Konella

I yelled at Haji through our communication and fought off the angry hoard of chiropterans best I could while keeping contact. Haji tried getting more information, but I couldn't even concentrate any further without saving my own hide.
"Get out of my way," I slashed through another chiropteran and tried making my way through when even more started showing up. Getting desperate and knowing this will hurt me later I shut my eyes and felt my body heating up to using my gift. I looked at the group of deformed beasts' before me and watched as they each ignited in a burst of flames. My hand hurt at first with the mark and then it gradually crept up my arm to my neck and began to shorten my breathing. Not stopping until I had a clear path to the door, it was slowly starting to open and I quickly closed my eyes and tried to stop my power from continuing. I could only hear David shouting beyond the door as I heard the damn thing open and Saya charging out with sword in hand and killing the remaining beasts. She was grieving. I looked beyond her to see the crystallized man as her father and felt sympathy to the poor girl. But time was short as the news I heard over the radio in the control room I found of having a bomber plane coming this way to blow this place sky high.
"Sorry Saya, don't hate me for this." Punching her in the stomach hard enough to knock her out, I took hold of her and handed her to Haji without giving him a chance to speak, "A bomb is on the way here and we need to get the hell out! Let's move!" David took lead and ran through the horde while I covered for him and Haji until we reached the elevator. Getting inside and heading back to the first floor I was starting to feel the burn creeping up my arm and neck and maybe around my torso. I held my breath most of the time to keep my mind off the pain while we ran out of the building as fast we could and saw Luis with the car waving us down.
"We gotta get goin David. There's a bomber plane headin this way!" David nodded grimly and got in the car with Haji and Saya while I staggered behind to catch my breath. It was unexpected to see Kai here of all places, but it seemed he knew of the bomb coming and was coming to warn us.

"Konella," Kai ran over to me and helped me onto his bike and placed his helmet on my head. He didn't seem to care at all that I was some stranger to him, that I'm not even human, but he saddled behind me and made sure I was secured. "I got you," he told me. Kicking his stand and pulling on the throttle, we zoomed out of the place at high speed with the car behind us and heard the bomber overhead. Having it being that close and listening to the whistling of the bomb falling, it landed on the museum and a mushroom cloud overtook the scenery and lit up the night sky.

I was lucky to not have passed out from the pain, but not so lucky to have Kai see me the way I was with the scorch marks across my skin. He didn't hear me out about going to the hospital and just took me straight to one and losing David and the others. A woman named Julia came out to meet with us as Kai picked me up and carried me over to have her look at me. She didn't care what I had to say either and escorted Kai to the nearest room and had me placed on the bed and started ripping my shirt off.
"I'm going to need some anesthetic and start treating the wounds now."

"I don't need anything," I spoke with as much coldness as not to give away the pain I was really in.

"Nonsense," she scolded. "Those burns need antiseptic and bandaged right away. There's no time to lose here," tapping on a needle and ready for injection, I sighed and spoke up.

"A chevalier doesn't require any tending to. You work under the red shield, so you know of our healing capabilities." I mentioned. She stopped and looked at me strangely with one eyebrow raised and a questionable look.

"You can't be," she said. I wondered why she said that and looked at her with questions of my own. "Only a male can be a chevalier. No records say a woman can turn into one by the queen."

"Queen," I repeated the word and it felt wrong to me somehow. I looked at this woman and somehow knew she would be alright telling my secret to and wanted some clear answers. "What do you mean by that," I asked her. She looked at me for a moment before sighing and pushing the rim of her glasses up. "Please…I- I'm not sure of myself being the way I am. Haji had found me years ago sleeping in the snow. Memories of my past are but a haze…fever dreams…if you have answers, I want to hear them." I pleaded with her, and her reaction bewildered to my plea. Calming down and having Kai come into the room after some time had passed, it was going to be a long and agonizing discussion.

"I will answer all I can with what I know, but in return I would like some data and questions answered." She made a bargain I could hardly refuse and I shook on the deal. "Kai," she turned to him and looked serious. "From this point onward I cannot have you hear this. It contains confidential inquiries that concern Saya. You are not part of red shield and not ready to take on such a responsibility."

"But—" she stopped him there and shook her head.

"Understand that I am only doing this because everything that's happened to you and Riku has been abrupt. Until you are ready to shoulder the burden I cannot say anything in front of you."
He wanted to argue, but it seems he understood well enough and left the room. With my ability to hear better than humans I was sure he was long gone from the room and waiting in the seating area.

"What would you like to know first," I asked.
She leaned back in her chair and gave some thought to her first question. Taking some paper and a clip board, she asked away.

