Ummm so I can't even give an excuse, I just didn't realize that it had been so so so long since I had update. I just...I failed epically...forgive me...and please love this chapter.

DMA

Sorry once more.

I do now own sailor moon or it's characters, nor any characters from blue seed.

Serena stepped from the car onto the driveway and looked up at the looming worn down mansion before her. In the fading twilight it looked even more ominous. The setting of the sun was making the windows a deep red color. The driveway looked as if it was made to be cobblestone, but it was pure white with black in between the little squares, it went from the bottom of the hill and stopped in a large circle courtyard at the front of the house. Large trees surrounded the house, Serena didn't recognize them at all and suspected that they were not native; there were large silver wind chimes handing from the branches, each on was almost as tall as Serena. Their soft tinkling sound, the only sound around them, unnerved Serena.

The entire property was surrounded by ten foot high gates, at a distance they looked just like regular iron, but upon closer inspection Serena saw that ever other bar was iron or aged silver. The house itself was two stories high and in the old Spanish style; large windows framed by fading blue shutters; two large double doors at the entrance framed by an intricate carving above the doorway. Lush ivy vines climbed the white walls, and there were several shingles missing from the roof. In the entire house had fallen into disrepair and had lost most of its beauty with time. Though it was large and had once been quite grand it didn't look like it belonged amongst the other ordinary summer homes of Santa Monica.

"So who exactly lives here, or lived here?" She looked over the car at Jadeite who was fiddling with a tablet, and Rin who was stepping out of the car with the same scowl she always wore. The unhappy brunette surveyed their surroundings, her eyes darting around them, Serena noted that she had become very tense on the drive over.

"The name is a Leo Mills, I've run a background check and can't find anything except his name on a few more properties. He has another here and then two more in Los Angeles, he also has three in Europe and one in Syria," Jadeite told the group without looking up from his tablet.

"Occupation?" asked Darien closing the driver's side door.

"None listed, from what I can see he just popped up with money and started buying property about five years ago, before that however he only owned this house, it's been in his name for almost 12 years."

"Maybe he won the lottery," said Fei.

The Darien and Jadeite exchanged glances as Rin rolled her eyes, "It's possible," he muttered.

Jadeite turned towards the house, "Let's take a look inside shall we?" He walked up to the front door with Fei and Darien following behind.

"Interesting," muttered Rin, she had drifted away from the car and was nearing one of the large trees.

"What is it?" asked Serena.

"This is a sambucus tree" said Rin.

"Those are supposed to ward off."

"Modern tales tell it that way, but the olden witches congregated under them and used their power to protect themselves and their secrets." Rin glanced around, "I'd say that if we looked we'd find them all around the edges of the property."

"So the question is, are we dealing with someone who was trying to ward off evil or hide it."

"It's most likely safe to say that our Mr. Mills didn't just pop up out of nowhere."

"Agreed," Serena turned and saw the three men standing around the entrance of the house staring at the door. "What's with them?"

Rin looked over her shoulder, then sighed and shook her head then brushed past Serena. "Having difficulties?"

Fei glared at her, "Above the door, the carvings."

Serena and Rin glanced up, around the entire doorway there was a carving of elegant swirls and shapes, but upon closer inspection there were symbols and words hidden within the pattern. Rin reached out and touched the carvings, she smiled. "Clever witch, it's a protection spell against evil, and men." She turned and looked over her shoulder smiling. "Whoever did this wanted to make sure that no man passed through the doorway without permission."

"Which is why we can't even move towards it," said Jadeite.

"Wrong, you can't get near it because you're a vampire. There are symbols in here to ward off all kinds of unwelcomes, demons, vampires, witches, wraiths, ghosts, and even angles."

"But you can touch it?"

"I think I fall under a different category."

"Which would that be?"

"Traitor." The group turned around and saw that Amara, who had remained in the car stubbornly, had finally decided to join them. "She's not part of a coven anymore and she's not evil, or a male so she can enter without any difficulties."

Rin turned back to the doorway. "I suspect whomever did this didn't want us to find what's inside."

"Oh hurry up and break it Rin, this is becoming tedious," Fei groaned.

"As you wish, brother." Rin held out her hand towards the frame around the door. Everything around the group went silent, and the air around them stilled. Serena glanced around nervously. Then the wind changed without warning, and began to move circular around Rin, they all felt the draw of power as it was sucked away from the very life forces of the living things around them and gathered within her.

