"I'm glad you found them." Kai spoke to Diva, watching the girls sleep on their hotel beds. After the near-confrontation in his hotel room earlier, he figured it would be best to not try and get close to them. Just knowing that they were alright was more than enough for him, though.

Diva didn't respond for a few moments. He didn't know if that was because she was still angry with them, or still enamored with her daughters. Kai was betting on the latter. She had insisted on carrying Anna herself to the hotel room and if there were enough room on her back, he'd be willing to bet Diva would have tried to carry both of her girls.

"I stumbled upon them, really. If I hadn't seen Haji there, I probably would have walked off before noticing them."

Kai glanced at Haji and Saya; they seemed to be in their own world. Not that it was a surprise, given the time they spent apart and how they had last parted. He had to admit, even for Haji, surviving a face-to-face with a helicopter sounded like a miracle. He looked a bit different; his features weren't quite as taught as before, and his demeanor was somewhat more "human like" if that made sense. Without his cello case, though, Kai felt the man was missing something.

Kai leaned back in his chair, feeling old. He hadn't been around Saya and Haji for a long time. Just seeing the two of them again reminded him of the old days, back when he was a teenager himself. Growing old while raising the girls hadn't made him feel all that bad, but now that Saya and Haji were around again, he couldn't help but feel like an old codger.

"Jeez, why not buy myself a big red car and just call it a day?" He joked in his head.

The sun had finished going down, and they only had a desk lamp on in the room so that Anna and Sakina wouldn't be woken up too soon.

"Woken up… Saya, sorry to interrupt you guys, but do you mind if I ask you something? It's about your hibernation cycle."

Saya seemed surprised that he would bring it up again, especially since she and Haji were still catching up, but the tone in his voice told her that it was a serious question.

"Sure, Kai, what do you want to know?"

"In Joel's Diary he wrote that you two grew up normally for the first number of years. And then, later on, that you stopped aging. How old were you when you first went into hibernation, do you know?"

Saya looked at Haji, trying to remember. Or maybe she was seeing if he knew. After all, the years moved by much slower for him than it did for either of the queens since chevaliers didn't have such periods of hibernation.

"I believe she would have been about fifty in terms of human years." Haji finally answered for her. Saya affirmed his answer with a bit of self-consciousness and Kai frowned.

"Oh, alright, well that's a relief."

"Why did you ask?"

"Well, I was thinking that their passing out due to blood loss didn't make sense. I mean, you went without blood quite a few times, and got wounded in several battles. But I don't remember you ever actually passing out from it, though. The only times you did that were-"

"When she was nearing her hibernation." Diva spoke, finishing his sentence for him.

The focus of the conversation turned to Diva, who was petting Anna's head.

"You were thinking that they must be nearing their time of hibernation."

Kai nodded, saying it was the only thing that made sense to him. After all, if kings were the original mates for queens and Saya and Diva's mother was the first queen to produce queens with a chevalier, perhaps there was some kind of fluctuation in the hibernation cycle.

"That's a good point, Kai, but I don't think there's any way to figure that out. Not before they go into hibernation and come out of it a few times. Diva and I didn't really stay awake for a set time the first few hibernations. Though we only had one, two or three years at most in-between."

"Maybe Julia could find out-"

"No." Diva interrupted him.

"They've been researched enough. When they wake up we're going to take them outside again. Your new Joel seemed nice, but he was the one who planned to raise them down in that metal city of his. I think it's fair that he sponsor a few of their adventures, in return for their time and effort."

Kai relented, knowing not to push the issue. If Diva's normal stubbornness was insurmountable, that combined with her motherly instincts would probably stop time.

"Alright. Sorry. I'm just worried about them, that's all. I don't think it makes sense that they'd pass out like that just from blood loss."

There wasn't much talk after the matter was concluded, and Kai almost jumped out of his chair when the room's phone rang. He half-ran to it, partially to see who it was and partially to avoid Diva tearing it out of the wall. When he answered it, there was barely a chance to say hello before David told him that he needed to speak with them.

"Sure, I can bring Saya and Haji with me."

"What about the others?" David asked. They'd told him what was going on earlier, as well as giving him the chance to reunite with Saya and Haji.

"The girls are still asleep, and I don't think Diva would want to come." He added that she "probably wouldn't pay attention anyway" to the end, just in case David thought it would be a good idea to ask her to come regardless.

"Understood. I'm in Joel's room. Bring Saya and Haji with you and get up here as soon as you can."

Kai set the phone down and remarked how age hadn't softened his demeanor. Despite the shock of Alessandro's attack on the underground facility, it was almost like old times. Except for Diva's not being their mortal enemy, and the presence of her children… and the ones they had lost. Kai told them what David had said, and then they left Diva alone with her children.

The elevator ride up to the floor David and Joel were staying on was quiet. They were honestly anxious to find out what it was that they were needed for. Obviously there was no imminent threat, otherwise David wouldn't have given them a say in coming up to the room. Still, the fact that he needed them to come in person meant there was something going on.

A couple knocks on the door to Joel's suite, and David opened it for them, showing the trio to Joel. Kai realized that he rarely saw the no longer young man anywhere but behind a desk. Of course, the one he sat at now was a serious downgrade to any of its predecessors.

"Saya, Haji, it's good to finally see you both after these long years." He welcomed them, coming away from the desk to do so.

"How are Anna and Sakina doing?" He asked no one in particular. Kai told them that they were still sleeping, but that they appeared to be alright.