"Do you register pain when impaled? For example," she demonstrated using her pen and making it pass through her arm in figuration. "Does the body register the pain excessively or do you only feel it for a moment before your healing capability kicks in?"

"…." I understood the question, but it was only fair to tell her my truth. "In truth Julia, that's a question for Haji. You see…I'm merely half a chevalier…in theory."
She dropped her pen.
"Haji had involuntarily shared his blood when he found me. I'm able to heal my wounds like him, but at a slower rate. I require sleep when he doesn't; eating is also a factor I've noticed over the years that Haji doesn't need, but I do." She was quiet about this. Who can blame her really? "I have fragmented memories of my past…just recently more of them have surfaced since meeting with Saya." She came closer and examined me.

"How fascinating," she jotted down everything I was saying quickly with a spare pen she had and turned to her computer. "Since meeting with Saya you've experienced hidden memories coming to light?" I nodded and watched her type things in. "Hypnotism is a way of finding out more about yourself if you're willing. If you are finding things out naturally like this with encounters then I think this is a good way of finding out who you were in the past. Can you tell me what you do remember?"

"…." I closed my eyes and could see the vague scene play out in fragments. "Snow…everything is covered in a white blanket of snow. Someone is singing in the background, but I can't tell what the song is. There are shadows standing around me, holding up what seems like glasses to celebrate something special." I paused and told her more of what I've experienced as of late. "Someone keeps whispering my name gently into my ear. My heart pounds each time I hear it." I opened my eyes and saw her face. "Haji found me in a wedding gown…I may have been getting married to someone, but I know nothing of what happened to me. And there's also a boy—around Riku's age maybe—running around and smiling towards me. It hurts seeing it. Much more than being impaled by objects."

"…this is really deep," she tapped the pen on her desk and gave it some thought. "How long have you and Haji been traveling together?"

"About 28 years." thinking how long it's been and what I've been through together with that man, it amazed me. "Haji told me of Saya many times during our travels. He told me I was a chevalier, even if only half, and that I would want to be beside Saya. Meeting with her and having all that's happened in this short time," I stopped and gave thought to what I was going to say. I looked to Julia with honest eyes and spoke my mind clearly. "I have no feeling of attachment to Saya. This bond that he spoke of, about having to be beside her at all times, and protecting her desperately, doesn't even graze a thought in me. Perhaps because I am merely half a chevalier…but even so I feel more distant from her in all honesty."

"Perhaps I should show you something," she wheeled around to a filing cabinet and rummaged through some yellow folders before pulling one out. Handing it to me, she wheeled back to her desk and waited for me to open the folder.

"What's in it," I asked.

"You say you feel no attachment to Saya…perhaps there is another you would feel that to."
I opened the folder slowly to find one name on the front of the paper: DIVA.

"What is this," my heart was pounding in my chest that my fingers were trembling to turn the page. Taking the corner and flipping it over I could see a picture of Diva in it. Short of breath and catching myself, I touched the picture gently and felt warm seeing it. "I've never met her, yet, her name is familiar to me, not just from hearing it from Haji. She looks so much like Saya. I've heard of Diva from Haji many times…I know she's Saya's little sister…but why," my eyes filled with tears and I held my arms tightly while looking down at the picture. "Why do I feel so alone looking at this picture? I don't find any comfort seeing this…I just feel lonely."
Julia grabbed the folder and tossed it aside and brought me into a hug. I was so confused to what I was feeling that I accepted this brief kindness and held onto her.

"You may not have memories of it…but your feelings towards your Queen speak true." She said this and had me look at her in the eyes. "To us, Diva is the enemy to the red shield and everyone on this planet. Having you affiliated with her may cause some issues."

"I don't know what to do about it," I answered. "Sure, I feel like I want to hold onto Diva and cradle her as my child, but there's something more to this that I don't get." I pushed her gently away and saw that my burns had cleared up. "The man who whispers my name each time I close my eyes is someone I find more important than any Queen. My heart beats harder for that unknown man I hear each time I sleep. Whether Diva is this Queen that I'm supposed to follow or not I don't know. I've been with Haji for years not knowing anything of a Queen and anything else related to servitude of one. When I see her I don't know what would happen," I felt myself getting worked up and calmed down again. "I only want to know of my past…to know of the man who wanted to marry me. I have questions myself that are left unanswered. This Diva everyone is after…" I looked at the photo again from the distance and felt that attachment again; "I don't know what relation we had…but I only want to know of what happened to me that left me dying in the snow."
She nodded a few times and had one more question for me before I left. "Do you have weaknesses?"

"Heh," I let out a small laugh and thought of how ironic it was to have this weakness of mine. "Yeah," I saw my burns were completely gone now and I turned my back on her to the door and stopped there to answer. "I can't handle cold weather."