Suddenly there was a large crack and an invisible blast shot out and away from Rin. The energy was hot, almost too hot on Serena's face. She looked and saw that the frame of the door had been splintered and hundreds of tiny little cracks had appeared.

"The spells broken, we should be able to enter without issue now, but I warn you if there was this much power in a spell on the outside I don't think it should be hard to imagine what lives inside."

Momiji couldn't see in the darkness, despite all the wonderful gifts her mother's new powers had granted her, night vision had not been one of them. She held out her hand and whispered an incantation, fire began to grow from her hand. She held it up and surveyed the room before her. It was solid with three walls of sleek steel, no windows, a bed was attached to the wall in the corner, and there was a sink and a toilet opposite from that. "A cell?" She pushed the door back a little and looked at the side inside the cell. There were marks on the door, as if someone had banged against it, there was also dried blood in the shape of fist prints. "Someone wanted out." She heard creaking from above her, footsteps pulling out her gun she turned from the room.

"There's no alarm system."

"So?"

Serena glanced over at her husband, but said nothing. Rin knelt down and pulled a small velvet pouch from her pocket. She reached in and pulled out two metal tools and began trying to pick the lock. Suddenly from over her shoulder a leg swung out and kicked in the door, Rin looked up and glared at the blonde haired female.

Amara rolled glared back, "It would have taken too long and anyone looking out of their windows would have seen the six of us standing here. Pretty suspicious to civilians." She brushed past the group and into the house without another word.

"And a kicked in door in a million dollar neighborhood isn't suspicious," said Rin pocketing her pouch, she followed and clicked on the flashlight in her hand. "Be careful of the light it's ultraviolet."

"Run into a lot of Vampires," said Jadeite.

Rin glanced over her shoulder at him, "Have to be prepared for anything." She didn't miss his small smirk as she turned back around and pulled her gun from her hip.

Serena and Darien entered next, with Fei following last. The house was dark and empty, every piece of furniture was covered with white sheets and a thick layer of dust was on the floors. The setting sun peeking from behind the boarded up windows gave them almost no light. Serena saw no footprints or any indication that anyone had been there for a long time.

"Jadeite how long did you saw this house has been like this?"

Jadeite pulled out the tablet again, "The last utilities bill was paid almost four years ago. After that everything just stopped and the house was supposedly shut up."

"So uninhabited for a long ass time, and Hermione thinks there's what here?" said Fei.

"Not sure she just said answers."

Serena could see that the house was beautiful, there was a large staircase that led to the second floor, a large living room off to the right which led into another room. On the first level she could see a hallway leading to the back of the house, and to the left there were two large oak doors with carved designs in them.

Darien and the two others wandered into the living room all of them searching, but Serena was drawn to the doors. She neared them and stared at the carvings. There were what looked to be the constellations at the top, then the heavens, earth, and at the bottom hell.

"Creepy," Serena turned around to see Fei also staring at the doors. "I never understood stuff that this. It's supposed to be beautiful and…."

"Creepy," he said. Serena felt the corner of her lip twitch, she grasped the handles of the doors and turned down then pushed the doors open. The room beyond was a large and empty, with large windows that began at the floor and reached almost to the ceiling, each on covered from the outside with the shutters. There was no furniture, only a covered chandelier hanging from the ceiling and some portraits on the walls that were covered as well. The floor was an intricate pattern swirls and jagged marks spread from different corners and walls in the room. "A ballroom?"

"Exciting," Fei said, "What would this have been used for? Sweet sixteen parties?"

Serena turned and brushed past him to meet Rin who was coming back downstairs from the second level. "Anything?"

"No, some furniture upstairs but nothing and none of the dust was disturbed, no one has been here in a long long time," she told Serena.

"Why this place?" Serena looked around there was nothing special about it. It was old and dirty and smelled of….

Serena suddenly inhaled deeply, there was a scent that she recognized. "Darien!"

Darien and Jadeite appeared in front of her, she inhaled deeply again. "Do you smell that?"

"What?" Darien inhaled but she saw no recognition on his face.

"It smells like….like….a chemical…" Serena said turned her eyes darting around trying to find the source of it.

"Chemical?" Darien tried to inhale the smell again. "I don't smell anything."

"It's faint barely there anymore, but it's….it smells like….I've smelt it before in the lab at…" she paused remembering the smell.

