Chapter Twelve;
Reunification
re·u·ni·fy: tr. v.
re·u·ni·fied, re·u·ni·fy·ing, re·u·ni·fies
To cause (a group, party, state, or sect) to become unified again after being divided.
re·uni·fi·cation. n.
Part Two—
"Don't our queens look ravishing?" Nathan asked aloud, though more as a statement than a question.
A collective, corresponding nod of heads was the answer to the blonde's complimentary comment.
To be sure, it was safe to say that she grew more and more accustomed to this frivolous, gaudy life. Attending such formal events, residing in exquisite domiciles, being treated like the intrinsic queen she was…it was all a luxury she had once deprived herself of.
In a few hours, the event to venerate the performance of Diva—in other words, their premature celebration of their conquest, and all others' subjugation—would unfold.
She wore garb only fitting for the occasion. Her dress was black and strapless, coming to a stop at the floor—the clothe which clung to her torso was tight and formfitting, while all beneath the waist was long and flowing, and consisted of two materials, the first layer being a veil-like substance, while the second layer was silky smooth and retained a pallid white chrysanthemum print. Her shoes were obsidian as well, as high as an inch and a half, with a strap that intertwined itself around her ankles and almost to her calves. To top it off, black glossy gloves fit her hands, running up to her elbows, and a blue rose adorned her hair, tresses that hung to her shoulders, curled with marveled perfection.
But of course, her sister's attire was more than similar. It was identical, save for the fact that the color was reversed. Where there was white, her dress had black, and where there was black, her dress had white. Within her long coiled tresses, the petals of the azure flower were already shriveling up on.
It could be noted that all had blue roses to embellish their garments. The suit-clad chevaliers had them pinned to their ever proper jackets, while both sisters had them in their manes. True, the fact that Karl had once had been such a major factor in the mystery that had first swathed the flora, that part was now irrelevant. The assemblage wore them only because Diva loved them most amongst others, and so it had been chosen. The flower among flowers.
But, this would make one deviate from the current even at hand.
"Big sister, do you look forward to this?" Diva inquired after her, as Solomon opened the door for both, and the pair slid into the car.
Silence, for a moment, but it was fashioned out of sincere pondering. "I…suppose so, after all, it is to commemorate you. It would be an insult if I wasn't anxiously awaiting the event."
A grin ignited, wild and free, upon the younger's face. "You suppose correctly, dear sister. And of course I'd be insulted if you weren't, I enjoy parties. So many…lovely people." Saya assumed that 'lovely' was not placed there to point out how she enjoyed their company. "I hate waiting like this. I want to show off in front of all of those humans. I absolutely love the feeling I get from them. All that silly envy and awe, it makes them all the more…" She trailed off, wondering what word to use.
"Palatable?" The elder queen offered, little discomfort nowadays over the thought that humans were a nothing but a nutritional accessory in a chiropteran's healthy diet.
The grin on the other's face was sustained, the long sleek black automobile tugged itself forward, complexly designed engine within tinkering and plunking softly about, creating a lulling hum.
"Really, the words you've learned are so odd. It's probably because of that yucky 'family' you had before, and awful…awful Joel. I hated him, for leaving me in that cold tower, teaching you and raising you as a simple human. Thinking you were more special than I, even when I sang so prettily." Diva hummed, and when she continued, her voice was singsong, "But oh! Look who turned out better. He thought he could make a chiropteran fight for humans."
The lack of a worded response from the recipient of the terminology triggered the young queen's smile to falter, lips forcing themselves into a practically awkward grim line—after all, one associated her face with a smile, and now her visage was stale with something foreign.
"You aren't happy. Why aren't you happy, Saya? You're face is always so bitter, so scorning, like you think it's out of the good of your heart that you're here now on my side. But you have to learn, and learn quickly, dear sister. You need to make it clearer that you understand, because I'm getting tired of playing this stupid game with you." Her beautiful brow now knitted itself, nose following suit by crinkling.
