A.N. I know, I know, I took a super-dooper long time to update... But I have a brilliant, fantastic, incredible reason... deep breath... I'VE GOT A NEW COMPUTER!!

-gushing- Yes, that's right, a brand spanking new computer that doesn't have the intelligence of a retarded ant. It's wonderful, it's widescreen and has broadband internet, and all the keys work on the keyboard! And it starts with only the push of a button, I no longer have to turn it upside down and bash it with a hammer. And, it greets me with a smiley face when it's first turned on, rather than my old computer's oh-so-cheerful 'Warning: error type 1675 87142b. Restart.'

Yes, life is gooood. -sighs happily-

Oh but before I get on with the long-awaited chappie, I wanted to address something that one of my lovely darling reviewers brought up. They said: 'But wasn't it Haji's blood that first made Saya remember?' My take on the situation is that while in the anime it was Haji's blood that made Saya begin to remember, it didn't necessarily have to be. Even before tasting his blood it's made obvious that she vaguely recognised him, and I think that if she was given more time her memories would have come back on their own. Haji's blood was just a booster of sorts, speeding up the process so that she would remember how to defend herself against the attacking Chiropteran. At least, that's how I'm going to take it. I don't really want to go back and change anything more. But thanks for your question, and also to everyone else who's noticed little (or big) errors in my story! Anyone whose questions I haven't answered, that's only because they'll be addressed later on in the story.

So, my happy rant over with, on with the show!!

How is it that we really know ourselves? Really, really, know ourselves?

Is the knowledge deep within, in the way our hearts beat and in the way our muscles shift? Is it in our laughter, the sounds of our voice when it whispers or screams? Who are we really; how much of who we are is written in our minds and marrow, and how much is artificial, a product of the outside world seeping into our unconscious thoughts and actions? Is it possible to ever truly know who you are?

…What if you had no memories of who you were, what then? Could you ever rediscover yourself, or, without you even knowing, would your entire personality flip upside down without the external or even internal factors of before?

And this is what Saya needed to know, needed with a desperation that haunted her. She needed to know who she was in her core, needed to know the extent and the price of the power that flooded her veins. She knew already who she loved, felt her emotions for Aika, Aiko, Haji, Kai – for all her dear friends – surge through her entire being. She, however inexplicably, knew that much with a certainty that surprised her. And even though there were dark corners in her mind that were like a minefield, full of places she dared not tread, she wanted desperately to complete herself and appease the nagging hollowness in her mind that insisted that she was not whole without the truth of her past, however vile it may be.

Time and flashes of dreams had revealed to her the barest of snippets of her past: she remembered that she had loved Haji with an intensity that bordered on painful, knew that he had died and that now lived only for her; she knew that her twin, Diva, had been a beautiful girl born to an ugly world that had crushed her mind until there was nothing left but a twisted child; she knew that she, Saya, had killed. She had seen the ghosts wailing soundlessly for her in her dreams and was far too afraid to rest anymore, but at the same time too afraid not to…

Almost a whole week had passed. The officers were still looking for evidence, but as of tomorrow they no longer had the authorisation to hold her without any proof of her involvement and she would be released. If they did happen to find something, though – a print, some DNA, anything that might connect her to the murders – then she'd probably be imprisoned for life. Still, her hopes were cautiously high. What was the chance that they'd find something over night, after all?

Saya sighed. It was dreary in her lonely little cell, but at least she'd had some time to think things through and fully come to grips with what had been happening. Through her existential angst and traumatised thoughts and teasing snippets of memory, she'd somehow managed to make some decisions concerning her relationship with Haji.

"I want to give us a chance," she whispered aloud, and the sound of her own voice echoing dimly throughout the chilled room gave her a small measure of comfort. "I don't really know him, but I want to… I like him very much, but I want to love him like I know I once did. He feels… right." And that feeling was more important than anything else to her right now.

The Chiropteran girl looked through exhausted eyes up at the cold concrete ceiling, the heat smoking in her blood for once not the focus of her tortured thoughts. True, she did want to love him. But did she deserve to love him? She had killed, and he seemed too untainted and untouchable to ever associate with one as dirtied and broken as she felt she must be… But, had he killed? The very thought made her shudder. Why? What could possibly drive them to spill blood? To take innocent lives?

