"I know that you want to work on our table of elements for Lightening's class but can we study the history of Jerusalem together later on today too? I'm feeling a little rusty." Asks Luna on her and Suguro's morning run.
"Sure, I've got something to do after class so could we get together around six?"
"Six would be great. I could really use the extra help. We should get together a little study group. Maybe Konekomaru, Shiemi, Rin, and even Kamiki would like to join us."
"Why do you want everyone to go?"
Luna smiles and rubs her face with her forearm pretending to wipe sweat away so Suguro doesn't notice. "I don't know, it would just be nice to study all together."
Suguro looks at her with an arched eyebrow. Yeah, okay I'll check with them." Suguro wipes a bead of sweat from his nose.
"Hey guys!"
Luna and Suguro both turn their heads to look behind them.
Luna puts her hand over her eyes like a visor so that she can see more clearly. "What the Hell? It's Shima."
"Shima's never up this early." Suguro says turning forward again.
"The two of you are up early." Shima yells.
Suguro hollers back at him. "We are always up this early to run."
Shima catches up to the two of them and pushes his way in between them. "Hey Wilk can I talk to you a second?"
Luna looks at Shima not sure what to make of this encounter. "Sure I guess. What do you want to talk about?"
Shima looks at Suguro, "Would you excuse us for a minute?"
Luna looks at Suguro and he looks back at her. She shrugs her shoulders at him. He grumbles running faster to give her and Shima a moment.
Shima runs beside Luna in silence.
Luna looks over her shoulder at him. "What is it you want Shima?"
"I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday."
Luna stops in her tracks.
Shima overshoots her and has to turn back around. "It is your Birthday isn't it?"
Luna nods her head. "Yes but how did you know?"
"A little birdy told me."
"A little birdy?"
"Yeah, and that little birdy wanted me to give you this." Shima pulls an old DVD-R out of his pocket.
Luna looks at it and tries to make light of the situation. "Did you make me a home movie for my Birthday? How sweet." Luna says as she takes it from him.
"I told you it's not from me. It's from the birdy." Shima runs off to catch up with Suguro.
Luna looks at the label. It reads 'Happy 16th Birthday Luna! Love Mom.' Luna starts to shake and feel the world spin as if she were going to throw up. She staggers and then reads the label again. 'Love Mom'. "What the Hell?" Luna looks up to see Suguro and Shima chatting. 'Should I go ask him what kind of sick practical joke this is?' She thinks to herself. 'No! I have to see for myself.' She runs back to the direction of the girls dorms clutching the DVD-R in her hand.
"Hello Luna." Someone waves at her.
She answers without looking up. "Good morning."
She plows up the stairs and unlocks her dorm room door. She looks at her roommate's bed. 'Good she's left for the morning.' Going to the back of the room and sitting at her computer she wrestles with the old CD tray to come out. "Come on, come on." It opens slowly and she puts the DVD-R in the tray, pushes it back in and stares at the computer screen.
A message pops up on the screen. 'Play DVD, Yes or No?'
Luna clicks yes.
The DVD starts. It's fuzzy at first like an old VHS tape. It slowly comes into focus and Luna can see the form of her mother on the screen in her lab coat, crouched over a cage. Her mother speaks to the caged animal. "Alright No. 227 this is my daughter Luna." The video shows Luna's mother showing a photograph through the cage bars. "When she turns sixteen you can meet her. Okay No. 227?"
"Okay, Dr. Ward"
"Very good now eat your food so you can grow up to be big and strong when you meet her."
"Yes, ma'am big and strong."
Luna is startled by the voice from the cage. Not because the voice was scary, but because she assumed that what her mother was talking to was an animal. The voice she heard come from the cage was that of a boy.
Luna's mother walks over to the next cage revealing in the video the boy. Luna guessed that he was about eight or nine. His hair was tussled as though he hadn't washed in days. He wore a green jumper and he looked like a picture Luna had once seen of her father. He sniffed at his food and then laid down in his cage.
The video pans over and Luna sees another caged boy. He is about the same age as the other subject but this one is wild, shaking at his cage and biting at the bars. "No. 329 this is my daughter Luna. When she turns sixteen you will get to meet her."
