Prices to Pay
Saya watched out the plane as they descended towards the runway. The flight was the most agonizing 18 hours of her life. Every minute she spent agonizing over the fate of her children as well as Red Dawn. They knew things about her and her family that a only handful of people knew.
That woman, Naomi, had some sort of Vendetta against them and she didn't know why. All Saya wanted was a normal life.
Kai shifted next to her and yawned dramatically. Saya smiled and rolled her eyes.
"Are we there yet?" Kai asked, looking out the window at the runway.
The plane stopped and the pilot came over the intercom, spouting words that Saya tuned out.
Grabbing their things, they got off the plane and climbed into the van they rented under a pseudonym.
Climbing in the van, they started off on their next step. Saya watched as the landscape rolled by, noticing the developments and changes to the land in over the last decade.
Kai pulled the van up to the house and turned off the vehicle.
A woman stepped out of the house, followed by two teenagers and an older man.
"Kai? Saya?" The woman asked.
"Hiya Monique. Been a long time huh?" Kai said, climbing out of the car faster than everyone else.
Monique pulled him into a hug.
"It's been so long. You look good for your age." Monique winked.
kai sputtered embarrassingly, while Lulu and Diva burst out laughing.
"Can it you two." Kai glared at them.
"Well I see we have a few new faces here. Perhaps introductions are in order?" The older man, who Saya recalled was named Glay, grinned.
"You all remember Saya and Hagi. This is Diva: her sister, Lulu: their cousin, and Michael: a friend." Kai explained, gesturing to them one by one.
"It's wonderful to meet you all. My name is Monique and this is Javier and Nahabi. And this is Glay." Monique said, gesturing to herself, the children and the older man.
"You're welcome here as long as you like. We have rooms made up for you, although you'll have to double up unfortunately." Glay explained.
"We appreciate your hospitality. And we promise to not overstay our welcome." Saya said, already plotting how to track down Naomi so she could get back to her children. Worry gnawed at her for their safety and every part of her screamed in silent agony over their well being.
"Don't worry about it. You all are welcome here as long as you see fit. Come on, we'll have the kids and Monique show you your rooms." Glay said, leading them into the house.
Saya noted that not much had changed since their last visit as they walked through the house.
"This is where Saya and Hagi will stay and the room next to it is for Diva and Lulu. They're close to mine so if you need anything let me know. Kai and Michael will have the room in between Javier and Nahabi. Sorry boys." Monique shrugged.
kai chuckled. "It's fine. It's been a while since I've been with these kiddos."
The teens cringed.
"Please don't ever call us 'kiddos ' ever again." Javier glared while Nahabi gagged next to her.
Kai chuckled and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Sorry guys, haven't been around any teenagers since I was a teenager."
"I thought you had children in the house at one point Kai?" Monique asked.
Kai glanced at the chiropteran sisters, noting their withdrawn expressions.
"At one point I did but there was an accident and they didn't make it..." Kai look over as Saya and Diva clasped each other's hands and walked downstairs and back outside.
"It's still hard to talk about. They were Diva's kids and she's still taking their loss pretty hard. We all are." Kai signed.
"No worries. We're sorry we brought up a sore point. We won't mention it again," Glay clasped Kai on the shoulder in apology, "Get settled in the rooms and we'll give your sisters a moment to themselves."
Kai nodded and Glay walked downstairs.
Monique and the children followed Glay down, with Monique giving Kai a questioning look.
Clasping Kai on the shoulder, Michael smiled softly. "Why Don't we get settled? I'm sure the girls will be back inside before too long."
Picking up his bag, Kai followed Michael into the room, glancing at Hagi and Lulu heading into their respective rooms as well.
A few hours passed before Kai saw Saya and a Diva walk back upstairs, holding each other's hands.
"Are you two alright?" He asked softly.
"Just ready to get this all over with." Saya replied. Diva nodded and walked into the room she shared with Lulu, glancing back at them.
"Give us twenty-four hours. If we're not back by then go after Nathan."
Saya nodded hesitantly, her eyes conveying her worry.
"Keep communication open if you can help it. I'm not losing anyone today." Saya pleaded.
"Always dear sister." Diva nodded before she and Lulu lunged out of the window.
"I'm going to bed Kai. Wake me if you hear anything." Saya uttered quietly.
Kai smiled at her softly, noting her withdrawn look.
"Of course. I'm sure they'll be back before too long." He tried to reassure her.
Saya nodded before walking into the room, shortly followed by Hagi.
Running a hand over his face, Kai turned to Michael.
"Let's hit the hay and see what we can come up with tomorrow. I'm too tired to think right now."
Michael nodded and together they headed to bed.
~Blood+~Blood+~Blood+~Blood+~Blood+~
Morning came too swiftly for Kai's liking.
Sitting up in bed, Kai glanced at Michael who was typing furiously at his laptop.
"Did you get any sleep last night?" Kai asked as he came to stand next to him.
"About two hours. Then i couldn't stop thinking about that Naomi woman. She just looked so familiar. So i did some digging. Dr. Simmons always had extensive protection around his research files. But there was one set of files off limits to everyone except for him. We all figured he had some sort of vendetta against chiropterans. Why try to control them otherwise after all? But he seemed to hate Saya and Hagi the most. As if they did something to him. So I'm working on accessing those restricted files to see what I can find out." Michael explained.
"You're a real genius you know that?" Kai complimented.
