Blood transfers." Joel's eyes widened.
"You mean… it can't be Saya?" Joel whispered, and David shut his eyes, shaking his head. "Then… it can only be…"
"The only other chiropteran we know of; her sister. Natsuki Diva Otonashi, correct?" David opened his eyes once more, his face abruptly business like. "I don't suppose you know why she would have a motive for doing this?"
"No. From what I've heard and seen of her, she's a perfectly charming, quiet young girl." Joel replied, shaking his head in turn as he tried to process the information. "Perhaps superiority issues? After all, wherever she is, I'm willing to bet that she has discovered that she isn't human… we kept it from both Otonashi sisters, you see. Perhaps Natsuki is vexed by this, and wants to take her revenge?"
"No!" Both men looked around, startled, as Saya burst into the room, glaring angrily with Hagi in tow. Joel rose from his desk frowning severely, and opened his mouth to reprimand her when she continued. "Natsuki would never do something like that! She's gentle, and she hates violence and blood! How could she create blood-sucking monsters like the ones outside?" She yelled, and both David and Joel gasped and wheeled round to scan the street below from the window.
Silence reigned for a few moments, punctuated only by the sound of Saya's angry breathing, before sure enough, several chiropteran beasts came lumbering up the road; bigger and bulkier than a human, with elongated snouts sporting arrays of sharp teeth, they were almost like giant bats with no wings. Saliva drooled from their gaping maws, the yellow orbs of their eyes glistening even in the meagre light of the smoggy morning.
"I don't suppose it crossed your mind to mention the fact that there are hungry chiropterans coming up the drive earlier?" Joel asked tightly, as David reached into his jacket for his gun; long and sliver, engraved with its name: Bloody Rose. Saya had the decency to look slightly ashamed, a small blush gracing her cheeks as she stammered.
"Well... I-I don't suppose I really... took it in?" She half asked, as David rushed past her, the gun held at the ready. Hagi stepped in front of Saya gently to make sure David didn't crash into her, but she barely noticed; her red eyes fixed on Joel, who was in turn gazing out of the window at the drive, where the chiropterans were fast approaching the door.
Both Saya and Hagi jumped as they heard gunshots; both hearing past the glass of the window to the thuds as the bullets found their targets, the growls and yelps of pain from the beasts, the 'glyk' sound as the chiropterans healed and the curses from David as he shot again and again, only to have the monsters continue to advance.
"Damn it!" Joel exclaimed, his fist tightening its grip on the back of his chair, before with another string of bad language that was really not suitable for Saya's hearing, he too dashed from the room. Both Saya and Hagi had by now figured out that the fight on the drive was not exactly going the way they ideally would have wanted it too; casting around Saya's eye was caught by a gleaming katana with a green and blue handle mounted on the wall.
It was different from what she usually sparred with, but nonetheless she hurried forwards and lifted it from its bracket. Hagi, having found no other weapon than the one Saya had used on the eve of Joel's birthday party, simply hoisted her cello case onto his back, and followed his mistress as she lifted her skirts and followed in David and Joel's footsteps.
Hagi opened the wooden front door that was, unbeknownst to both him and Saya, actually quite heavy, and with a brief smile of thanks, Saya charged out, unsheathing the blade she carried as she did so.
Joel did not appear to have a weapon of any description; yet his hands moved so fast that the wind he created slashed into the chiropterans and left bloody trails in their wake. Saya paused, confused, and for almost a full minute her and Hagi simply watched Joel fight in his rather bizarre wind-martial art style, vaguely hearing the gunshots from David's Bloody Rose.
"Kamaitachi?*" Saya murmured, her sword forgotten in her hand.
"Huh…" Hagi answered doubtfully, before suddenly they both returned to their senses and rushed into the fray.
David was just pausing to reload desperately, eying the fast healing and also fast approaching chiropteran warily when Saya suddenly dashed across his path, katana flashing.
She turned back as the chiropteran's arm fell to the floor, and he caught sight of her eyes; glowing with unnatural bright light as she faced the two chiropterans she had captured the attention of.
Another slash and she lopped off a leg, while Hagi leapt in to batter the other away. Despite Hagi's efforts though, one claw managed to catch Saya on her sword hand; and while she winced at the slash as the blood ran down her hand and trailed down her blade, she didn't drop the katana nor stop fighting.
Sprinting forwards once more and miraculously not tripping on her skirts, she cut off another arm; so left facing an armless chiropteran and a footless. She pivoted, and with fantastic grace sliced through the other's head and dying herself and Hagi red with the resounding spray of blood. The combined efforts of Joel and David managed to injure the third beast enough that it stopped healing and simply lay there, breath rattling through its damaged throat and lungs.
"What…?" Saya gasped as they all watched the two chiropterans that Saya had dealt with begin to turn to stone with a series of cracks, before they shattered into pieces; revealing a red crystalline interior beneath the grey stone crust. Joel frowned at it thoughtfully, his mind racing, before his dark grey eyes flickered to the barely alive chiropteran behind him.
"Saya." He said, his voice grave, and Saya's red eyes met his as the glow faded from them, tinged with shock. He motioned for her to approach him, and she did so, the katana still clenched tightly in her bloody fist. Hagi followed silently, and the trio came to a stop by David and the still living chiropteran.
"Feed it your blood." Joel ordered, ignoring Saya's horrified look, and at his nod she reluctantly complied with a frown; wincing once more as she used the katana to slice open her palm once more. Holding her now fisted hand above the chiropteran's gaping maw, she clenched her fingers; causing the red beads to run down her hand and drip into its mouth.
There was silence while they all waited with bated breath, despite the fact that the only one who knew what they were waiting for was Joel. Finally, with a somehow anticlimactic crackling, the chiropteran too died and crystallized; turning to sparkling red dust within minutes. With eyes that were clouded with confusion, Saya and Hagi looked at Joel, who was looking satisfied, if slightly unhappy that his guess had been correct. Understanding had dawned on David's face, and he was now putting the Bloody Rose away, his face grave.
"Well, now we have proof. It truly is Natsuki who is causing this." Joel pronounced, and Saya glared again, her teeth gritting as she dropped the katana, her wounds healing without her notice.
"What? Where did you get this 'proof'? It cannot be Natsuki!" Saya shouted, and Joel turned to face her, the sorrow in his eyes halting her fury.
"Do you know what your only known weakness is? Natsuki's blood. And her weakness is yours. Upon coming into contact with each other, they will crystallize." Saya's wide eyes flickered to the beasts as Joel continued. "When your blood meets Natsuki's, or a being with her blood, it will crystallize. The fact that you were able to kill these chiropterans means they have been made with her blood, and thus it is Natsuki who is behind all of this."
"No…" Saya whispered, but she was now protesting more to herself than Joel as her knees gave out and she collapsed.
"Saya!" Hagi knelt, his arms encircling her shoulders comfortingly in an instant as she began to shake.
"No… no, it can't be! It can't be!" Saya shook her head, tears forming in her eyes.
"Well it is, and now you must help us fight, as the only one who can easily kill these beasts. We must find and eliminate the threat, to protect humanity. And that threat is your sister, so we search for Natsuki not only to find her, but deal with her if necessary." David said severely, as Saya looked up and met his gaze silently, tears streaming down her cheeks. Even that worn and tough Hunter could meet the agonising grief that spilled from Saya's ruby eyes.
-n/s-
Without a certain destination, I keep pursuing east
My own shadow is the only company
I carve the distant voice on my blank map
As I seek whom it belongs to.