Saya blinked once, and then for good measure, a few more times. This was truly the first time they had entered a quarrel since her allegiance to her sister queen's side.
In the front seat, there was notable motion, and the elongated, thin window that resided between the two compartments was rolled down, Nathan's head poking through it to look at them. His face was disgruntled, though his eyes were errantly alight.
"I do not want to sing tonight anymore." Diva avowed, arms folded delicately over her chest, relentlessly staring at her sister with eyes that seemed to cut through the other's very being.
"Come now, Diva," Nathan crooned, a vague lop-sided half smirk, half grin began to form on his mouth. He turned to Saya, and as if apologetic, he proceeded to speak, "Speak sense to her, will you, dear Queen? She is just a victim of tumbling emotions; she doesn't really mean what she says."
Eyes flashed. "Of course I mean what I say, Nathan. Why do I have to sing to these humans? They don't deserve to hear me. They're only good for food. I am bored and hungry, Nathan, I am tired of this. Why can't we just do the grand, final performance you promised me?" She was contradicting what she herself had just uttered moments before the untimely, small bicker.
"Dear, we had it all planned, I am sincere when I say that—but, the circumstances…changed." The blonde looked ruefully at Saya, who stilled managed to not unknot her tongue, so that words might be expelled from it. "And you must sing tonight, so that more and more people will hear, and more love you with every fiber in their being. A love of their death. Now, please, you will be fed promptly, as soon as the opportunity to rises."
"Perhaps we should explain to Saya, so that she has empathy, and treats the matter more …delicately, as she should." Came the thoughtful statement of their current driver, one named Solomon.
"Explain to me, what…?" Said queen inquired, relieved to have her attention diverted from her sister, whom still stared unmercifully at her.
Glad that she had finally found words, debarring the fact that the first to introduce themselves to the matter had been ignorant, Nathan leaned against the sturdy divider with his elbow, chin resting upon his clenched fist.
"She is deeply troubled with longing…for children. She knows her time is nearing, when she'll enter her lengthy slumber. Thus, this mood has been created, Saya." Nathan stated, quite blunt and to the point, more than ever before.
"You aren't happy, big sister. You aren't making more chevaliers, and so I don't have any choices. I can only choose from one boring one that was made for me, one who seems to have other thoughts of someone else. I want children of my own, you ruin it for me." Diva stated wretchedly, a lack of luster in her voice.
Everything about the younger queen that had first screamed rage and contempt was now listened to with a different perspective. Each and every detail, however small, seemed to whisper I want something of my own. Why won't you share?
And Saya understood. Diva wanted her a family she could decree to be her very own, because after all, she had already had two—three now, if you counted the sudden constant non-threatening presence of her sister.
Diva had been enclosed a majority of her life, kept locked away. And even when she was set free, she was not completely and incontrovertibly free. It was immature, but this was the only way she knew. Her actions were childish, and yet meant things deeper than the ocean itself. She would have to mold her reactions accordingly, taking all in her hands like glass that could shatter in her hands at any time, cutting into her with deadly intentions.
Playing the much needed role of a consoling elder sister.
"She cannot bear a child with anyone other than a chevalier of the opposite queen; the genetics have been vindictive that way, as it is with every generation of queens." Nathan stated, with a look crossing in his eye as his input was registered in her mind.
The words were helpful in the prospect to grow her consideration towards her sister, and though it slightly did, it wasn't needed. For already Saya had wrapped her arms around Diva, and the latter—though stiff with irritation at first—eventually conceded and allowed herself to be brought into a hug.
While the younger tucked her head neatly betwixt her sister's neck and shoulder, the elder brushed locks out of the other's face, all the while keeping an arm wrapped around her in an embrace.
"Diva, will you sing tonight, for me? I'll make a promise with you. If you perform this recital, then I will make another chevalier, and maybe even a few more." Saya stated, the smallest of smiles granting itself leeway to adorn her visage.