A faint blush crept up Michael's neck at the compliment.
"Just trying to right as many wrongs as I can. I'll never understand how they all forgave me but I'm not going to ever take that for granted. This is just one small way to repay that. Any way to end this and get everyone back together. Saya's been quiet since the moment we found out about Red Dawn. It's concerning." Michael noted.
"Yes and no. During the war with Diva she closed herself off. Especially after we lost Dad and Riku. I wasn't sure she even survived that whole ordeal on the ship until she comes back a year later completely closed off and focused on ending the war with minimal bloodshed. Hagi told me once, during her hibernation, that Saya had been like that up until she met my dad and us. That she closed herself off because it was easier to pretend the pain didn't exist than to let it swallow you whole. Saya's worried about her kids and her family. All she wants is peace and that's being threatened by this Naomi chick. The sooner we stop this, the sooner we get Saya back." Kai reassured.
A knock on the door stopped their conversation.
"Kai? Michael? Breakfast is ready." Monique's voiced drifted through the door.
"We'll be right down Monique. What do you say we get some food. Easier to think on a full stomach." Kai suggested.
Michael nodded and followed Kai downstairs, noting Saya and Hagi's absence as they sat at the table.
"Where's Saya?" Kai glanced at Monique.
"Hagi said she and Diva weren't feeling well and he and Lulu were going to keep an eye on them." Monique replied.
Kai glanced at Michael, both knowing half of that statement was a fabricated story.
"I'll be sure to check on them later." Kai said as he sat down.
Breakfast passed in relative silence, broken only by Glay talking to Nahabi and Javier.
Kai and Michael excused themselves shortly after they finished eating, heading up to the room Saya was in.
Hagi opened the door before Kai could even knock on it and gave him a curious look.
"Monique said Saya wasn't feeling very well so we brought her some oatmeal if she feels like eating. Plus Michael has been working on something and I think we should keep on the same page." Kai explained.
Hagi remained expressionless but stepped aside to let them in the room.
Kai looked over at Saya's still form by the window, her expression blank.
"I brought some food Saya. You need to keep up your strength." Kai said, setting the oatmeal next to her.
"Not hungry." Saya continued to gaze out the window uninterested.
"Would you at least like to hear what we've been working on?" Michael offered, stepping next to Kai.
Saya looked away from the window and regarded him with such hopeless eyes that for a second he was reminded of their time in the facility.
He took that as approval and set the laptop down.
"I figured last night while I was going through old facility files that Dr. Simmons obviously had a vendetta against all chiropterans, but mainly you and Hagi. And that got me thinking as to why that could be when i remembered I'd copied all of the facility files down before I defected. He had a set of files encrypted so heavily that i figured it must be important. I just finished cracking the encryption at breakfast and figured we could look through them and see if this gives us an idea on Naomi." Michael looked at her cautiously.
Clicking on the first file, he frowned.
"Well this is interesting...he has newspaper articles about a chiropteran attack from over a decade ago. A stray chiropteran broke into a house and slaughtered the parents of two teenagers. The teenagers were saved by Red Shield apparently after they got there to dispose of the chiropteran. According to the article the kids ended up in foster care but not before trying to sue the hell out of Red Shield." Michael said.
"I assume that didn't go over very well." Kai guessed.
"The lawsuit was dropped but Red Shield still offered them safety and even offered to pay all medical and funeral expenses. The kids declined i guess, claiming that if chiropterans didn't exist at all none of that would be needed."
Saya seemed to shrink in on herself further and Hagi glared at Michael.
Michael gulped and continued to scroll down the article, stopping at a picture.
"Hold on...Kai don't they look familiar?" He asked, gesturing towards the picture of the teens in front of a courthouse.
Kai glanced at the picture. "They do. But from where? Are there names somewhere?"
Michael scrolled past the picture and froze at the names below it. "George and Naomi Simmons..." Michael looked over the information a few more times to try and comprehend it.
"So you're telling me George Simmons did all that shit because his parents were killed? And i don't remember that Naomi chick's last name being Simmons Michael." Kai pointed out.
"Obviously she got married or changed it Kai. The point still stands; Dr. Simmons wanted dominion over chiropterans as a way of making them pay for his parents' deaths. And obviously Naomi just wants them wiped out." Michael rebutted.
A terrified shriek outside broke through their discussion.
Kai and Michael bolted out of the room and out the broken front door.
Monique, Nahabi and Javier stood cornered by none other than four chiropterans.
Glay shot at one of the chiropterans who turned and went to swat him away only to be stopped by Hagi.
Saya jumped down the from bedroom window and in front of Monique and the kids, eyes blazing.
"I don't know how you exist or why you're here, but if this is some kind of message I'm not in the mood." Saya growled; slicing at the closest one with her sword that, to Kai's surprise, was ignited with blue flames.
Saya moved around the four beats as if in a dance as Kai and Michael grabbed Monique and the kids, ushering them into the house with Glay.
Hagi joined her in the deadly dance, his claw joining her sword.
Together they pushed the four beats back away from the house.
One of the chiropterans dodged Hagi's attempt to behead it and reached its arm out, grabbing Hagi's head in it's large hand and digging its claws into his flesh, only to throw him as far as it could.
Hagi flew threw the air and hit the ground with a sickening crunch.
Saya glanced over to Hagi as she fended off the chiropterans.
To her horror, he lay motionless on the ground as the puddle of blood grew steadily around him.
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