-n/s-
1885, Toulouse
"There are just more and more of them each time. It's as if they're drawn to me somehow." Saya muttered, picking at the blood that clung to her dark trench coat.
Time had moved on, and now Saya received fewer and fewer odd looks for wearing shorter skirts or sometimes even trousers; she could not fight in petticoats, though of course the general public did not know about that and so still pointed and whispered behind her back.
Saya however, was indifferent, focused only on finding her sister, and while David and eventually even Joel spoke of eliminating her, Saya was sure that there was a reason for this. Hagi agreed with her fervent belief that Natsuki could never purposely do something like create a race of bloodthirsty monsters.
They blamed Amshel; convinced that as he was also unaccounted for he must also be with Natsuki, and so must be controlling her. Joel conceded that it was a possibility, but Saya could see the doubt in their eyes, which only made her resolve that much stronger.
She would find her twin, and then they would be able to live happily once more. Meanwhile, she would fight her hardest to get to her, and Saya held onto the belief that she had not lost those peacefully carefree days yet.
"Saya! More approaching!" David yelled, cocking the Bloody Rose as Saya slid her thumb over the groove of her custom made katana, sending her blood shooting along the length of her blade and turning it into the deadliest weapon against the chiropterans. Her eyes opened, glowing with the fiery determination of battle as she prepared to fight. Fight to find her sister.
-n/s-
We're destined to go around further, further without end
Trying to find the fragment of my heart, I keep wandering.
-n/s-
1885, Belmont
She was just on the other side. Just through those doors, she was waiting, Saya could feel it. She could hear her song, that special aria that Natsuki had made up solely by herself and was so coveted by her, echoing through her mind with each bloody slash as Saya hacked her way through chiropteran after chiropteran.
By this time she had been splashed with blood many times, and the dark navy of her coat could barely be seen through the film. Likewise, Hagi, David and Joel were similarly bloodstained as they collected in the hall of the mansion, surrounded by chiropteran limbs, to regroup; all four slightly out of breath.
Joel picked at the collar of his bloody suit with a reproachful expression on his face; grateful that even as a vampire he felt no bloodlust for the blood of these beasts.
"You know, I really think we need to find a way of fighting that doesn't involve getting quite so blood-stained." He said by way of greeting. David glared at him, while both Saya and Hagi glanced down at their blood spattered selves with a note of surprise.
"Now is not the time for that. Saya, can you still hear her?" David snapped, his face the picture of a perfect and determined Hunter. As Saya nodded affirmative, she was reminded once more of the fact that David was not completely human.
"She's still here." Saya replied, and David nodded grimly.
"Then we go in." At once, everyone's faces hardened imperceptibly; you would have had to know them all extremely well to be able to tell that their real mission started now.
They burst through the doors in one flood, to find that no beasts awaited in the marbled ballroom; only empty echoing grandeur. The singing heard only by Saya and Hagi suddenly stopped; halting in time with the pace of the four warriors.
Saya cast her head about, eyes narrowed as she searched the room for the source of the voice.
"Where are you, Natsuki?" Saya asked in frustration, her fighting stance relaxing just as a wild giggling filled the room. Saya gasped and took a step forwards as she recognised the voice, only to be held back suddenly by a pair of all too familiar pair of arms, clothed in midnight blue velvet.
"Here, sister!" Saya whirled around, only to find her sister gone. She turned back to see Natsuki herself standing in the centre of the room, hands clasped behind her back as she smiled sweetly, having moved impossibly fast.
"Natsuki…" The blue eyed twin laughed; a high, cruel sound that had all of them flinching.
"Did you enjoy my present, sister Saya?" Diva asked gleefully, a hint of her fangs visible as she beamed.
"Present?" Saya whispered, her eyes still wide. She had grown up with Natsuki; nobody knew her better than Saya and vice versa. This girl who bore her likeness was not her, Saya could tell. And yet at the same time, she was Natsuki, in some strange, twisted form. The girl laughed again.
"Yes, my gift! Didn't you enjoy hacking apart my children? They aren't very pretty, but they do make me laugh!" Saya's eyes impossibly widened further, her face a mask of horror as her sword began to shake in her hand.
"Natsuki… what happened to you?" She whispered. The blue eyed twin laughed again, twirling on her tiptoes.
"I'm not Natsuki anymore, sister Saya. I'm Diva." Diva flashed forwards once more, her arms encircling Saya's shoulders as she brought their faces closer, as Saya trembled, eyes still wide.
"Won't you live with me in this way, sister Saya? Look at what we can create! Look at what we can do to these silly humans, even these stupid vampires who kept us!" Diva exclaimed ecstatically, but Saya tried to step back out of her sister's embrace. Diva however, tightened her arms around her for a moment, breathing in Saya's ear.
"Look, I'll show you…" There was a blue flash, and for a minute everyone was still; uncertain as to where 'Diva' had gone.
Joel coughed; a horrible, hacking, wet sound, and everyone turned aghast to face him as he spluttered again, blood trailing from his lips, and when Diva pulled her hand from his chest he staggered and fell, the gaping hole left behind only emphasising what Diva had done; as she held her bloodied hand up, Joel's heart clenched in her delicate, piano playing fingers.
"I wonder… what do you taste like?" Diva smiled, her fangs once again visible, and brought Joel's heart to her lips, her small, shell pink tongue flickering out to taste it. Joel groaned again, drawing everyone's eyes once more.
He had managed to somehow turn to look up at Diva, his eyes a cold, angry red.
"You… should not be using humans in this way… There will be consequences for this…" He coughed again, more blood splattering down his chin, before he disintegrated into white sand. Saya gasped, before turning to face Diva, who was looking at the sand that had once been Joel's heart in disappointment.
"Natsuki!" Diva looked up, pouting.
"I'm Diva, sister Saya. Do try and remember." She commented, opening her fist to let the sand fall onto the marbled floor. Her pure blue eyes widened slightly as David shot her, his teeth gritted in anger. The bullet passed straight through her shoulder, but did not seem to harm Diva in the slightest; she began to giggle as Saya, shoulders shaking, tore her eyes away from the pile of slightly drifting sand and raised her sword.
When her eyes opened, gracing her sister's face, they were blood red.
"Diva. I don't know what's happened to you, but… I will never forgive you for using and hurting people in this way!" Saya yelled, running her finger along the groove of her blade, her feet shifting into a fighting stance.
Over the past year that Hagi, David, Joel and herself had spent fighting together, a close bond had developed between them all; and while Saya did not care for Joel as she had done for his father, she had still loved him, and counted him as her family. The fact that 'Diva' had ripped that love away and left a bleeding hole proved like nothing else that 'Natsuki' was gone.
With a bloodthirsty cry, Saya raised her blade and charged, slashing at Diva, who disappeared in a blue blur, reappearing on the far side of the room, her long hair blowing in the wind that came through the window she had shattered.
"Oh, you're so scary today, sister. I'll send you more gift! That will cheer you up!" Giggling, there was a strong gust of wind, accompanied by shards of broken glass, and Diva disappeared.
-n/s-
Your singing voice soothes even my dried soul
I won't give up finding you
Whose smile has been burned into my mind.
-n/s-
1886, Marseilles
It had been six months since Joel II's death, and his young son had taken over the organisation, while David, suddenly reminded of his own mortality, was training his own son to follow in his footsteps. David still accompanied Saya and Hagi, but Joel III, a weaker vampire than his father and barely comparable to his grandfather as the Goldschmidt line was diluted with more and more human blood, preferred to oversee the rapidly expanding group called the Red Shield.