There was a shift from the one being spoken to. Her orifice was fashioned into a sophomoric pout, though her azure eyes gave away selfish delight.
"Alright, big sister. But I have to choose him, and you can't argue with me. I'll even attend more of these yucky parties—even if I'm not in a good mood to." Diva avowed, looking at Nathan out of the corners of her eyes, noticing his obvious pleasure in her abruptly renewed agreeable nature.
"How utterly precious. Thank you, Saya, for being so indulgent," Solomon commemorated. "Now Diva, aren't you jovial that you sister had decided to join you? She is a help to you in more ways than one."
There wasn't an answer, and Nathan merely sighed with a smile, already turned around and beginning to roll the window back up. "Really, Solomon, leave the girls be. Let's leave such precarious quandaries to be dealt with amongst themselves, now."
The last thing they made out before the window was completely closed was the practically monotone words of a young queen saying, "You should grow your hair out, long and pretty, like mine."
And the optimistically agreeable response of the other, newly acclaimed sovereign, "Mhmm."
The noise around was loud and almost unbearable, and it made her wonder how she could have ever stood it. How she could have ever thought she was one of them. Those guttural humans, with loud movements to top it all off, and ugly intentions.
Her arm was looped into Hagi's, and she felt secure beside him. The people were a sea for her to get lost in, to be suffocated in, and he likened to an ever reliable raft, for her to at least float to a safe place. A new safe place, now known as her sister.
"Hagi, I'd like for you to keep an eye out, just in case…" She trailed off, raising brown eyes to her comrade, brown eyes that were met by a stoic obsidian gaze.
"Kai and the Red Shield make their presence known?" He asked, filling in for the words she hadn't been able to force herself to speak.
Slowly, but surely, she nodded. Her grip on his arm tightened considerably, but he didn't seem to mind. He didn't seem to notice, other then his left brow being arched naught but a minute fraction, only venturing to momentarily assume her self-inflicted turmoil.
"You don't think they'll come, do you? Wouldn't they know that we positioned some sort of wall to carry out a barrage if they happened to show their faces? They wouldn't be able to make it through them." The queen deviated, gaze shifting about the room, focusing closer on one certain group of people with her inhuman optics, before moving onto others that caught her attention.
"Saya," His voice was thoughtful, ringing with the most concern he could have, and lower than a murmur—meant only for her to catch, "Who, if I may ask, are you trying to convince?"
Piqued—though in the way she had felt in the times when Kai, or anyone else, had caught her in her lowest, thirsting moments—she kept a steady gaze upon her chevalier, lips parting themselves in preparation to speak.
"Now, now! What is the need to whisper, when among friends as you are? Who here would dare be a threat enough that you would need to lower your voice for sake of sacrosanct privacy?" Solomon had glided over to them in a graceful lope, pleasing smile embellishing his charming features.
The corner of her lips turned upwards slightly, so that an asymmetrical beam of her own greeted her sister's subordinate.
"Where is Diva?" Saya inquired, eyes surfing the crowd that swathed them, moving in motions much like that of an ocean. She felt just as compressed and asphyxiated.
"Ah, your dear sister is with Nathan, she wished to observe the people here…" The flaxen trailed off, and his relentless smile fluctuated to an almost contrite one, implied meaning incognito within his proper words. The queen amongst the trio inclined her head ever so slightly, to reflect that she understood, respectfully averting from the topic.
From no further response, their golden comrade took the slightest step forward. "Pardon me for asking, but, would you care to dace, Saya?" His hand was ultimately offered up to her, lighthearted question ringing in the bland air.
It was only then that she realized there was a band playing, and others were dancing around them. Hesitantly, she nodded, supposing no harm could come from it. With a parting, full contented smile towards Hagi—who had, rather rigidly, released her…or rather, allowed her to release him—she followed the other.