Saya's trembling started afresh, her pained maroon eyes slipping closed as guilt and exhaustion gripped her tight. She hadn't had a full night sleep in an age and it was really beginning to wear on her, and it only made her all the more susceptible to the attacks that demanded that she get out and go to Haji, wherever he was. She braced herself, feeling the familiar jolts of burning electricity sparking deep in her bones…

The door creaked, and Saya desperately struggled to contain the fire that nibbled teasingly on her skin. Relieved that she had caught it in time she turned her head toward the noise, hoping that whoever was visiting brought her some food. She was so hungry that if it wasn't for the dull throbbing within she'd think she was nothing but a hollow husk. She was living on three small meals that were delivered morning, noon, and night, but anyone who's ever seen Saya eat knows that she has a very different metabolism to humans, and requires daily very large portions of food in order to properly function. Said girl grimaced as a stab of pain whited out her vision for a moment. A large beaker of blood would be appreciated, as well… Still, she suppressed her heat and looked again to the cell entrance.

Hojo stood in the doorway, foodless, unfortunately. He looked as tense and tired as she herself must, his eyes ringed with dark blue and looking everywhere but into her own exhausted orbs. He was so different to the confidant young man he had been a scant five or so days before. He even smelt different. He seemed to be almost afraid…

"Hey," she rasped, a watery but genuine smile turning her lips and making her eyes light, if only dimly. "I haven't… seen you in a while." She made to sit up but it took too much effort, so she plopped back down onto the mattress with a muffled grunt. A pained look overcame her features, but she managed a small smile when her tremors were once again successfully quashed. She'd made a promise that no one else would ever have to die or suffer because of her, and she wasn't planning on breaking her promise now by letting her rage overwhelm her and revealing the demons inside her to Hojo. No more pain…

"I've been around," Hojo said vaguely, and she couldn't help but notice that he didn't leave the safety of the doorframe to properly enter the room like he usually did. "Busy, as usual." The smile he gave her was fake and strained, flickering from his face so quickly it was as though someone flicked a light switch rapidly up then down. He lifted a distracted hand to run his fingers through his hair, and Saya paused mid-inhale, puzzled. He did smell funny, but it wasn't of fear…

"Will I… be able t-to leave soon?" Saya asked, forcing her words past her now chattering teeth. Her nose scrunched in confusion, the movement barely distinguishable from the uncontrolled twitching of her facial muscles. It was an oddly familiar smell...

"Hm? Oh, yes. You'll be released tomorrow, unless something is discovered overnight. We'll be continuing our investigations for a while longer, but as of tomorrow we no longer have the authorisation to hold you here without cause." He paused and looked closely at her, as though only just now noticing her sweating face and sporadically jerking limbs as she struggled to remain still. "You don't look so good," he said, and his eyes darkened with his concern. "You're sure you don't know what's wrong?" Taking a deep breath Hojo took a daring step into the room, standing directly over the cot that Saya lay in. This was it…

Saya wrinkled her nose, but didn't shy away from his presence. "I-I'm… pos-positive," she said, looking up at the man who was now standing so close he was almost pressed against her. Her words were staggered and broken, the syllables spit desperately through painfully clenched teeth. It hurt to talk. "This sort of thing has… has never… happened before."

Hojo nodded with a suppressed sigh, and was just leaving through the door when Saya called out, "Oh, and… and Hojo?"

He turned back. "Yes?"

"…You might w-want to take a bath." She fluttered a slender hand in front of her nose exaggeratedly.

The officer visibly sagged. "Yes. Yes, of course." He waited until the steel door closed with its vibrating 'clang' before he dug furiously inside his shirt, pulling out the pungent string of garlic he'd put under his top. "Damn," he muttered moodily, and tossed the lot into a convenient rubbish bin. He was beginning to have some doubts about the whole vampire thing…

He shook his head exasperatedly and opened the door again, ignoring the screech of the tortured hinges. He was being ridiculous. It was time to get some things sorted out once and for all…

"Saya, are you a vampire?" he said bluntly.

For a long while there was silence, broken only by Saya's ragged breathing as her fragile form struggled to take in air while she desperately re-suppressed the spasms of her limbs. In the weak light her pale face looked almost ghostly, the dark hair that pooled around her slender body making her face look even whiter than it was.

"This is completely off the record," Hojo added helpfully, daring to enter the room and close the door. He shook his head when Saya's eyes darted automatically toward the surveillance camera in the corner of the room. "No one else has to know anything you say to me, I swear no one else will find out. I just want to know whether or not you're anything I should be afraid of. Whether you're a… I guess a mythical creature, or not."