The appearance of chiropterans had also increased dramatically, which was the reason for the swelling in the size of the Red Shield; more and more people, bereaved by chiropteran related incidences, signed up to extract their revenge.
Their common symbol became the red crystals that chiropteran's became once eliminated by Saya; all carried around a piece of chiropteran, infected by Saya's blood, to remind them of what their goal was.
Since Joel's death, Saya had become a lot more distant; she accepted the help of the Red Shield and followed their orders, but she and Hagi tended to fight alone unless specifically instructed otherwise; using the Red Shield's supply of money to help them get around the world.
It was on a train that it happened. Hagi and Saya were travelling south, in response to reported sightings of a beautiful blue eyed girl who left destruction in her wake, and it was evening; the sky lit up with golden colours.
Saya was gazing out of the window, wearing dark purple with her head pinned back, she was the picture of a grand lady travelling down to her 'summer mansion'. Hagi was reading a letter from David; despite not interacting much in their new situation, they kept up a regular correspondence.
"Hagi." Saya's voice was a sudden interruption, surprising, if welcome, to Hagi; who looked up immediately to see her still staring at the passing landscape.
"Yes?"
"Do you remember before, when we left the Zoo?" Hagi knew what she was referring to; when the Hunters had found Saya cradling Hagi's head, he had not just woken up. There had been a few scientists who had managed to survive the majority of the night and had been saved by the arrival of the Hunters, and these men were greedy, more like Amshel in character than Joel, though just as curious. None of them would have passed up the opportunity to steal away the greatest discovery of the century; an entirely new species.
Hagi had transformed; his hands beast like as bat wings erupted from his back, driven by a wild urge to protect Saya at any cost. She had been just as terrified by him, by what she had turned him into, as by the men's attempts to kidnap her, and Hagi had vowed on the spot to never show her his horrible form again.
"Yes." He said quietly, the letter rustling as he lowered it, the scene flashing briefly before his eyes.
"That was also all because of my blood." Saya stated softly, with little real emotion in her voice, as she turned her gaze to her lap. "Chiropterans like me and Diva shouldn't have existed." Hagi's face was as always, inscrutable, but his hands involuntarily tightened on the letter, the cream parchment crumpling beneath his lithe fingers.
"Saya…" He murmured softly. Saya raised her head to meet his gaze as she replied.
"I hope you will keep your promise, after I've put an end to everything. When this is over, I hope you will help me rid the world of all chiropterans. Down to the very last ones…" Saya said, her eyes piercing him as his own tightened. "Including me and you." She finished, and Hagi felt as if she was stabbing him with each word. His head lowered as he fought tears; David's elegant handwriting blurring in his vision.
"If that is what you wish, then when this is all over..."
-n/s-
At the end of the artificial paradise
Deep, deep in the bottom of the earth
I am fated to sing prayers
All alone
-n/s-
1918, Russia
Saya had never seen so much snow. Russia was a strange country, she had long since decided, as she raised a hand to brush the white flakes from Hagi's hair. So much snow, so much cold. Though now she could barely tell whether it was freezing or only mildly icy, she knew that snow was cold, she could vaguely feel the chill of the snowflakes on the tips of her fingers. Her hand dropped to Hagi's cheek, seeing the pain in his eyes as her eyelids drooped.
They had arrived in Russia barely three days previously, arriving at a small snow covered town in search of one of Diva's most recent chevaliers; that being the name that described what Hagi was. A being who was chiropteran; above the beasts and yet below their queens; they served as 'knights' to the one who granted them their eternal life, inhuman abilities and strength. Diva seemed to have an abundance of them, Saya still regretted transforming Hagi.
In their search they had come across a young girl who had introduced herself as 'Sorya', and had invited them to stay. She had been very full on with the idea of friendship, very cheerful, and every word she had spoken had reminded Saya of what she had once had with Natsuki.
Sorya had turned out to be their target; Grigori, a recently turned chevalier of Diva's. Saya had killed him, but had not been able to chase after the carriage that Grigori had been protecting; her eyesight wavering and blurring, she knew it heralded her Long Sleep, approaching much faster than last time.
And now, she lay in Hagi's arms, barely able to feel as her nerves numbed themselves in preparation, and the snow fell all around them.
"Hagi… remember your promise…" She breathed, and then her hand slipped, her eyes shutting. Hagi caught her hand, gazing at her sleeping face. Those beautiful red eyes would not open again for thirty years.
"I will always watch over you. Even if you change into something else, even if I am separated from you, I will find you. So… sleep for now, Saya. I will wait for you."
-n/s-
From the past that had nowhere to go
I weave voices going round and round
At the edge of a repeating history
I dedicate myself to this fate
-n/s-
1972, Vietnam
The soldiers watched with trepidation as the needle entered the crease of her elbow, the blood inside slowly pushed into her veins. Their breath was bated; even David, their leader, was unsure as to what the outcome would be. Nobody had ever tried to forcefully awaken the girl who was their greatest weapon from her Long Sleep; thirty year gaps where she was inactive. Upon awakening naturally from these sleeps, she usually drank the blood of her chevalier, Hagi, and so it seemed logical that if they were to inject her with Hagi's blood, she would awaken.
They did not consult Hagi about this, or he may have been able to warn them of the consequences; but awaken her they did. But while her eyes opened, they shone a blood red; and that unnatural glow did not fade.
Her sword to hand, she was just as fearsome and insane as their enemy Diva on that bloody night. Everything she found fell; bloody and slashed apart whether they were human, beast, Hunter or Vampire, they were equals in death by Saya's blade.
She did not stop, the boiling rage inside her driving her to kill and kill and kill again, bloody splatter by bloody splatter. Hagi was nearby, but even he could not stop her in the face of her relentless rampage; she did not recognise him, distracted from finishing him off only by the smattering of guns as the Military engaged her.
And so she left him, clutching the bloody stump of his hand, and he did not follow her as she went on with her massacre. He ran away.
-n/s-
Not knowing anything, I've been continuously singing
For the whole of my life
A song for the sun, a song for the rain
A gentle requiem
-n/s-
2005, Okinawa
Following her bloody killing fest, Saya fell asleep again; wrapping herself in her cocoon to protect herself from the long thirty years that passed until she awoke again. David IV, the great, great grandson of the Hunter who had first formed the Red Shield with the Vampire Joel Goldschmidt II, had barely managed to survive the night when he was found by a trusted subordinate of his; George Miyagusuku. Before he passed away, he entrusted his Bloody Rose gun to the Red Shield, to pass onto his son, and the hibernating Saya to George.
George took her to Okinawa, where he set up his Omoro with his wife and son, and lived in perfect contentment. However, at the back of his mind was always the anxious, nagging thought of the girl who slept in his family vault.
But life continued as Saya slept; interrupted only by the catastrophic loss of Mrs Miyagusuku and her son; completely shocking George and sending him into a state of depression. Bereft, he tried to take his own life, up in the tomb where Saya slept on. Perhaps some instinct alerted her to the impending death in the room, perhaps it was simply mere coincidence, but whichever, her heart began to suddenly beat more strongly, the 'egg' she was curled in pulsing with that strange purple light.
George heard Saya's will to live on in her heartbeats, felt her wish for no more death, and pulled himself together.