"How long…do you think that they can hold them off?" His voice was rough with the raspy after affects of running, voice on the brink of breaking—Kai was sure it sounded worse over the static waves of the radio.
He released the small black button on the side of it, waited for a response…and then it came. The muffled, slightly high-pitched chirp of an incoming beep alerted him before the voice of David responded.
"…Not for very long. Those replicas of that Schiff, Moses, are enhanced tenfold. Perhaps the training and special weaponry we equipped them with will aid them, but we can't be sure. Lulu should be behind you in moments, but it depends…on their situation…" Kai felt the stings of relief that thus far all was going well.
He pressed the button again. "Good, I'm at the southern segment of the building. Do you think she'll be able to find me?"
"Kai…any one of the Schiff could find you even in the most disastrous of blizzards." Was David's ever calm and collected response. The young man receiving the words going help but let the smallest of smile leak onto his face.
He hadn't felt this much excitement—or rather, this much pure adrenaline rushing through his veins—since Saya had still been with them, and had still prided herself with the thoughts of opposing her sister.
"…Kai! We're being—crackle—sidetracked. We've—crackle crackle—stopped by a chevalier." The abrupt message was barely audible to his ears, the crackling and popping intruding David's voice over the air waves not helping in the slightest.
He blinked repeatedly, then knotted his brow and allowed a swear word or two to slip from his lips in frustration.
The young man pressed the button on his propagation tool. "So what do you expect me to do?" Kai waited patiently, or at least as patiently as he could, for a minute or so for the response. When none came, his already quickened pulse increased tenfold. "David? David, are you there?"
"We seem to have stumbled across a problem. Please carry on; the Schiff will divide up to aid you, David, and the others. Keep your mind on our objective." The voice over the radio was not that of the alleged blonde haired 'leader' of the bunch. It was Lewis'.
"Yeah…yeah, alright. Whatever." Kai stated, grudgingly hooking the device back onto the loop of his pants. He closed his eyes and crossed his arms, moving forwards—and it was in that bitter state that he came across that which he sought.
Or, at least someone close to that which he sought.
He found himself bumping into the back of a lanky figure, the aftershock of the action sending him stumbling a few paces backwards in the bustling room, while the other individual remained in place, almost as though they hadn't even felt it. But, the person turned his head, obsidian tresses swaying before his charcoal eyes, before sliding aside.
Recognition flickered, barely, in the previously mentioned optics. And while his visage mirrored no shock, Kai's did.
"Haji…!" The young man stated, voice trailing off, silence picking up with unspoken waves of sudden anticipation and pleasure. The chevalier in question made no bother to respond, but at least he did not make an attempt to leave. He merely stared at his former ally.
"Kai, Saya does not wish for you to be here." Hagi avowed, with a subtle note ringing that he should have already known this fact like the obvious.
He regained an erect, confident posture, letting his eyes slip amongst the figures in the crowd around him, searching for the queen. "She only thinks that. I know her…I know that she really can't be satisfied like this, she can't be happy in such a position. She doesn't even know how much we need her? How could she even grasp it, when we never directly made it known to her how important she was to us all?"
Hagi didn't agree…nor did he disagree. He did naught but turned his head to another direction, though when his gaze rested upon something; it was quite pointed and purposeful. The stoic man continued to stare at whatever the object was for a period of a thirty more seconds or so, before turning on his heel and striding gracefully away.
It took three minutes, and not a second longer, for Kai to finally catch on. Anxiously, his burgundy eyes sought out the same place where Hagi had previously been so intrigued with. His stomach flipped, his throat closed, even though he felt like calling out her name—Saya danced with a blonde-haired chevalier he had seen before, barely ten feet from him.
A/N: Awwww….you all hate me now, don't you? Weeeep. Heyyy, at least I finally updated with the substantial amount of eight pages. :p
But yes, sorry, yeah. I've been busy with life; you know, oral reports, tests, literature stories, all that good, good stuff. Blech. ..
Read on, and enjoy yourselves. :)