The sisters were excited to get the chance to read the diary, so they made a point of working even harder than usual so as to have a longer break. The increased pace threatened their accuracy and endurance in some exercises, but they pulled through. Strangely enough, many of the targets nowadays seemed to be at a height just slightly over six feet off the ground. The shapes were somewhat reminiscent of humanoids now, which was kind of scary.

"Well done, girls. You're on a roll today." Julia praised them before letting the sisters take a break.

Both girls had to change into a spare change of clothes because the fingertips of their jumpsuits were dirty and neither sister wanted to mark the pages of the document. Even if they didn't get caught, it would be a shame to stain such an old and well-preserved book due to mere carelessness.

Anna unlocked the hardcover with some tinkering and began reading.

"Hey, wait for me!" Sakina complained, trying to overcome a wardrobe malfunction.

"This is boring." The amber-eyed girl complained, flipping to the last page. Sakina lunged forth and fought for control of the book.

"We can't just ignore the things that aren't fun to read. We're trying to find out why we're different."

"The first page was just about some mummy in Iceland. What does that have to do with us?"

"I don't know, but that doesn't mean we can skip through it. There might be something useful in the first few pages."

Both girls continued fighting for it, until Anna's hand jutted out and danced its fingers along Sakina's hips. With a laugh, she recoiled, but was quickly angered at Anna's dirty trick.

"Hey! You cheat!"

"And that's why I win." Anna cooed, sticking her tongue out at Sakina as she began reading again, from the beginning.

"We're home!" Anna called while opening their apartment door.

Kai was on the phone, but he took a moment to cover it and welcome them back. His being engaged was quite alright, as they often went through a small routine after returning home anyway. Anna was the first through their bedroom door, and made sure to hide the diary beneath her covers again before putting away her textbooks. But instead of sitting down at her desk to review her work like usual, the amber-eyed sister hopped onto her bed and began reading the book

"Hey, what are you doing? The door's still open." Sakina complained.

"So shut it." Anna suggested. Her sister did so, albeit while frustrated.

"What about your homework?" She inquired.

"I already did all my work for tomorrow. I wanted to have time to read."

"But I thought we were going to read it together."

Anna shrugged as she found the right page.

"They're still just talking about the mummy. They called it "Saya". That's pretty much it. Dissecting it... you know, the fun stuff."

Sakina was still upset that Anna wasn't waiting for her, but relented. If she caught up to Anna in homework there would be no excuse for excluding her.

A few minutes passed, and Kai knocked on their door.

"Sorry for the phone thing, someone broke into the administrative building last night and security is trying to find out what they were doing."

Anna slid the book under her pillow and got up as Sakina glanced at her.

"Really? That's weird, I've never heard of anything like that happening before." The amber-eyed girl spoke as she walked over to the door and opened it.

"I know. No one got hurt or anything, but it's still strange. I'm going to go check it out too. Do you guys want me to make something for you to eat later?"

"No, it's alright, Kai. We can make something for all of us. When do you think you'll be home?"

"I'm not sure. I'm no private investigator so I will probably only be gone an hour or two. Maybe around six or seven?"

Anna smiled and nodded.

"Alright. We'll make sure you have a hot meal to come back to."

He smiled and rubbed her head.

"Thanks."

The girl pouted and glared up at him innocently.

"Kai..."

"Heheh, sorry. I'll be back soon, alright?"

The sisters both wished him luck and, upon his departure, Anna began reading again.

"You didn't leave anything behind, right?" She asked.

"No. I'm sure. How about you?"

Turning towards her current page, Anna's speed slowed for a moment. But the thought passed through her mind, and the girl went back to reading.

"Nope."

Kai had been walking for quite a while when he reached the administration building, but it wasn't so bad. Walking around everywhere kind of kept him feeling younger, like he was still too little to ride a motorcycle or anything.

"Heh, look at me; not even halfway through my thirties and I'm already feeling nostalgic for my youth."

