Her eyes were narrow, her gaze dead on as her poisonous look followed Verona around the room. Kaien and Kaname sat in the corner of the room as Verona went over the procedure he was about to take with Yuki. Zero had disappeared for a few hours but had told Takuma he'd be back and not to do anything until he was back. Takuma had just put the band around Yuki's arm as her neck snapped his direction warningly. "It's okay, it doesn't hurt," he said gently. Her gaze left him as she continued to glare at Verona.
When Verona turned around from talking to Kaname and Kaien, he froze at her gaze. There were dark circles under Yuki's eyes and sweat was beading down her face. Kaien frowned as he got up to look at Yuki. Her breathing was shaky and Takuma, worried for their sakes, stepped in front of her trying to calm her. "Yuki. Calm down, what's wrong?" he said. You could hear her breathing from across the room.
Verona, although trying to look calm, had an expectant look to his tranquility. She kept trying to say something, but the entire word could hardly come out altogether. "What is it?" Takuma said, growing a bit nervous. She suddenly stood up and Verona was thrown into a wall without anyone's help.
As they all rushed to help him, Yuki ran up the stairs into the church. As she walked a sudden smell of burning wood made her freeze. The images flashed in her head; a man was holding her in his arms and laid her on the ground, the glow of flames in the background.
"Chindi...you shall be safe! Bring us-" The vision was cut off as she kept still in the middle of the isle, tears falling from her eyes. The memories were back. Zero was stomping up the aisle in anger, but he slowed to a stop when he saw her eyes on him. "Who is Chindi?" he growled.
She looked at him sadly, eyes watering over. "Yuki you have to tell me! I read the files, I did all this research. I want to help you! I know you know what really happened in your heart. All you had to do is confirm it was real," he said hysterically. Kaien, Kaname, Takuma and Verona stood a few feet away facing the two's profiles quietly; even Sara appeared in the entrance. The two didn't seem to notice the audience.
Kaname was determined to hear what she remembered, Kaien on the edge of his seat...and Verona...in fear that she knew everything. She stared at Zero for a few moments before her lips parted. It was not a dry, emotionless voice she spoke with. It was her innocent, fragile voice that they'd last heard 3 years ago.
"I just wanted to go home...I woke up in an alleyway with blood between my leg-" She choked on a sob as she wiped a tear. "They jumped out of an alley and grabbed me. I tried to ask them why they were doing this...they said I was special. When I woke up...I was tied down on my stomach and I couldn't help myself. I was there in that old barn for weeks. No one fed me, no one looked at me, everyone ignored my cries for help. All they ever did was prepare for the ritual. One man told me I had the potential...I was more than just a pureblood, I was an incarnate of a god. On my final day...I let my fear in. I stopped fighting...because it was too late," she said as her bottom lip trembled. "They painted my body with blood and sprinkled ashes around me into a symbol. I was so scared...I knew something bad was going to happen to me. They kept chanting the name Chindi and some kind of foreign language. I was hoping you'd find me, Kaname, Kaien...someone. But by the time I had the chance to scream...they mutilated me to death." Her tears dripped down her face. The room was completely cold. "It was supposed to be a soul transition," she continued with a straight face.
Zero swallowed...feeling as though he was guilty. He was at fault. "The how are you here? Who are you?" he asked, his voice cracking into a whisper. She looked back at him with hollow eyes, the air around them densing.
"When I woke up, they all were there. Bowing, praying, asking me to lead them into the demolition of the vampire race and to get rid of the passage between the living and the other side. I was too angry, too upset they had taken my life from me. I set the barn to flames, I wanted everyone to die with me, to die in the presence of my sorrow. I was about to burn to death, but there was a man. One of the cult members that saved me. He removed me from the barn, told me to lead the world into a place just for the living as it had been millenniums before. I was suffocated by the smoke and everything was black for days...but then I found out it wasn't death. It wasn't freedom. I was still here, in a hospital bed, coming out of a coma. But I wasn't alone...I saw her in the back of my head. Chindi was keeping me alive."
Everyone was quiet. Yuki was still as she looked at Zero. "Who am I talking to right now?" he asked angrily. "Both of us," she said quietly. He took a deep and loud inhale through his nose as he continued to question. "You can get rid of her can't you?" he asked. She shook her head. "I'm hers. I'm the Auzerais'," she whispered. She suddenly, slowly raised two fingers up to her lips, pulling the lower lip down. Between the V of her fingers, on the inside of that lip...a singing and seemingly fresh brand of the cult appeared. He frowned as he took her face gently to look at it. "The symbol of the Auzerais," Takuma muttered in fear. "The cult against vampire kind..." Kaname frowned. "If you know who the cult is, you now who the man is that murdered you. Who was the man who killed you, Yuki?! Who was the man that saved you?!" he shouted. She stared at Zero as her lips parted. "Verona."