She turned back to her husband her eyes wide with realization. "Where Serena?" he asked.

"In Hermione's laboratory…in Abby's house."

Darien's body tensed, "What is it?"

"A chemical that Hermione used when she…..when she would handle the virus. She used it to neutralize the infection and clean all her tools properly. That's….I smell it….I can smell it here….it's been a while since it's been here but I can smell it."

Serena followed the smell out of the ballroom and down the hall to the back of the house. She stopped in front of a plain white door. "It's strongest here," she opened the door to reveal the pitch black cellar. She had stepped down one step when Darien touched her shoulder.

"Wait," he turned to Rin. "Your flashlight?" Rin handed it over to him, he clicked it on and then moved past Serena cautiously going down the steps. Serena followed behind, the smell was getting strong, and it was mixing with another smell, a darker and more putrid smell.

"Blood," Jadeite whispered, "Corrupted blood."

Amara's voice came from the back of the group, "Corrupted blood?"

"When the infected would reach a certain state in their sickness their blood began to smell different, it was one of the signs that told us they were beyond help."

"Why were they beyond help?"

"A virus that can restructure your organs and your body to create corrupted blood has integrated itself into your DNA, into your very cells, removing it from that point on was almost impossible and almost none of the treated who had gone past that point ever fully recovered."

Serena and Darien reached the bottom of the steps, a long hallway was in front of them, spanning the length of the house. On either side of the hallway were solid metal doors with numbers on the top, "Cells," Serena said. The smell here was the strongest, it was old and faded but this had been where it had seeped into the walls.

"Cells for captives?" asked Fie.

"Cells for experiments," answered Darien. "The blood is from inside of these," he reached to the door nearest to him and opened it, the stench was strong, old dead blood, mixed with the chemicals of the virus, bodily fluids that couldn't be removed, and the stench of madness. On the walls were scratches and bloodied fist prints, there was silver hair on the floor as well as blackened rotted pieces of flesh that had been torn off.

"Why would Leo Mills have cells in his basement?" asked Jadeite.

Serena turned around, "I think the better question is why would Leo Mills have infected Vampires in his home?" She counted, "Four cells on each side, eight all together."

"No," said Rin from further down the hallway, "This one isn't a cell." She stood before the last doorway, "It's a lab, mostly cleaned out."

Darien and Serena exchanged glances then looked at Fei, "You said that Sophia had infected her victims with the Virus, but you never said that she made it."

Rin stared into the empty lab room, "The Mistress made it, I watched her struggle with it for years, all the failures, sometimes I think they were worse than the successes. She made it, but…." Rin paused then looked at the group. "She made it, but she wasn't the one who thought it up."

Serena stiffened, "Who?" Darien demanded.

Rin glanced at Fei momentarily then looked into the lab room again. "I don't know, the Mistress would always meet with her I private, and the woman always took care to remain hidden, I glimpsed her once, just once. Her hands were very white, and her eyes, her eyes were icy blue and cut like ice the same way. I never was there for their conversations, but what I did hear was enough. She put the idea into Sophia's head, she put a lot of idea's into Sophia's head."

"So Leo Mills most likely had a connection with this person," said Serena. "We need more."

Darien looked at Jadeite, "You said this Mills owned other properties in the area."

"One other," he said with a nod. "About a twenty minute drive from here."

Hotaru stared at the large stone door in front of her. There was a large carving on it depicting a woman with her hands clasped in front of her and her eyes closed, she looked as if she was praying. Large metal spikes had been driven into the stone, thick ropes had been tied to the ends of the spikes. A man yelled from behind her in a language that she didn't understand, but she knew he was telling her to move. She looked at the door once more then turned away and went to sit next to Lenobia.

Lenobia was sipping her tea and staring at the twenty or so men who were getting ready to pull the door down. "Soon, so very soon."

"This is the last door isn't it mother?" asked Leo. Hotaru glanced over to him, he was lying on the ground a crate behind him propping the upper half of his body up as he cleaned his gun.

"Yes," she glanced at him. "Put that away boy, you have no need for it here."

"Those humans…."

"Can easily be taken care of if they cause a problem, besides the guardians have taken care of most of them," she said as she took another sip from her tea.

Hotaru glanced behind them, the ground was covered in blood, a few body parts lay scattered about. A few feet away from where Leonardo was sitting was the large mutated body of an ancient black and silver haired werewolf. A few more feet away was the headless body of a starved female Aswang.