Making his way up the steps, he noticed the break-in point while doing so. There didn't seem to be much wrong with it, though; it certainly hadn't been torn off its hinges.

"What reason would someone have to break in to such a place? It's not like Joel keeps any money here, and any financial information would still be held outside the facility. I doubt there's some kind of Dracula familiar running around causing trouble." He thought while making his way towards Joel's office.

Luis was waiting outside the single-door entrance to Joel's "home away from home". The normally thick-set man had lost a considerable amount of weight since first coming down to the facility. Though that was mostly due to his sweet tooth being a bit too extensive for the monthly shipments to provide. The smaller the deliveries, the less conspicuous, and better off they were.

"Hey, Luis, what's up?"

"Well, unfortunately, we haven't discovered the identity of the intruders yet. Our guys have been looking for prints, hairs, anything, but there is totally nothing there."

Despite the situation, Luis' way of speaking still got a rise out of Kai and he had to resist the urge to at least smile while they entered Joel's office.

"So it wasn't just some drunk guard trying to get access to internet porn, huh?" He asked as if serious as they approached Joel's desk. The man had decided to forego the elaborate wood styling of "tradition" and insisted his office look the same as that of anyone else. As such, there was no elaborately crafted wooden desk before him, but rather a fit-together metal construct, with a few file cabinets in the corner, several external hard-drives linked to his desktop, and a micro-fridge for refreshment during longer nights at work.

Just finishing a phone-call, Joel greeted Kai and came around the desk to shake hands with him.

"Kai, good to see you. Luis told you where we are?."

"Sounded like square one point five."

Joel smiled more than usual and affirmed the sentiment.

"Unfortunately, that's about right. We haven't found anything as of yet. Of course, there is a lot to check, and since we don't know what they were looking for, there is no specific direction in which to focus our efforts. Let's go down and see, shall we?"

Kai nodded and confirmed with Joel that the intruders had apparently only been interested in the basement portion of the facility.

"That is where many of our records are housed, as well as the staff who oversee their management. In addition to that, there are some financial staff located in the lower offices as well." Joel explained on the elevator ride down. Normally one could only access certain floors via elevator, but Joel had a masterkey that allowed them to travel to any floor.

"So a spy? Doesn't make sense."

"Right; all of the information regarding the Goldschmidt family holdings and business practices are held off-site. So even if one were to learn of this facility's existence and location, then sneak in, there would be nothing of use to anyone but those involved in the war with chiropterans. And as I'm sure you know, if Alessandro knew of this place's creation and its coordinates, he wouldn't bother using spies to gather information on us."

Arriving in the basement, they were greeted with the sight of many people going about their work. Surprisingly, to Kai, the usual staff were busy at work. He guessed that all of the "scenes" had been thoroughly surveyed before anyone was allowed to mess with any possible evidence.

"The guards didn't hear or see anything?"

"No. There wasn't even the slightest indication someone had broken in last night until a patrol found the broken window lock outside. It seems that, for all the perpetrator's cunning and preparation, such a consideration was beyond their sight or ability to fix."

Kai delved into thought for a few moments before David appeared from a hallway up ahead.

"Kai, good to see you. Sir, we may have found something." He spoke, quickly shifting his attention to Joel.

"That's good news. We could use some about now. Kai, why don't you have a look around out here while we go and work this out? Come find us when you're finished or if you discover something."

"Uh, sure. See you guys later."

The two went down the hallway to the records room and he frowned while continuing on down the hall as he had been doing.

"Not some business competitor, couldn't be him... there were no more chevaliers besides Nathan left alive. Who could it be?" He thought to himself, letting his gaze wander.

It was hard to look up for an extended period of time in the hallways since bright florescent lights would quickly hurt your eyes. Yet Kai found himself gazing up anyway, oblivious to the pain and the eye-watering. Then he was pulled out of his thoughts and thrust into darkness. As was everyone else in the corridor when the lights went out. Bumping into a few people, he tried to find a wall to brace himself against while simultaneously wiping the water from his eyes.