He restarted his Omoro, building it back up, integrating himself back into the community that he had detached himself from upon the death of his family. He adopted Kai; a young, angry ginger boy, and Riku; younger, quieter, soft spoken. Two boys, who had been dealt bad hands in the game of life, and needed his help.
And so more years passed, and yet Saya continued to sleep; oblivious to the world moving around her, and still that mantra repeated itself in George's head: when will she wake up? What do I do when she does? When will she wake up? When will she wake up?
Of course, that day eventually came. It was raining, and Saya's hair pooled around her in the water, dark and long from her time spent asleep, and the hand that held the gun that aimed at her head shook. George had been terrified of this day; fearing it and at the same time waiting for it. He had seen the destruction that Saya had wrought on the battlefields of Vietnam; he was not about to let her destroy his home.
And yet, the eyes with which she curiously looked up at him with were innocent. There was no blood lust, no desire to kill. Just curiosity. What is this liquid splashing on my face? What is that thing that you are pointing at me? What is the noise that comes from my stomach? What is this thing? You want me to put it around myself? Why? Do I put this in my mouth? What for? Why does it taste like that? What is that crashing sound coming from that big pool of water over there? What are these ledges? I walk down them? What for? How? Why? What is this?
She questioned everything. She was like a newborn baby; with no inkling of the world she saw around her. The only differences were her age and agility; she regained the ability to walk and run and jump very quickly, and her learning curve was much steeper than a newborn's.
She remembered nothing from her past. For an entire year, she slipped into a cheerful persona that perhaps the second Joel and first David may have recognised, but none of the current Red Shield members knew. They watched over her from a distance as she attended school, took part in track events, ate to her heart's content, watching from the shadows for any signs of her awakening.
She did not awaken. Hagi found her, and he once again stayed by her side. But he was rejected out of ignorance; she had no idea who he was other than that he seemed familiar; the tune he played on his cello echoed in her mind and brought with it vague memories, a feeling of frustration.
Little did she know that it was the very piece that she had drilled Hagi to play so religiously for so long; the frustration at his inability to play as she wanted. But that's beside the point; Hagi returned, but he was not the only one who found her; chiropterans, created by Diva, sought the red queen out, and once again Saya vowed to fight.
Her resolution returned without the aid of her memories in an event involving her family. One of George's old friends, Forrest, was infected by Diva's blood. Through his strangely slow transformation into a beast, he managed to focus on one thought; George would help him.
But he lost all semblance of human intelligence as he got there, and attacked. Only Hagi's quick intervention managed to save his life, but Saya still would not fight. As David recovered from the wounds Forrest had given him, George tried to take Saya's katana, which Hagi proffered, to defend his daughter, but Saya wouldn't let him take it.
She didn't know what made her hand tighten around the worn in handle of the blade, which although she had no memory of ever seeing it prior to Hagi's appearance, fit strangely comfortably into her hand, but even as George tugged on it, her fingers clasped it. It was her sword, she was certain of that, and nobody else was allowed to wield it.
She met George's gaze with confusion, to see accepting sadness in his eyes. He stepped back, smiling at her even through the pain that she could see so clearly in his eyes.
"If this is what you've chosen…" He said softly, and he stepped back out of the way, as Saya's gaze fell upon the red eyed form of the chiropteran who had once been Forrest. She turned to Hagi, who stood in front of her, as he held out his bloodied, bandaged hand.
At the sight of the blood oozing from his palm, tendrils of creeping red circled her pupil, like a beast circling prey, and turned her red eyes to glowing embers. Only David continued watching in fascination as Saya drank; George could not watch.
When Kai, Saya's adoptive older brother, drew up outside his home bare minutes later, Forrest was dead on the floor, Saya collapsed on her knees with her sword clenched in her hands as tears slipped down her blood stained face.
"Saya!" He tried to run forwards, but David held him back; his pale blue eyes fixed upon Saya's shaking form.
"Do you understand now? This is your fate."
-n/s-
At the end of the road to the paradise
Warm hands were offered
But couldn't reach me
-n/s-
2005, Volterra
Nathan strode along the corridor, the heels of his white, tasselled cow-girl boots snapping sharply on the oak of the hall. Diva was in the room at the end, supposedly sleeping, and for once Nathan was the only 'chevalier' in the mansion. Solomon was out of the house attending to matters as CEO, James, a chevalier recruited in Berlin, 1945, was overseeing something that frankly Nathan cared nothing for, and even God probably wouldn't have cared where Amshel was. Nathan only cared that he was not in the house.
Nathan had returned to the Zoo in France one hundred and twenty years ago to find the grand house that Joel Goldschmidt lived in had been razed to the ground. Unfortunately for both Nathan and the twins, vampires do not take much notice of the passing of time in quite the same way as humans; Nathan, a servant to a nearly immortal pureblood, cared even less for marking the years, much less the months or days. He had not realised that he was long overdue on his visit to the twins; he had originally planned to show up when they hit twenty; around the time most pureblood vampires ceased to show visible signs of aging.
Obviously, he had rather missed that deadline; and so cursing himself searched for the twins. Saya was nearby, in Bordeaux, and he found her relatively quickly in the care of Joel II and a Hunter named David. He was unhappy at the presence of the Hunter, but then he saw Hagi.
Nathan had been living for a very long time, but never had he seen anything like Hagi. He knew a lot about the inner workings of the strange system of masters and servants, but Hagi was altogether another matter. He had heard the term they had given to him; 'Chevalier', created by a human drinking the blood of one of the twins, who quickly became known as 'Queens' in reference to the hierarchy system.
It had amused Nathan that even the lower vampires and humans had come so close; for Natsuki and Saya were indeed purebloods, a very similar equivalent to a 'Queen'. But watching the way Hagi cared for his 'Queen' set his mind at ease; for now, it was fine to leave Saya where she was, with this 'Red Shield'.
So he went on to search for the other twin; the blue eyed Natsuki. Even with his special skills, it had taken Nathan a very long time to find her; almost fifty years passed until he came across her in 1935, Berlin, just before the outbreak of World War II. He had very nearly killed the man called 'Amshel' on the spot, but long years of training and bad experiences due to rushing straight into things kept him back; observing.
And what he observed made him angrier than he had ever been before, angrier even than when a lowlife vampire had tried to kill his previous mistress; Mary Kuran. Amshel was a vampire who must have been an associate of Joel's, only Nathan had not realised it. Had he noticed his presence, he may have housed the twins with some other more trusted person, but he didn't notice it. It wasn't as if Amshel was particularly powerful; his vampire blood thinned by human, he was barely an aristocrat. Nathan could have killed him by barely lifting his little finger, had Amshel not drunk the blood of Natsuki.
Nathan could feel it instantly; the strange power that was a twisted echo of Natsuki's own, circling Amshel like poisonous ivy. The powers that Amshel, and then Diva's subsequent chevaliers that followed; a German Nazi whose name Nathan had never learnt and Grigori, who were both now dead, Solomon, James and Karl… Karl fascinated Nathan; the young Vietnamese man had been turned merely to be a test subject… and yet he loved Diva, craved her perhaps more than even Amshel. He was also stark raving mad, which Nathan found rather entertaining.
But those matters were not his primary concern right now; Diva was. Or rather, Natsuki was, for while Nathan recognised the blue eyed twin as one of the daughters of Juri Kuran, she was not Natsuki; for a start, he did not think that even Joel could have spoiled her enough for her to want to be called 'Diva'.
And so he was making his way towards her, unhindered by the presence of any of the other chevaliers, to discover what, exactly, was wrong with Natsuki Diva Kuran.