No. 329 reaches out from the bars and tries to take the photo from her hands.
"No! Use your words 329." Luna's mother shakes her head and pulls away the picture.
"Mine! My wolf. Mine, I Alpha." Says No. 329 in broken English.
"You'll have to prove it to her when she's sixteen." Luna's mother smiles and turns off the camera.
Luna rewinds the video and watches it again. This time she sees that the boys both have a second set of ears. Not human ears, but wolf ears. Luna pauses the video and stares at her mother's face on the screen. "Oh my God! Mom what were you doing?" She notices there is more to the video so she pushes play.
This part of the video is time stamped and it looks like a security feed. There is no sound but a light blinks on an alarm system. Luna's mother runs to get the two boys from the earlier video out of their cages but this time they are not boys they're wolves. She opens the cage door for No. 227. 227 lets Luna's mother pick him up and take him to a car waiting outside her laboratory door. She runs back to let out No. 329 he bites and scratches at her when she opens his cage. She manages to get a mussel on him and get him in the car. She slams the door, nods to the driver and the car speeds away without her. She stares out the door not turning around when Lewin Light 'Lightening' comes into the lab.
Though she cannot hear him Luna can see that Lightening is speaking very aggressively to her mother.
Her mother turns to Lightening and is just as animated. Waving her arms about and giving him the bird.
Igor Neuhaus steps into the room angrily shouting. He keeps pointing at himself and then at his wedding ring. Even though Luna's Aunt Michelle had been dead for years he never took it off. He seemed like he was getting ready to summon one of his ghouls when Luna's father approaches her mother from behind in his wolf form.
Neuhaus nods his head towards the door.
Luna's mother turns to see what Neuhaus is gesturing at.
Luna's father stands before her seething, his hair on end and bearing his teeth. She can see him bark angrily.
Luna's mother pulls a gun from her lab coat and aims it at her father's wolf.
"Mom! What the Hell!" Luna yells at the computer.
She speaks keeping the gun on him.
Her father's wolf does not back down, instead he throws his head back and howls. She shutters at the sound giving Luna's father just enough time to leap on Aurora knocking her and her gun to the ground. She reaches along the floor trying to retrieve the gun.
"No mom stop!" Luna cries out.
Luna's father bites down on her throat and holds her to the ground as she thrashes around. When she stops struggling he lets go.
Luna yells at the computer screen again. "No Dad. Oh God Mommy!" She starts to cry banging on the computer desk with her fists. "What the hell is wrong with you two? I thought you loved each other!"
Blood gushes from the neck wound. Luna sees her mother gargle her last words and then she lies motionless.
Luna's dad looks at the body of his wife, and throws his head back in a long howl. Luna imagined her dad howling, "Aauurrora"!
Neuhaus walks up to Luna's father kneels down and wraps an arm around his upper body.
Lightening scratches his neck and looks around the lab for clues. Walking over to some of the lab equipment he pulls a vessel from a dry ice chamber that has the inscription M. Neuhaus.
Luna's Uncle Neuhaus runs over ripping the vessel out of Lightening's hands. Yelling he lifts it over his head smashing it down on the ground. He then runs back over to Luna's mother kicking her lifeless body.
Luna's father lunges at him guarding her body from further attack.
Lightening just watches them, with his arms crossed shaking his head. He then pulls out a lighter summoning a small group of Sylphs. They fly around him and then buzz out the door to pursue the vehicle that got away.
The video fades out and comes back like it was spliced in. It is now time stamped for seven in the morning. Luna can see her dad transformed back into a man. With his back to the camera he scoops up Luna's mother and rocks her body back and forth. He presses his face against her kissing her cheek and then he tips his head back screaming in agony.
Her father then looks at the floor and reaches for something. Sliding it across the floor he lifts it up. It is the gun, covered in Luna's mother's blood.
Luna grabs at the computer monitor. "No, Dad!"
He puts the gun to his temple and looking at her mother's lifeless body he pulls the trigger.