"The hell? A power outage?" He asked, probably repeating something everyone else was thinking or saying.

Within a minute or so the lights slowly turned back on, one set at a time. He followed them as they did so, all the way down to the corner-

"Wait a minute." He spoke, first to himself, and then speaking louder. It took a shout to get people's attention.

"I saw some marks up there near the corner!"

There was even more confusion in the hallway now, but someone went off to shut off the lights again, this time intentionally. Kai kept his gaze trained on the spot where he had made the discovery, albeit with squinted eyes. Eventually the lights went off, and then quickly came back on. He noticed them sooner this time, as did the others. It didn't take long for a ladder to be produced, and then a guard ascended it, using a gloved hand to unscrew the "lamps" and hand them down to others. With the reduced illumination in the corner, it was easy to see several cracks and tiny holes in the concrete ceiling.

"What would have done that?" Someone asked. Kai didn't hear any answers, though, as he was busy associating the imprints. The cracks all originated from a fairly small area, or rather two areas. All things considered, the points of origin were rather small; less than a foot long. The holes, there were five of them, were tiny, and seemed to be curved. Almost as if someone had simply slid their fingers into the solid concrete.

"Kai!" Someone shouted, finally getting his attention. It was David, and the two made their way to each other.

"What was with the power-outage? And we found something-"

"Nevermind that, there's something more important for you to know."

"Did you find what was wrong?"

The man nodded and moved in closer so he wouldn't have to shout as loud.

"We did. It's Joel's Diary. The original copy is missing."

Kai's eyes didn't widen, and he didn't gain an expression of shock. Rather, it was a saddened understanding that he conveyed through his eyes.

"The marks in the walls, the overall stealthy execution, the motivation, it all makes sense." He thought before placing a hand on David's shoulder.

"I need to go home. Tell Johnathan to watch out for the twins."

"What do you mean- Kai!"

But it was too late, the not-so-young man had his eyes set on something, and not even the years he had spent beneath ground could eat away at Kai's focus.

"Stupid, I should have told them sooner."

The apartment was quiet as the entrance door was unlocked and opened. It was quiet as Kai looked first into the kitchen, then the living room. No sign of the twins. Sweat dripping from his chin and making his shirt stick to his back, the fiery-haired man passed through the living room.

"Be there." He whispered, walking down the hall. At first, upon hearing the water running in the bathroom, Kai headed towards it. However, when the twins' bedroom door opened and he saw Sakina standing inside, he turned to face her.

"Sakina, I'm so glad you're still here."

"We didn't know you would be back so soon, Kai. We would have gotten dinner started sooner..." She spoke in a decidedly monotone voice.

"It's fine, don't worry about it. I'll make us all something. Look, Sakina I want to-"

"Did you want blood in your food, Kai? We have plenty."

"Shit." He thought, trying to go through how best to explain things to her.

"Sakina, I'm sorry. I should have told you both about this stuff a long time ago. I just wanted you to have the best life I could give. I got carried away... where's Anna? Is she in the bathroom?"

"Our lives... once we leave here..."

The girl wasn't taking anything in; she was still in emotional shock. As he tried to think of a way to reach her, the water in the bathroom ceased and soon after the door opened.

"Welcome home, Kai." He heard an unfamiliar cold voice speak from inside. When he caught sight of the speaker his mouth opened slightly and his eyes did widen.

"Anna, what did you do to your hair?"

Chemical burns were quickly fading from her hairline, and Kai could make out a container or two of bleach on the floor behind her. The girl's hair was cut shorter than Saya's had been and was bleached snow-white. Apparently her hair wasn't "healing".

"I thought I would break with tradition. Someone had to."

"Anna, look, let's just talk about this."

"There's no need, Kai; we read it all. At first it was sluggish, but once we began to put things together, trust me, those pages flew by."