"Diva~" He murmured; enjoying his over theatrical performance as a gay transvestite to the full. While he may have already been a transvestite, he wasn't gay; he was bisexual. Even had he been gay, Nathan wouldn't have naturally acted quite the way he did in the company of Diva's chevaliers. He just enjoyed it.
He came to a halt by the soft, white carpet, which was littered with ripped cushions, torn apart toys and, unusually, shredded music scores. Diva sat in the middle of it, her sky blue dress pooled around her, with her head in her hands; her dark hair drapery.
"Diva?" He queried again, his tone softer and more cautious; there was no way of knowing what kind of mood she was in, and he felt a slight tremor of apprehension as she slowly raised his head and met his gaze. Silence reigned as she stared at him apathetically, while he gazed back in curiosity.
"N…Natsuki?" He queried softly, and the young girl's frame suddenly jolted as she gasped, her hands coming up to clutch her head as if something were trying to get out and causing a great deal of pain. Nathan rushed forwards, his hands fluttering anxiously as the blue eyed girl groaned, her fingers tightening in her dark tresses.
Suddenly, she gave another gasp and reared up, strands of long dark hair catching on her thin fingers as she raised her head, panting softly with some great effort. She took a deep breath, and while Nathan wasn't sure what he had expected her to do, he certainly would never have expected this.
"This town of darkest night
Is lit by only a single light
The creaking sound of old broken limbs
Echoing as I walk
I don't even have anywhere to go
And I am not able to walk that well," Her eyes closed, sweat beading on her forehead she sang; struggling to get the words out as Nathan sat and listened, unable to do anything else.
"Why must I have been born?
Why is my heart the colour of silver?
Why must I have been born?
I can only continue singing for all eternity,"
"Someday I'll fall asleep again
And then see that wonderful place and that person
But she always stays in my dreams, on the other side of the mirror
My dream does not come true
I sing, live and break alone."
"Time passes, so much time locked away
And I even forget my songs
I rush to that place where she is
Hurrying away from this cage
But while I drag my cracked body
I keep falling down,"
"The place where she is is beautiful
With a view of the sea and full of flowers
Now, I'll go to sleep so I can see her
And be together with that precious person."
"Someday, my wish will come true
The mirror will break, finally
I can almost hear her
She is so close…"
"In my dreams, I can hear her voice
It resounds kindly in my heart
Her peaceful light envelopes me
And I smile
I smile…" Natsuki's body suddenly flopped, lifeless, like a rag doll, and Nathan surged forwards to catch her as her hair fell over her face. Natsuki blinked, her blue eyes cloudy, and a single tear fell, gleaming in the light.
And then she was Diva.
But Nathan had discovered what it was that was wrong with 'Natsuki', what made her 'Diva'. It was a spell. A funny symbol that stank of very very old magic, twisting beneath the skin of her collarbone, only surfacing when she fought it.
And as he sat there, with Diva dreaming of Saya softly in his arms, he realised many things about just how strong Natsuki was. His lips curved into a smile, and he chuckled softly, shifting her dead weight in his arms.
"You're fighting it, aren't you? Clever girl."
-n/s-
Sing forever…
-n/s-
The Red Shield were in Russia, and although the snow falling was fresh, newly born, Saya found there was something almost nostalgic about it, as she gazed through the slightly frosted glass of the train, the sound of Hagi's cello resounding in her ears and joining with the echoes from her memory. Her eyelids drooped, the snow blurring her vision to white…
"But they're silence; how can I play them?"
"You idiot, Hagi, they're still part of the music, so of course you can play them."
Saya blinked, straightening suddenly.
"The pauses…" She muttered, and Hagi looked up, his eyes wide as his bow halted upon the quivering strings. "You need to play the pauses…" She repeated, her brow scrunching in confusion as she looked up. Hagi's face softened gently.
"Yes." Saya's gaze dropped to her lap once more, and the cello started up again as the Siberian Express hurtled onwards through the snow.
David, Lewis, Dr Julia, Kai, Riku and Saya had all met up with another Red Shield Agent; a pretty young woman named Liza, at the port of Vladivostok in Russia, having disembarked from the Red Shield HQ. From there, they had boarded the Siberian Express, travelling east across the snowy continent in search of 'Diva', a nameless entity that Saya could barely remember.
Once Saya had accepted her role back in Okinawa, the Red Shield had headed to Hanoi, Vietnam, following rumours about a blood-drinking 'phantom' at the Lycee Academy. Saya had enrolled as a student, while Kai and Riku chased them, eventually catching them up and being accepted as part of the Red Shield group who worked with Saya; George entrusting his sons to the rather reluctant David's care.
Taking Saya back to Vietnam had proved to be rather a bad idea; the bloodstained memories returning of the massacre she had wrought so many years before. She went completely berserk once more, but Kai stopped her, somehow managing to jolt her from her reverie, but not before the Red Shield support team had been completely wiped out.
The 'Phantom' had turned out to be Carl; a chevalier of Diva's, though at that point, Saya did not know that. She only knew he was more powerful than the chiropterans she had previously faced, and he escaped.
Briefly, the Miyagusuku brothers and Saya returned to Okinawa to bid a proper farewell to their friends; Kaori, Saya's best friend, two of Kai's friends and Mao, Kai's slightly obsessive girlfriend, primarily.
They then boarded the massive boat that was the Red Shield's headquarters, and headed to Russia, to be met by Liza.
It was on the train that Liza's previously cheerful personality subtly changed; she grilled the uncomfortable Saya about particular elements of her life; her blood drinking, her speed and recovery abilities, and then Liza disappeared from the train, smiling. Riku fell from the carriage where Saya and Hagi had been battling a chiropteran, and Saya leapt after him, followed by Hagi.
Saya passed out on the snow, unable to find her little brother, and as she dreamed she remembered the last time she had been in Russia; 1914… though of course she didn't know the date. She remembered a fireside, a gentler Hagi with a much more open face, a snowy landscape that yielded no answers in their search for the enigma that was 'Diva'… the chiropteran, the chevalier she had fought there… she had fallen asleep…
And then she woke to find Hagi by her side, his face almost as open as her memory. He used to be different, she realised, and she wondered what had wrought the change in the faithful man.
Liza, Riku, Hagi and Saya headed for Ekaterinberg, to meet with the other Red Shield members, but Riku forced the group to stop at a hotel; his cold and fever as effective as chains in keeping them there. Liza again questioned Saya, who squirmed under her gaze.
Why do you fight the chiropterans?
Liza turned out to be a chiropteran herself; a chevalier, Saya guessed, from the way she appeared human. Saya tried to kill her, but Liza broke her sword, leaving Saya entirely at her mercy. But Liza did not kill her.
"You are a chiropteran, Saya. Did you really think you were human? We are your family… don't you know you have a sister? She is your real family, not these humans. Go to the Zoo, Saya…That's where it all began."
Saya and Hagi disappeared, the Red Shield arriving on the scene to find a distraught Riku, the broken edges of an all too familiar gleaming katana and a note.
"Liars."
-n/s-
At the end of the desperate paradise
I seek the lost voice
I am fated to wander
From street to street, further and further away
In the shadow of the closed history
I long for the stolen days
That voice that echoes in the depth of my heart is agonized by suffering
-n/s-
2005, Bordeaux
The Zoo was crumbling. It was a ruin, but not the kind with signs and audio guides that tourists tramp around. None of the local people would go near it, because of the taboo of the tragedy of Bordeaux Sunday, which had befallen the wonder known as 'the Zoo' in the late 18th Century.