"What m-makes you… think I might be?" said Saya, and though her voice was raspy it was hard with suspicion. Please, please, please leave, she begged mentally, choking back a pained gasp when a violent spasm whited out her vision for a moment. She couldn't hold back much longer…

"Many things." Hojo sat on the end of the bed. "Talk to me? I promise, nothing you say will leave this room. I don't like being afraid of you, and because I truly don't think you're a dangerous person I want to clear this up."

Saya tried to breathe evenly, but it was difficult. She bit her lip, staring hard at the ceiling as her mind whirled.

Oh, to be able to talk about it. To let someone know how afraid she was, to have someone see and know. To have someone tell her whether she was normal or not, maybe even someone to tell her what to do…

But it couldn't ever be.

She stared at Hojo, who looked back, his eyes bright beneath the fluorescent light that buzzed above them. Saya swallowed, her fingers curling into a fist. Her stomach twisted and her throat tightened. No. Not Hojo. He was too kind, too sweet for her to burden with such a tainted thing as the bloodthirsty beast that hungered beneath her skin. "… I'm not a my-mythical creature," she whispered. She was telling the truth, too. She wasn't just a myth. She was sitting right there.

"Are you a vampire, then?"

"Wasn't… the last time I checked." Again, she was telling the truth. She had no idea what vampires were, and last time she had asked she had been told she was a Chiropteran.

"Do you need a coffin, or some blood or anything?" said Hojo warily. "If you really are a vampire, that is…"

Saya's ears pricked. Blood? She couldn't imagine what she'd need a coffin of all things for, but yes, she did need blood, badly. She needed it so that she could better control the pain of her heat. She needed it so that she had the strength of body and mind to not go on another killing spree. She needed it to live, as well… But, could she risk telling Hojo? Her limbs twitched slightly, heat coursing through her bones and clenching her muscles. It burned and throbbed, and her eyes flared pink.

"Get out," Saya said frantically. "Get out of here or I'll-!" She broke off with a growl, her body arching upward as pain wracked her limbs.

Hojo looked nervous, but didn't move away. "Why should I leave, Saya?" he insisted boldly. "What will you do if I don't?"

She groaned, her teeth elongating to slide over her bottom lip despite her best efforts. Sweat beaded her brow, and her claws tore bloody crescents into the tender flesh of her palm. Demonic crimson-shot eyes stretched grotesquely wide and locked onto the startled officer. "Eat you," she growled. Her hold over her body at last snapping with an almost audible crack, Saya threw her head back and screamed.

The Chiropteran girl began to convulse uncontrollably, her teeth gnashing, her limbs flailing and her hair tossing wildly as she bucked. Her mouth stretched in a soundless shriek she arched off the mattress, her insides burning from her core out as her incisors extended, her eyes flashed crimson and her lengthened fingernails tore the sheet below her to ribbons.

"Get me blood!" she screamed desperately when she at last found her voice. "Please, oh please, I need blood!" She needed blood, she needed control, she needed all her friends, she needed Haji, she needed… Oh, she just needed!

"Holy shit," Hojo breathed, his terror as he watched her transformation so great that it paralysed him to the spot. "You're a… oh, my God…"

"Blood," Saya begged, her eyes burning painfully from inside as they begun to glow a violent shade of crimson. "Blood…" Her control was slipping. "Blood!" Her words were little more than garbled snarls.

"Vampire," Hojo choked. His eyes stretched wide with fear and his breath coming in terrified gasps, Hojo gave a frightened yelp as something primal within him demanded that he run from the age-old threat. Blindly obeying the consuming call to flee he dashed toward the door and began scrabbling at the locks, cursing himself for taking the threat so lightly that he fucking locked the fucking door… Saya's tortured howls quickened his shaking fingers until at last the door flew open, and almost sobbing in relief Hojo darted through the narrow opening and slammed the metal block closed behind him.

Saya's screams disappeared abruptly from behind the thick steel. The only sound now was that of his own breath, the broken pants echoing down the long, empty corridor. Whimpering he slid down the length of the door until he was sitting down, his trembling hands cradled in his lap as silent tears of pure terror coursed unchecked down his pale cheeks. "Oh, God," he whispered, the words bouncing back at him from the cold corridor walls. "Oh, God." He sat there for a long, long while.