"When we get down there mother how will we awaken her, she'll need blood before she's reanimated."

Lenobia smiled again and took another sip, "Again my son, we brought the humans for a reason."

"Hermione?" She looked up from her book at her husband. "Are you alright?"

She smiled at him, "Yes my love? Why?"

"You seem distracted?"

She smiled at him, but it was a smile that didn't reach her eyes, "Oh no my sweetest, I'm fine, we're all going to be fine."

"What?" Daniel suddenly jolted and gasped in pain.

"My love?"

He gasped for air and blood poured from his mouth. "Daniel?" Hermione looked down and saw that her hand was sticking into his chest grasping his heart. "Daniel!" in her mind she tried to unclench her hand and pull it away from him, but she felt her fingers tighten and then rip his heart from his body.

Daniel fell to the ground lifeless. Hermione looked up and saw herself standing in front of her. The other woman had a dark smile on her face as she stared at her husband's heart in her hand. Hermione brought her hands to her mouth in horror. Her twin smiled darkly, "I'll devour you." Then she bit into the heart.

Hermione screamed and shot up in the darkness of her bedroom. "Daniel!" she yelled.

"Hermione?" the light next to their bed flicked on and she turned to see him staring at her. "What's the matter?"

She reached out and touched his chest, it was unmarred as it had always been. She breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed into his arms. "The dreams…they're so real now…."

His firm arms wrapped around her, "What is it my love? What did you see?"

"It was horrible….I….I killed you….ripped out your heart." She grasped him tighter as he petted her hair.

"My love you wouldn't, couldn't hurt me," he whispered to her. He pulled her down and laid her head down upon his chest. "It was only a dream."

"But my dreams are visions."

"Sometimes….and sometimes they're just dreams…reflecting your fears or apprehensions my love. You are still human."

"Human…" she repeated the word. "Daniel the baby….what do you think she'll be?"

"Hmm…I think she'll be as beautiful as her mother, as smart as her too. She'll have the Ambrose eyes and none of our arrogance."

Hermione chuckled, "She'll have my stubbornness though."

"Of course, it seems like it's a family trait in the women of your family," he ran his hands gently through her hair.

They were silent for a while until she spoke again, "You feel it too don't you?"

He sighed, "Yes, I do. I may not be as psychic as Kusanagi or you, but I feel it…something is shifting. Perhaps it's from being with you all the time but I can sense things now."

"Our happiness isn't meant to last," she muttered. "Always tragedy follows me."

"Don't say that," his grip upon her tightened.

Her hands went to her stomach, "If anything were to…"

"Hermione, don't."

She sat up and faced him, "If anything Daniel, were to happen to me. Promise me you wouldn't let anything happen to her."

Daniel sat up, "Hermione what do you think is going to happen to you?" He saw the fear in her eyes and he knew she was hiding something, "Hermione?"

"I don't know the future, nothing's certain, but in case…in case something were to happen…promise me."

Daniel stared at his wife for several long moments, he reached out his hand and placed it on her stomach. "I swear I will never let anything happen to her. I will not let my family abuse her, I will not let human or hunters harm her, I will never let any evil touch her."

Hermione smiled and then kissed him, "Thank you."

"Now you have to promise me something." She looked up at him, "Whatever happens, promise me you'll come back to us. Promise you'll do whatever you can to come back to us."

"Where do you think I'll be going?" she asked.

Daniel brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear, "I don't know, but promise me."

Hermione placed her hands on his shoulders, "I will do whatever is in my power for me to come back to you…even if I don't think I'm going anywhere." She smiled and then kissed him again then laid down next to him.

"Just as long as I have your promise."

Mills' second property was just as large as the first one, the grounds were larger, but that was probably due to the fact that it was set a little outside of the city. Still the entire estate was gated, and there were sambucus trees all over the grounds. The house was once again in the Spanish style, only with a different type of color scheme; and where the other house had seemed deserted this one was pristine and had been recently used.

Serena had been able to break the security key codes and the gates had swung inwards allowing their car to enter. "Another place with no security system," Fei said as they passed the gates.

"You can't tell that from here," snapped Amara.

"There aren't any cameras on the gates, logically the place where you want cameras would be the gates," said Fei rolling his eyes at the blonde woman.