"A lot has happened, but it's reassuring to know that they will be alright. I'm sure Diva has her hands full; watching out for those girls isn't going to be easy. They're just as strong as you two, and twice as mischievous."

The small smile that Joel always wore had returned, and Kai noticed that, despite the ordeal, he didn't seem all the worse for wear. Kai's head felt like the hull of a submarine, on the other hand.

"Anyway, I'll get to the heart of the matter."

It wasn't until now that they noticed another occupant of room; the man was functionally dressed and had a fairly military air about him. For a moment Kai was concerned the U.S. military had discovered the existence of Diva's daughters and wanted to use them as weapons, but he told himself that was just paranoia.

"This is Mark Andrews; he is the head of our intelligence department. Despite the small amount of time between the attack on the facility and now, he has already gotten our information network fully up and running again."

Saya and Kai made a point of showing that they were impressed; even though they didn't understand exactly what the significance was.

"I understand overseeing a bunch of people looking at monitors isn't that interesting, but our job is important because it allows us to see how a situation is progressing." Mr. Andrews explained as he walked towards them, pulling out some manner of tablet from his back. As they watched him unlock it and hand it to them, Mr. Andrews explained that the footage being shown on the screen was gathered by a surveillance team near the Red Spear facility.

The trio viewed the footage, and a sort of cold sweat passed over Kai's body. He felt like he knew what was coming. It was like looking through the cameras back at the Red Shield facility; all he'd been able to do was watch a black flash appear speed through numerous halls and then take out their power generators. Now, with every second, he expected to see some large boulder slowly move to the side as a tall, pale figure emerged from the rubble. However, the footage reached the end of its cycle and stopped. Nothing had happened.

"Check the file before that one; it's from approximately five hours earlier."

They did so, and though there was still no significant movement, they noticed that everything seemed to be in a different position and elevation.

"As you can see, the rubble has shifted. The process has continued since I recorded this data. However, we can't be sure what is causing it."

Kai handed the tablet back to Mr. Andrews and now understood the point of showing the footage to them.

"So you're saying that the rubble could just be settling down, or someone- something could be moving around down there."

Even Mr. Andrews looked disheartened as he answered with a simple, "yes."


Diva had heard of angels before. She had seen them in stain glass windows, murals, and other forms. This was particularly the case during the time she'd spent in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as in the various opera houses throughout the world for which she would later perform. In the earlier years there had always been some religious tie to the mention or sight of an angel, but with each period of hibernation she went through, Diva had noticed a decline in that theme. Of course, the matter held no significance to her back in those days.

Once, while staying beneath the cover of a building, she had been approached by a priest. This was during World War II, in Germany, and the city- she couldn't remember the name- was under bombardment and subjected to aerial bombings. The priest was missing an arm, and he had a rifle slung over that shoulder, with a bible clutched in his only remaining hand. He had tried to console her; explain that the war would soon be over, and that even if they did not survive the night, they would still go to heaven. He had told her of angels, and of a land filled with both love and happiness. The religious aspect of the matter was lost on her, but the idea of Heaven had seemed like just the place she'd wanted to go.

Eventually, of course, Diva had eaten the priest; but he had told her some good stories and intrigued the girl for several hours. Her chevalier Solomon eventually came to find her, and she went to some bunker with him. After that, things stayed pretty boring until she went back to sleep.

Anna and Sakina were sleeping now, and as Diva watched her daughters she understood how humans could believe in angels. Humans had always just been food or toys to her when she was younger, her chevaliers acted more like servants than anything else, and Saya had been trying to kill her until Alessandro emerged in New York City. There had never been anything in Diva's life which really impressed her, and it all lost what varnish it had after a while. Her daughters, however, seemed to shine; it was as if their skin was more like crystal than flesh, and it caught the light in such fascinating ways. She didn't know what it was that made them appear as they did, and didn't particularly care. There was some unnatural force that seemed to emanate through them and make everything in their vicinity better for it.

"It can't be their long sleep. There must be something else." She thought.

Whatever was happening to her daughters, she needed to find out what it was and fix it. Not only had the girls survived repeated encounters with Alessandro; they had also managed to outlive him and reach the surface. For them to have to sleep so long after that just wouldn't be fair. It didn't make sense and it couldn't be true.

"It'll be alright, we'll figure it out."

Diva blinked as she realized she was speaking to an awoken Anna. A smile appeared on her face even as Anna quickly looked away, first to her left, then to her right. Upon seeing Sakina, she relaxed somewhat but still seemed to be on guard. She said nothing and Diva wondered if she remembered fainting.

"It's alright; you're safe. We brought you back here when we found you."

Anna either didn't hear her, or was feigning it. Diva didn't mind; the fact she had woken up at all was a relief. The color had returned to her skin, and the girl didn't seem to have any trouble holding herself upright. She seemed less interested in where she was than remembering what had happened. Her eyes stared at some fixed point in the room and Diva could almost feel her mind chugging away, until she seemed shocked out of her concentration.

"Where is Kai?" She demanded, snapping her gaze to Diva.

"He's upstairs with my sister and Haji."

Anna's eyes narrowed, and she lost focus on Diva. Her white-haired daughter seemed to dive in and then leap out of thought again before shaking Sakina's shoulder.

"Are there any weapons around?"

"I don't think so; we left ours in that truck."

Anna cursed as she tried harder to wake Sakina up. She finally succeeded and told her sister that they had to find Kai.

"What's the matter?" Diva asked, seeming to echo Sakina's thoughts.

"That man isn't who he says he is; I'm sure of it."