After a few long minutes he stood up, deathly pale and trembling a little, but otherwise outwardly fine. After the slightest of hesitations he began to walk away from the towering steel door of cell 15A, his pace quickening the further away he got until he was jogging down the empty corridor. Upon reaching the double doors he closed a quivering hand over the handle, managing on the third try to open it into the already thinning crowds within the main building, the late hour having seen most of them home. He ignored any greetings or concerned looks he received from the others. It was all real, he thought dazedly. Vampire… "I'm going home," he told a random workmate. The chill within had settled deep in his stomach, icing him over from the inside out and turning his bones brittle. His stomach hurt. It felt like he had eaten something terrible, but couldn't throw it up. "I'll see you later."

He strode into his office and grabbed his things, but instead of heading out the front door into the night he walked in another direction, his body on autopilot as his feet walked the familiar route along the darkened corridor. His brain felt far too fragile to take more than a distant interest in proceedings, so it simply tuned out while his body took control.

The officer's hands pushed open the door marked PATHOLOGY, not noticing or perhaps simply not caring that there was no one at the front desk to wave him in. It was late, and many department branches had already gone home for the night.

Using his access card to automatically unlock the doors Hojo strode into the main lab, the fluorescent lights flickering on as he walked amongst the steel benches, the clicking of his shoes filling the otherwise noiseless room. He silently pulled on a pair of plastic gloves and tied a mask around his face, slicking his hair back with water when he couldn't find a hair net. Surprisingly steady hands knotted a smock over his uniform, and only then did his dulled eyes turn to the wall of freezers. He had to see. He had to know…

He pulled a random freezer door open and slid out the tray within, his face eerily deadpan even in face of the mutilated carnage that lay under his blank scrutiny. Hisae had obviously been working some more since he had last seen her, since the sick jigsaw of body parts was, at least for this particular body, complete. Good. It made everything a little easier.

Moving the body to the work bench, Hojo studied the severed limbs with clinical indifference. Fitting an arm back into the shoulder socket it had been torn out of he studied the jagged cuts that surrounded the stump. Of those cuts there were four in particular that caught his eye; four long, thick, diagonal slices. Slices that had been made by neither blade nor glass...

Hojo lightly pressed his finger tips to the ends of the cuts and slid his hand along the length of the wound, his fingertips ghosting down the four parallel slits. He had to bite back a whimper as his fingernails slid into the gouges perfectly, his pupils dilating and sweat beading on his forehead as the enormity of the situation began to press down on his mind.

Hojo swallowed thickly and forced his eyes to move down to the corpse's legs. Last time he was here he had noticed that there were pockmarks on the ragged flesh of the calf, little indents amongst the gore. He pressed his face close to the body until his lips were almost touching freezing cold skin, his gloved fingers trembling now as they lightly pushed past his lips to touch the points of his incisors, the same digits then smoothing over the small marks.

He shuddered, closing his eyes and fighting the urge to retch as the truth of the situation presented itself at last in all its dreadful glory. Dull horror curdled deep in his stomach, making him grab the edge of the bench with a white-knuckled grip before his quivering legs could buckle. It was all real… Good God… It was all true. It really had been her. She'd done that to those poor kids… Hojo took a deep breath, his eyelids lifting to reveal tormented brown orbs.

He couldn't let her go free. There was no way he could ever allow such a monster to escape back into human society.

He had no choice.

He had to tell someone what he knew.

The Chiropteran girl bat her eyes, clasping her hands pleadingly and making sure her bright blue orbs glittered just so. While on the surface she was the very epitome of a young girl in distress, inwardly she was cackling away like a mad woman.

Aika knew that in many ways, she wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. In fact, if she was going to be completely honest, when it came to things like quantum and quadratics and many other aspects of tertiary education, she was probably more of a spoon. But in other ways, as her adoptive father often grumbled, she was sharp enough to cut herself.

Aika knew that she was very good at people. She was frighteningly accurate when it came to guessing how a person really felt by looking into their eyes and reading their stance, and so was also very good at guessing what would come next based on the emotions and reactions of people. What she saw in people let her know how to respond to any given situation, and her talents were helping her mightily now.

Subtly hitching her skirt a little higher so that it just barely grazed mid-thigh, Aika turned her quivery pout and glistening blue saucer-eyes to full power, noting with no small amount of satisfaction that the officer she was slowly but surely twining around her little finger was just about to crack despite his outwardly stoic front.