It had been a long journey to get there, travelling across the country side, hitching rides. But the scenery was beautiful; the rolling hills and vineyards of France welcoming Saya and Hagi. She would not eat. She was in a denial of a sorts, just as stricken by her nonhuman-ness the second time around as the first.
She decided she didn't need to eat human food. After all, wasn't she one of them? But she would not drink either, though her control was slipping as the weeks passed with no blood from her transfusions, and no blood from her faithful chevalier Hagi either.
They were nearly there when the Schiff attacked them. A group of darkly robed figures, Hagi fought them singlehandedly, and came very close to losing. In fact, he did lose, in a sense, for the Schiff gained their objective; his blood. But he won too, for he did not die, and his blood was not the answer. The Schiff who drank his blood, apparently to try and save herself from a strange, crystallizing disease that plagued their kind, only hastened her death, and was carried away by her comrades.
They were not bothered again, and the next day they reached the Zoo.
Many memories awoke for Saya here; so much of her past lay in the place that it would have been hard not to remember such happy times. Meeting Hagi for the first time. Singing, and dancing… with someone. A shadow of a person; the pain associated with the memory of them enough to make Saya's mind shy away. But the shadow was in every memory; in every flash of her distant past, there was a swirl of blue skirts, strands of dark hair, a pale hand entwined with her own.
But no name. No face. No identity could she give to this person. Solomon met them there. Saya realised he was a chevalier, to her dismay; he had been the charming young man she had danced with so long ago at Lycee. At a childish school dance, she had thought him rather dashing, and here he was an enemy.
Yet he seemed so kind, so considerate. Please, Saya, let me tell you my side of the story. Won't you join us? Would it really be so bad? Stop fighting. You won't have to fight anymore… you can join with your sister… with your family….
But Saya's resolve, for all its wavering, rang true. She fought, unaware that the Red Shield had arrived and were searching for her in the vast grounds. Only when she heard his scream did she realise Riku was in trouble.
The top of the tower… she ran. Riku no longer screamed. She reached the door.
"Don't open it!" A voice, shrieking at her. "Don't!" Her voice? No… similar, almost the same, but not hers. The mystery person's? Saya did not know, but nor could she, would she, heed the warning. She had to open the door.
XXX
Natsuki spent most of her time curled up in her cage. The bars, if you could call them that, were purple, she had decided. Or red, like blood, but she found she rather liked the colour red, but she didn't like the bars. So they couldn't be red. So they were purple. Purple was a heavy colour, sticky and too sweet, and then sour at the same time, like a plum.
Why did she like red? Eyes. Somebody's eyes. Somebody precious had red eyes. They looked nice in red. And pink. Red… and pink. They were nice colours, so the bars couldn't be either of those. And she was blue. Natsuki wasn't sure why, curled up as she was, but she knew she was blue. And she wasn't the one who had locked herself up in here. So the bars were not blue.
Purple it was then.
Sometimes, Natsuki fought; she rattled the purple bars, she screamed, she strived to get through, to break them. Once, she had succeeded. When the creator of the bars was far away, when the face her body wore that wasn't her, but created by the same spell that wove the cage around her, was sleepy… Diva. Her middle name, that bastard had taken her middle name, her precious middle name, and given it to the imposter who used her body.
That bastard? Which bastard? Oh, yes. Amshel. Amshel was that bastard, the bastard, the barstardiest bastard of all the bastards in the world. Because it was him, wasn't it? Him who locked her up; yet cruelly put windows in her cage.
Useless windows they were, inconstant. Sometimes she could see through the windows, through the eyes that were hers but she couldn't control, and sometimes she couldn't.
Sometimes she saw her stolen hands ripping toys, games, books and people to shreds. Sometimes she heard the screams of the people whom Diva killed. Sometimes she felt her fangs slipping into veins and arteries. Sometimes she tasted the blood gushing down her throat. Sometimes she smelt death.
And sometimes she didn't. But whether she could see or no, she could never stop it. She was an observer trapped in her own body, and she was powerless to stop Diva's mindless destruction.
But sometimes she got through. Only briefly. She remembered a white carpet, a sky blue dress, her dark hair, and hands with fingers. Such a small thing. Such a wondrous thing. When she moved them, they moved. But Diva was coming back. So she let it out. She didn't know who had been there, if anybody had heard her, understood her, her, not Diva. She didn't know if anyone had heard Natsuki.
But she sang anyway. Oh yes, she sang a song she had been singing inside for a very long time. There were many songs; angry ones that were more screaming and shouting than singing, sad ones that made her cry, evil ones that plotted revenge. But she sang a sweet song. About memories, about how even if she was in a cage, her memory was untouched, and when she slept, Saya was with her. She loved the long sleeps the most.
Sometimes, she could see through the windows.
The Zoo. Diva was at the Zoo. But, oh, it was so different! So changed, so run down. So old. How much time had passed since Amshel had put her in her cage? How… old was she? The thought terrified her, but she didn't focus on it for long; something was happening.
She fought to get closer to her senses, the purple of the bars fading to dull lavender under her assault. There. Now she could feel, hear, taste and smell as well as seeing, even if she couldn't control anything.
Something was in her arms -no, not her arms. Diva's arms. Something was in Diva's arms. And Diva's fangs were buried in something… a neck, as per usual. An unusually young neck. She tasted the blood coursing down her throat, and was filled by a deep disgust at the pleasure it brought. It tasted good.
But he was only a boy… Suddenly, through Diva's senses, Natsuki felt the presence of someone approaching.
Saya.
It was Saya. She was sure of it, and her heart leapt with such a sudden fierce joy that Diva's control slipped, and Natsuki made her own head lift, happiness shining through her eyes for a bare moment before the spell clamped down once more, with a painful throb of her breast bone.
Saya was opening the door.
"Don't open it!" She shrieked in her mind. "Don't!" Bad things are in here. Blood is in here. Don't. But Saya did, and Natsuki saw her through Diva for the first time. She saw the confusion, the fear, and understood that Saya did not remember her.
Was that good?
She didn't know. But Saya shouldn't be afraid of her… oh. Yes, Saya should be very afraid of Diva. Did Saya know that she was in here? Did she realise that this murderess who wore her skin was not her? They were twins. They shared the same soul. Surely Saya could tell?
"Ri…Riku…" Saya trembled, as Diva raised her head, her cerulean eyes glowing. Riku? Who's he? Natsuki wondered. Somebody precious to her… this boy! Surely…
Riku is loved by Saya. Diva is killing Riku.
Natsuki's course of action seemed clear; she fought. Harder than she'd ever fought before; because it was for her sister, and that gave her strength like nothing else.
STOP IT NOW! She ranted, she yelled and screamed at Diva. STOP DRAINING HIM! STOP DRINKING! STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT! And finally she managed to break through again, just a little, enough to turn her head away from Riku's bleeding throat, to gently lay him down on the ground and step away, before Diva came back, angry.
Natsuki, spent, subsided into her cage again, quiet apart from her almost gentle sobbing. She didn't know what happened after that, the windows showed her nothing. She only knew that she hadn't saved Riku. She had only prolonged his death.
Please. Please let that extra time be enough…
-n/s-
My wish doesn't reach to the everlasting paradise
It is distorted with voices and keeps vanishing away
I want to make sure of the sound of your warmth with my hands,
Not hesitating to get hurt
-n/s-
2006, Paris
It was enough. Riku lived, though for a few days he was confined to a wheelchair due to weakness from loss of blood, but he lived. As a human. And for that, Saya was eternally grateful, but Diva's damage was done; Saya now regained her purpose from so many years before.
