"Kai."
Kai looked up, scowling when he saw Haji disappearing behind the frame of the door. He sat up and stood, making after him. He paused outside the door to Saya's chamber, realizing the door was slightly open. When he peeked in he saw Haji standing before the tube Saya was sleeping in, one hand gently resting atop the glass.
"What do you want?" Kai asked, stepping up alongside him.
"You wish to protect Saya. You wish her to be safe as I do."
Kai nodded, annoyed and not sure where this was going. When Haji was silent Kai looked up at him, watching him. He seemed sad as he looked down at Saya, and it made Kai uncomfortable.
"I killed the Chiropteran with a dagger. Inside the jewel, there is an ounce of Saya's blood. It injects out of the tip of the blade upon significant impact. It is one of two, sister blades."
Haji held out a dagger with a large red jewel to Kai, and he took it cautiously. He turned it over in his hands, feeling how heavy and… good it felt in his palm. Upon closer inspection he could see how worn the metal of the handle was, and claw marks graced the braided wire of the handle.
"You used this one with your right hand, your monster one?" Kai asked.
"Yes. I am giving it to you. I know you will protect Saya, and so I trust you with that dagger. The sister blades were gifts given to me by Saya, long ago, when she still…"
Haji trailed off and Kai gripped the blade tighter; so this meant a lot to Haji, and here he was giving it to Kai. Kai sighed then, letting the hand with the blade fall to his side.
"So in other words don't fucking lose it. Gotcha."
"I know you do not like me, Kai. But I am hoping your dislike will not extend to purposefully destroying that dagger."
Kai looked back at him in surprise, then scowled and faced him as if to fight him.
"I never said I didn't like you! And why would I do something so stupid like that! I mean, is Saya gave them to you and you belong to Saya then technically they're hers and that would be destroying her stuff!"
Haji didn't respond, and for a few seconds Kai felt mollified that he wasn't fighting back. Then Haji gasped, gripping his Chiropteran hand tightly to his stomach as if it hurt.
"They're here. They know where Saya is," Haji said, looking at Kai with steady eyes.
Kai paled, suddenly helpless.
"What do we do?" he asked, holding the dagger tightly and wishing for a gun.
"Get David and Lewis. Let them know that the danger is here, and it is coming fast to the lab. I will go out and try to spot them."
Kai ran out the door of the lab, swearing, then skid to a stop and ran back inside. Haji was kneeling beside the cello case, taking another dagger from inside. He looked up and neatly caught what Kai threw at him, looking down at it.
"Call us, that way we get the message faster. And don't screw up and get caught," Kai scolded, then ran back out towards where David and Lewis were drinking coffee in the cafeteria.
Haji rose, slinging the case onto his back and gripping the now lone sister dagger tightly. The power was calling him, and this close he felt it acutely. He could feel how it concentrated on Saya, how it tried to force her to wake up. He stopped this easily, by taking Saya's energy so that the call didn't reach her, but it drained him and made him more perceptible to whatever wanted her.
Outside, he leapt high into the air and landed nimbly atop one of the building adjoining the labs, listening and feeling for it. It came from the east, cold and serpentine in its whispers and fluid energy. Haji gathered himself, then leapt up again towards the east and danger.