"I was going to tell you all of it, I just didn't want that to be your life."

"But it is, isn't it? We're just weapons to aim in a direction, after all."

"No, that's not true."

"Our entire lives have been centered around training for an inevitable showdown with some boogieman character. It's expected for one or both of us to die in that fight. How are we not weapons?"

Anna's voice was far from monotone. There was a certain spiteful confidence in it, as if stating fact after fact gleaned from the updated Joel's Diary were a series of tiny victories.

"You're still my girls, and you're not disposable."

"But we aren't your girls. We're Diva's girls. We're chiropterans; monsters who are the children of a mass-murdering psychopathic vampire queen, and her victim, your brother."

The corner of his mouth twitched at that. An old wound was tearing open its scar, but he couldn't let that overwhelm him. Not now when both Anna and Sakina were in such vulnerable states.

"Yes, it's true where you came from. And Diva did everything you read about, but she was trying to change near the end-"

"How can you forgive such a person simply because she decides to 'turn over a new leaf'?!"

"I never forgave her for what she did to Riku. But at the same time, I can't let myself hate someone so much that I won't try to help if I see a hint of good in them."

"For all the good that did. Both Diva and Saya are either dead or in some state where they wished they were. And so now it's up to the next 'batters' to hit a homerun."

"You are not just living weapons! I love you like my daughters, and I know you love me back. We've all had fun together, too. It hasn't just been training. There are things I've experienced with you both that could never be replaced by anyone else. My love wasn't fake."

"Then why were you finally going to let us out into the world, just to get slaughtered-"

Anna cut herself off as Sakina thrust her palms into her ears and looked down at the ground.

"Stop! Stop saying all these things!"

Kai turned back towards the trembling girl to place a hand on her back.

"It's so tight."

"Huh?"

"It's so tight down here." She spoke, further. Kai still didn't understand, and tried to get her to explain.

"I need to breathe." Sakina spoke in nonsense before disappearing in a blue phase, before he knew it the door to the outside was being thrown open and the girl was gone.

"Damnit!" He cursed, starting forward. But a small hand grabbed his wrist and stilled him, before Anna walked past him. She didn't look back, didn't take a swing, didn't shout. All the girl did, before walking away, was force out a few words through a trembling voice, "You should have told us, not abandon us to find out on our own."

Then she was gone too.

Sakina was moving faster than she knew possible, faster than either of them had ever moved. Maybe it was the fear. Maybe it was the adrenaline that even their chiropteran bodies seemed to produce. Whatever it was, the girl with reddening emerald eyes had reached the personnel elevator in less than a couple of minutes. Not even Anna had been able to catch up, though Sakina could feel her sister closing the distance fast now.

Up ahead, the elevator's guards assembled in front of the entrance to impede her progress, but in an instant she was past them.

"I'm sorry." Was all she said before striking the one closest to the entrance into the others. All of them fell, like a strike in bowling, and Sakina entered the elevator before pressing the "1F" button. Anna was still beyond her sight when the elevator slid up into the shaft. Despite the strength coursing through her veins, all the girl could feel was a mix of shock, fear, and longing. The three and their subsidiaries were mixed into a big dark purple mess like one would get if combining too many colors. And as the elevator glided further and further up towards the surface, Sakina found her gaze trained on the small panel hiding the "emergency release" button; designed to disable their enemy should he ever enter the facility.

"I don't want to die. I don't want to fight. I don't want to hunt. I don't want train. I just want to have fun and be with Kai, Anna, and the others." She told the empty air.

"I want to go to the mountains, sail on the sea, sing karaoke, watch a rock concert in the front row with no earplugs... I just want to do things."

The elevator came to a halt and the doors opened. With a huge sigh, Sakina took her gaze from the panel and forced the quivering legs attached to her out into the hallway. Looking up, she couldn't help but be reminded of a number of instances in various fictional novels she'd once read.

"Who are you?" She asked.

A grin.

"Who indeed?"