She finally accepted the fact that she was not a human, she finally became interested in recovering all of her memories; no longer as afraid of them. She remembered her mindless rampage, she remembered her days at the Zoo, in Russia, in France.
She remembered Natsuki.
And she remembered Diva. And her resolve strengthened. She would fight, she would kill Diva.
She remembered the promise.
She remembered those she had lost… David after David, Joel after Joel, person after person, family after family… Natsuki.
In France, they prepared; researching, following leads, fighting monsters, training. Saya's skill improved; was regained, but despite the heavy memories she now had, she still tried. Tried to be 'Saya' - the cheerful schoolgirl who was Kai and Riku's sister, George's daughter. She tried very hard to stay the same, right through until… ah. But first something else happened; the Schiff showed up once more, hunting Saya herself this time, not her chevalier.
They found her; with their senses it was not hard to track the group down. But Kai had befriended one of them, with startling results. Irene, a young, fresh faced girl with long blonde hair, was the next Schiff to befall the curse of the Thorn… but she hid it from her comrades, and only showed it to Kai when she explained where they had come from, how they had come to be there.
Kai told her she could ask for something; you didn't have to use violence to get what you wanted. She seemed so surprised, but both she and Kai convinced the other Schiff to ask Saya for her blood, and eventually Saya complied, still unsure about how her blood, that seemed so full of curses and had wrought so much destruction, could possibly help…
Irene died. She crumbled into jewel red pieces before everyone's eyes, and for a moment Hagi moved in front of Saya, afraid that the Schiff would attack them as retribution… but no. The lead Schiff, Moses, a dark haired youth who wore his hair over one eye, stopped his glasses-wearing friend Karman from attacking.
The Schiff realised that it was Diva's blood they needed, not Saya's, and so they left, taking the pieces of Irene with them. And Saya cried for another loss.
XXX
The next time Saya clashed paths with Diva was when Karl brought his queen to the Red Shield HQ. Diva, influenced by Natsuki's desire to see her sister, launched an attack on the grand boat that housed so much of the Red Shield, in essence.
The battle went on. Collateral damage piled up high, corpses and broken equipment and crates and pieces of walls. Blood splattered cables. Limb littered lifts.
Saya stayed behind, to fight her, allowing everyone else to escape in the helicopters. Kai's last view of his sister was Saya and Hagi standing, facing Diva and Karl, across the flames and plumes of smoke. And despite her glowing embers of eyes, she smiled at him gently like she used to.
"Goodbye, Kai, Riku."
"SAYA!" But the helicopter left, and minutes later the ship exploded.
-n/s-
I will fight…
-n/s-
2007, London
A year passed before Kai or any of the other Red Shield members saw Saya again. She saved them, out of the blue, rescuing Kai and Lewis from almost certain death at the hands of three chiropterans. But her year of separation had changed her; hardened her.
Her coat was purple.
But after a lot of persuasion, she joined the Red Shield once more; or rather, what was left of it. The core of the organisation had crumbled, after more than one hundred and thirty years, the 'Red Shield of Blood' had collapsed.
But the spirit, the role of the Red Shield was not broken. A Joel and a David still watched over Saya and Hagi. There were still people dedicated to locating and eliminating the threat known as 'Diva'.
Diva was in London too, preparing for a concert. The posters were everywhere; TV adverts flickered across England's screens. 'Diva, a singer like no other'. An eerily beautiful, creamy skinned girl, with such lustrous dark hair… and those eyes! Those blue eyes entranced you like nothing else, and then once you heard her sing, you were hooked. Nobody saw the purple bars of the cage inside those eyes.
Nobody saw summer's hope, withering away inside her own body.
-n/s-
I'll take the life of the roaring voice
Let it write and sleep to the end of the world
If I can't reach you after dissolving light
Then I'll just finish off this artificial paradise
With my own hands
-n/s-
2007, New York
Diva's concerts were all cancelled, probably due to the death of Karl at Saya's hands. The Schiff returned, with the promise to help in the hope of saving themselves.
Diva went to New York, and so Saya and the others followed her there, and it was in New York, the city that never sleeps, that it all came to fruition, and then all came tumbling down.
They hadn't been in New York for very long when they discovered that Saya's long sleep; her thirty-year hibernation period that both she and her sister suffered from every few years, was approaching rapidly.
It was the red eyed girl's determination that kept her awake for so long. She would win. This time, this time for sure, she would end it all. She was so close. Her determination was astounding; the events at Christina Island showed that.
Diva's chevalier James Ironside was not unattractive in his human form, but as with many chiropterans that changed when he transformed; an ugly, dark brown thing with red fires for eyes, his skin was like iron. Oh, the irony. How it made Saya laugh inside.
Her sword scratched off, bullets ricocheted, and yet she did not give up; she continued attacking. Eventually, with the help of Hagi and the Schiff, James was infected; her blood entered his revealed, torn muscles with almost sickening cracks.
There was a sinkhole on Christina Island. James ran for that, even as his foot turned to stone, even as his arm began to crackle. His good arm grabbed Saya; if he was going to die, then he was going to take her with her… and he would take Kai too, since he had grabbed onto Saya and would not let go. Hagi was injured, a gaping hole in his chest chaining him to the floor, but for once he wasn't needed.
Solomon saved them. Swooped in like a dashing, unattractive monster prince. What was his reason? Why did he save her?
"Because I fell in love with you." His pale blue eyes gleam, a gentle breeze ruffles the blonde curls that adorn his head. "Would that be a sufficient answer?"
-n/s-
Please sing…
-n/s-
2007, North Carolina
A concert, to an Army base in North Carolina. It was a trap; it had to be. But even if it was a trap, they had to go… they couldn't afford to ignore even the most obviously dangerous of clues.
So they went, all of them; Saya, Hagi, Kai, Riku, Lewis, David, Mao and Okamura; a journalist and Kai's old obsessive girlfriend who had been following Saya's trail from thirty years ago and finally caught up with them in Paris.
Every single last one of them went, and Diva was there as well. And Amshel. And Nathan. James was dead, Solomon had been described jauntily as 'AWOL' by Nathan.
And the twins clashed yet again; but this time Saya never got close to her sister. Amshel stopped her, and broke her arm; while Kai looked on helpless in the face of the chiropterans, Hagi rendered equally useless trapped in Nathan's arms.
When Saya's wrist finally broke with a bloody crunch, Nathan very nearly lost control. He very nearly attacked Amshel right there for hurting his queen - for he viewed both Natsuki and Saya to be his mistresses. They were twins, they shared his servitude as one.
But he very nearly broke his cover… he came so close, he was sweating, but he didn't have to move. If he hadn't been able to sense Solomon approaching, Nathan really thought he would have slaughtered Amshel right there.
But Solomon was approaching. And he saved her; cleverly, too. He aimed for Diva, and predictably Amshel let go of the red eyed queen to protect the blue one, and Solomon was able to scoop up Saya's limp body, still clothed in purple, and fly away with her.