"Why wouldn't someone have a security system?" said Jadeite.

"They do it's just not the technological kind," Rin said staring out of the window, then suddenly she yelled "Fuck, brace yourselves."

"What for?" barked Amara. But as soon as the words were out of her mouth a large mass slammed into their car rolling it over.

The car tumbled over and over, metal cracked and glass shattered around them. Serena closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on something until the spinning was over. Finally the car came to a shuddered halt and the silence engulfed the,

"Is everyone alright?" asked Darien when the car had finally settled upside down.

"Define alright," came Fei's snarky reply.

"Alive."

"Well that's a term that could loosely be applied to a few here," he said.

"Shut it Fei," yelled Serena. "What's everyone's condition?" She cut her seat belt off with a knife and dropped to the roof of the car with a bang. She felt glass pierce the skin on her palms and knees, she hissed in pain.

"Serena?"

She looked over at her husband. "I'm alright just a little glass." She kicked open her door and climbed out, then turned and ripped the side door off its hinges. Jadeite climbed out holding an unconscious Rin, who was bleeding from a head wound. "She alright?"

"She's going to need to get her head looked at, and I don't know about any serious injuries, but there could be internal bleeding," he said. Jadeite looked around, "What hit us?"

Serena glanced around them, "that's a good question." She pulled her weapon from the holster at her side and switched off the safety feature. She looked around but the moon was hidden and the trees only cast darker shadows around them. She inhaled deeply but could only smell the trees sweetness. "That's why there are so many," she said glancing around at the numerous trees that littered the grounds, "they wanted to throw off our smell."

She held the gun up in front of her, "Darien anything on your side?"

"Nothing over here."

"Let go of me I am fine!" yelled Amara from the other side of the car. Serena heard Fei reply something but she didn't pay attention to his words. "I don't need your help!" Amara yelled again.

Serena saw movement in the distance. "Jadeite." He looked up and saw several forms moving towards them as well. "Go." Jadeite began moving carefully to the other side of the car, she followed careful not to turn her back on the shapes, and never lowering her weapon.

"I am not an invalid Fei I do not need your help!" Amara's voice carried across the grounds.

"Will you two shut the hell up," Serena whispered.

"What" snapped Amara, she looked up and suddenly realized the situation they were in. She pulled her gun from the holster and a long knife from her ankle.

Fei shed his long orange coat and pulled two swords from the sheaths that crisscrossed his back. "Hey Princess, is Rin…"

"We don't know we'll have to get her to a hospital when we get out of this."

He nodded, "Anyone know what these things are I can't see for shit."

"I haven't gotten a good look at them," said Serena, "I think a werewolf was what took out the car."

"It was," Darien was at her side, he had no weapon in his hands yet but staring out across the large lawn. "There are four I think, and two other creatures….I think one is a wendigo."

Serena tensed, "Great and here we are all cut up and smelling like dinner. Alright the three of you need to…"

"No offense Princess but we can take care of ourselves we're Rodericks."

"One of us is," said Fie.

"Let's not get into specifics."

Fei glared at Amara, "So what should we…"

"Run!" yelled Serena suddenly, then she took off at top speed towards the house.

"Fucking really!" Fei yelled.

Serena could hear the snarls and growls of the weres as they ran after the group. She veered off a towards the right and stopped suddenly turning, she fired twice and heard one of the weres yelp, then she started off running again. Amara was firing at a werewolf that was running towards the group from the left. A high pitched screech came off from the right, Serena looked over and saw the wendigo running towards Jadeite, who was carrying Rin.

"Darien!" Serena yelled. Darien looked and changed his direction, he yelled at Jadeite, who picked up his speed and was able to barely avoid the wendigo as it lunged for him. Darien instead grabbed the creature by the face and a violent explosion of black lightening ripped the creature in half. Serena skidded to a halt next to Darien, "Well that's one way." There was another loud howl from behind them, Fei ran past his swords stained with dark blood.

Darien took hold of her arm and pulled her into motion, "We can discuss it later."

After a few yards Serena stopped suddenly, Darien stopped and looked at her. "Where is Amara?" they both listened the rapid fire of her gun had stopped.

They exchanged glances, "You go to the house I'll go back for her."

Serena shook her head, "No way if you go back alone you're left open for those other wolves."

"Serena…" he tried but she was already doubling back towards where they had last seen Amara. "Damn it!"