"Please?" she wheedled. She'd pitched her voice to be innocently girly, but at the same time laced it with undertones that echoed with memories of ancient terror. The unnatural glint in the odd girl's eyes travelled straight to a small, knobbly bit in the officer's spine and repeatedly pressed the button marked 'Primal Terror,' her gaze making him tremble for reasons the logical parts of his mind couldn't rationalise. Her penetrating eyes ignited within him the most ancient of instincts, buried under the gloss of civilisation but still whispering of great hulking beasts and screams in the night and eyes glowing in the darkness… Her vivid blue eyes flashed victoriously behind the sheen of glistening tears.

"I know it's late," Aika said tearfully, "but Saya's my best friend, and I felt so helpless and frightened when I heard what happened. Please, can't I just see her for a moment so that I can be sure that she's okay?"

"…I'll have to ask Sergeant Suzuki," the officer sighed at last, visibly sagging in defeat as he shook off the effects of her piercing gaze. He shook his head ruefully, his heart slowing to its usual pace. Must be working too hard, if he was thinking stuff like that about such a nice looking gal… "He's in charge of the case. Aogi," he called over his shoulder to a sandy-haired woman, who turned quizzically, "can you find me Suzuki?"

"I'm so grateful for your help," Aika sighed, shooting a triumphant grin over to a window and receiving a small nod from the figure standing there looking in. "I just wish there were some way to repay such kindness…"

The officer squirmed slightly, clearly unused to such praise. "It was nothing," he said shyly, and Aika bit back a smirk. "Just glad to be of help."

The two were interrupted by Aogi, who jogged up to them. "Suzuki's nowhere to be found, sir," she sighed. "Minami says he's just gone home. Apparently he looked horrible. Poor thing, he's been working real hard on that case…"

"I see…" The officer bit his lip, looking at the pretty young girl who stood next to him. She smiled encouragingly, and the hopeful light in her clear blue eyes could only be measured in megawatts. Could he really say no to that face?

"I guess I can take you myself, if it's just a quick visit," he sighed, painfully aware of the blinding smile of thanks she bestowed upon him. "Just a quick visit," he warned, gently taking her hand and leading her through the corridors. "This isn't really allowed without a superior's permission you understand, but Suzuki shouldn't mind."

"Of course," said Aika, chancing a quick thumbs up to the man in the window, who nodded and disappeared out of sight.

The week was almost up, and the guys had felt confident enough to send Aika in under cover to go talk to Saya and find out just what had been happening and, more specifically, whether or not they should go ahead with their plan to break into the station. David's old workmates hadn't been all that forthcoming when it came to details, and since tonight would be the last chance they had to get her out if Saya really was going to be carted off to prison, they had to know for sure whether she was being released or not. Apparently it was next to impossible to break into the actual jail, since when he was still on the force David himself had done everything in his power to make the prison walls as impenetrable as humanly possible… a fact he was now sorely regretting.

Aika smiled amiably, looking around curiously at the few people who still remained in the building at such a late hour. Hang tight, Saya, the Chiropteran girl whispered to herself, her smile innocent and her eyes pure as they mentally mapped the layout of the prison and the winding route to Saya's cell. I'll get you out of here if I have to kill everyone to get to you.

And outside, the dark figure from the window shadowed her steps exactly from the other side of the wall.

So, how was that? Poor Saya's going through some existential angst and poor Hojo's in a bit of grief... Yusuke wasn't in this chapter, but I swear if the average review had their way he'd be crawling around with a pitchfork in his back, a black eye, and a severely kicked shin. I guess I made him pretty damn unlikeable... Mission accomplished :D

Anyway, I hope this was worth the wait. Now that my new computer is up and running at last (YAY!!) future updates should be a little more frequent. I won't make promises though, cause we all know what happens when I jinx myself like that... Anyway, I'll see you all later! And review, because if you don't, I'll send Haji after you!!

-crickets-

-sweatdrops- Uh... Right, my bad... Review, because if you do, I'll send Haji after you!! -watches, satisfied, as people scramble to review-

Quote of the day...

'Death is God's way of saying: You're fired. Suicide is Man's way of saying: You can't fire me, I quit!

-This quote, brought to you by theonenameleft!! If you, or anyone else, want to add more to my quote collection, please feel free!