"DADDY!" She bangs on the computer monitor as tears stream down her face. "DADDY!" Luna crosses her arms laying her head down on them and cries out loudly. "Why…Daddy!"
It takes her a good twenty minutes to compose herself. She still shakes with grief as she paws at her face wiping away tears from her eyes and moisture from under her nose. Grabbing a tissue she dabs at her face and stands blowing it. Pacing the floor she thinks to herself. 'Why the Hell did Shima have this?' It takes her several minutes to come to the realization that she was out of time. That the Illuminati would be coming for her today! She runs back to her desk to grab her phone. Dialing Suguro's number, it begins to ring. "Come on, pick up!" She says impatiently.
"Luna? What happened to you? You didn't even come to catch up with me to finish our run."
Though he sounded frustrated with her his voice was very comforting to Luna's ears. "Ryuji? Are you alone?" Her voice still horse and nose still stuffy from crying.
"Are you okay?"
She does not respond instead she sniffles her nose.
"Yes I'm alone. Do you need something?"
"I need you to come up to my dorm room."
"I'll be right there."
"I'll meet you at the door." Luna hangs up her phone grabs her room key and runs down the stairs.
There are a few girls up and moving around but no one that Luna knows so she wasn't worried about them noticing Suguro come up to her room. Suguro approaches the door and Luna opens it for him.
"Suguro!" One of the girls call out from the stairs. "What are you doing up so early?"
"Oh, hey Himari. Wilk here is going to let me borrow a book for one of my classes."
"You could have borrowed my book." She bats her eyes at him.
Luna shakes her head.
Suguro blushes, "Well it's not a school book but I still need it for a class. It's a book from an American author so Wilk is going to help me translate it."
Himari frowns at Luna. "Lucky girl." She bounds off.
"Always the popular one aren't you." Luna says still shaking her head.
"I don't know why. I only have one class with her."
"Come on Ryuji. What I have to show you is on my computer." Luna grabs his forearm and leads him up the stairs.
"Geeze, slow down Luna what could be so important."
Luna unlocks her door and closes it once she and Suguro are both in. She walks over to her computer chair and pulls it out. "Sit."
Suguro sighs and rubs his ear. Walking over he sits down. "So what is it?"
"Shima gave me this video when we were running together." Luna leans over him and starts the video.
"I don't get any pretext?"
Luna shakes her head and sits on the left side of her desk. "Just watch."
He watches it very intently without making a sound. At the end when the video fades into darkness Suguro looks at her. "Luna? Was that your mom in an Illuminati laboratory?"
Luna shakes her head.
"And that was your father's wolf ki…" He stops midsentence realizing what he almost said.
Luna's eyes start to water.
Suguro pushes the computer chair out from the desk and standing up he pulls Luna's face into his chest.
Luna starts sobbing as Suguro strokes her hair and leans against her head with his chin.
"It's okay. Shh… It's okay... It'll be okay."
As Luna slowly starts to pull herself together she pulls back from Suguro's embrace. "Shima said a little birdy gave this to him. On the outside of the CD is a message from my mother wishing me a Happy Sixteenth Birthday."
"Wait, today is your Birthday? I had no idea."
"Yes, I'm sixteen today, but Ryuji did you hear what I said. My mom and dad have been dead for seven years. There is no way she sent this DVD to me. The other thing that bothers me is what my mom said in the video. 'The wolf boys would get to meet me when I turn sixteen.' So I think it's a message from the Illuminati telling me that my time for thinking about whether or not I'm going to help them with their experiments is up." She shakes her head slowly running her hands through her hair on either side of her temples. "I had no idea when I said I would come out of hiding that they would come for me so soon. What should I do? Should I go willingly or should I run and hide?"
Suguro puts his left hand on her shoulder and the other on her cheek. He then sighs and looks at the blank computer screen. "I think that we should consult with Lightening."
Luna slumps her body sliding off the desk groaning. "Really?"
Suguro puts his hands beneath her underarms and pulls her back up onto the desk. "Yes, he'll know what to do. We can't do this alone Luna. As much as I'd like to protect you myself an exorcist never works unaccompanied."
Luna shakes her head and sighs. "Okay, let's go talk to Lightening."