He took her to his apartment; a penthouse with a spectacular view of the city, and he confessed. Properly. Did you know there are so many wonderful things in this world you have yet to see? Did you know that I want to show you it? Let us travel around it, through it, all over it, let us not fight anymore…
But he underestimated Hagi. It seemed that everybody underestimated Hagi at least once, but he always proved them wrong. Even Saya had underestimated him. He played that cello piece so often so perfectly it was sometimes annoying; it sounded like mockery. She understood that he played it because it was a piece of her; a piece of happiness, but sometimes she was sure that he was revelling in the fact that he could play it better than she ever could.
Solomon did not expect Hagi to find his queen so quickly, but he did. The two chevaliers fought for Saya, and Saya herself was too weak, too sleepy, too injured to stop them; they ignored her shouts and she could not follow their bounding leaps in her weakened state. It was only when her knees gave out, and she began to hurtle towards the pavement so many floors below that either chevalier took notice of her.
Hagi reached her first. He would always reach her first, even if he had to kill people, even if he had to push boundaries that should never be pushed, even if he had to break promises, unleash deadly powers… his chiropteran form.
Not so disgusting, so fully formed and beast like as any of the others. Indeed, it could almost be called elegant; graceful, curving bat-like wings that beat the air slowly, and gently lowered himself, with Saya in his arms, to the ground unharmed. His hands were both monster like; the one that was usually human in appearance joining the other.
And he apologised. He apologised to Saya for breaking his vow to never show her something so disgusting. But she had already forgiven him. She would always forgive him.
Solomon didn't understand, poor boy. But I can give you that dream; the dream you once had to travel around the world… Saya looked back at him, with a soft smile on her face, and shook her head.
"You don't understand… that dream, that dream is useless without her." And she turned and began to walk away, ignoring Solomon's hand outstretched to her.
"Who? I don't understand!" He cried, and this time it was Hagi who answered him.
"Natsuki. Saya's dream… was to travel the world with Natsuki." And Solomon didn't know who Natsuki was.
-n/s-
I pray to protect this bright world
I fight to put this to an end
Where everyone can smile
I saw you crying alone
A song of hope to light the way to tomorrow
A song of despair of shadow to bury the past
Giving my life to it, I sing vigorously
Your existence stolen from me, your voice ceases
Let my voice float with the wind till I die…
I will collect the never-ending rain till I die…
-n/s-
2007, the MET, New York
It was the final showdown. Solomon was dead, all of the Schiff except a young girl named Lulu were dead, James was dead, Karl was dead.
And finally, finally it had come to it. Diva's concert. The MET, New York. The quiet, hushed crowd; so bedazzled with jewels that the jewellery encrusted ladies flashed whenever they moved. Even the men had sparkles gleaming at their cuffs, at their throats, the light dancing on the surface of watches, like the broken one that Joel IV clutched in his hand; one that had been passed down through the generations along with the name 'Joel Goldschmidt'. It was the very first Joel's watch, which Saya's numb fingers had closed around as he died, and when she was wrenched away from his body, the watch chain snapped and the artefact had come with her. When it had cracked, only Saya knew; when the second Joel had been slaughtered by Diva.
But as Joel gazed down at the watch, unknowing as he was of the details of his bloody history, he felt that this time, this time it would end. He looked up, snapping the cover down on the old surface, as David entered, his hand in his jacket and resting on the gun that was as much a family heirloom as Joel's watch; the Bloody Rose.
Again handed down through the generations of hunters who had served the Red Shield, it carried with it a history just as bloody. Joel met David's eyes; and saw there not only a subordinate, not only a comrade, but a friend.
"It's going to end this time." David nodded his affirmative. Everyone was in position; exactly where they were supposed to be. David, Okamura, Kai and Joel in his wheelchair watching; the more able bodied poised to help.
Julia and Mao were back at the apartment monitoring things from there. Lewis and Lulu on watch outside. And the most important pieces; the Queen and the Knight, Saya and Hagi, were backstage, waiting for their opportunity to engage Diva.
-n/s-
History repeats itself…
-n/s-
2007, the MET, New York
Saya and Hagi were delayed. Amshel disguised himself as his queen, and it was only when Diva's song began filtering through the curtains to backstage that they realised he was an imposter. Hagi let Saya pass, facing the terrifyingly stronger Amshel by himself. His wings exploded from his back, but Amshel was that much more powerful.
He had the strange, unique ability to create a laser beam of purple energy and aim it at his opponent, an ability made only stronger by his transformation into his ugly, bulky, huge purple bestial form. Their battle was not nearly as one sided as one would have thought; Hagi's dexterous fighting ability keeping him alive for a long time.
Their fight took them up into the air; kept there by their wings, through the ceiling of the MET and into the storm of rain and lightening. Their battle went on; with grievous injuries to both sides. But the most grievous were definitely to Hagi.
But Saya did not see any of it; she had rushed past and onto the stage, as the audience began to transform into chiropterans, willed on by Diva's eerie singing and the nucleotide extracted from the blue queen's blood coursing through her veins.
Saya came too late to save any of the audience members. But she arrived.
-n/s-
All voices encounter light and lead to shadow
In this repeating history
The thumping sound of the infinite world resounds
To declare the end
-n/s-
Diva was dressed in a dark dress; a simple sheathe of shadow that fell to the floor in waves, contrasted only by the darker shade of her hair; also loose and swinging by her thighs. Saya by contrast was in pink; a strappy, pale dress accompanied by a white scarf and gloves.
Both were dressed for the theatre, performer and audience member respectively. But they could fight.
Saya clasped her sword; her precious ridged katana with its green and blue handle, and she held it in front of her, ready to clash blades with her sister's; who held a rapier, befitting of her character; matching the set of the crumbling tower of Diva.
They exchanged words along with their blows; but they were of little importance. Petty quibbles that only strengthened their resolves, they soon destroyed their clothes to ease their movement, and loaded their blades with blood; a deadly poison to their opponent.
"I have nothing more to say to you." Saya snapped, her eyes beginning to glow with unnatural light. Diva raised her head, her own eyes shining a beautiful blue.
"Nor I to you."
-n/s-
All lives end and grow back again
In a paradise of light and shadow
Let my wish reach there…
Hello! Right, I'm so very sorry for the really late update, and I apologise especially to Princesa de la Luna, who hasn't heard from me in... months. I'm so sorry! However, I have had a really awful time of it recently when it comes to writing; this chapter is really long (almost 30 pages) so it was always going to take me a while, and then I went to India, which was brilliant but sadly lacking in the laptop and internet departement, naturally, and then I was ill, then computer troubles - my password messed up, which took an INSANELY long time to sort out, but hopefully I'm back for a while longer now! But again; I apologise to everybody for the long wait.
Okay, this chapter is basically a summary of the events of the Blood+ anime, with subtle changes (Riku didn't transform or die, Diva didn't get pregnant and then the other added bits from this story), and it's alternated with two songs from the Vocaloid Synchronicity series; firstly 'Looking for You in the Sky' by Kagamine Len (sung by Saya in this) and then 'Paradise of Light and Shadows' by Kagamine Rin and Len (sung by Natsuki and Saya alternately in this.) The usual applies; bold = Natsuki, normal = Saya and italics = both. Natsuki's parts are all supposed to be sung by her inside, not the persona Diva, just to be clear. The other song Natsuki sings is part of 'Dolls' by Kagamine Rin.
Sorry again for the really long wait, but I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading, and please review! XD
*kamaitachi = sharp slashes - use fans or limbs to create wind and slash the enemy. Can make slashes with one hand only, but slashes created with both hands crossed are very effective. This move is effective against objects as well as people. Can also just blow the enemy away instead of slashing them. - Source = Vampire Knight Official Fanbook.