Little did Kaname and Kazuye know that their quest for vengeance had already been ended by another. In fact, with the death of the president, the association forces had fallen apart. With no one to drive them forward, they were beginning to crumple under the ferocity of the vampires' assault. Seeing this, and the death of the President, the Vice-President sounded the retreat. Seeing them fall back, and knowing that it was not a ruse, Yuuki took a deep breath and threw up a hasty barrier to stop the vampires from pursuing them.
Once the vampires realized what the retreat and the barrier meant and the bloodlust began to fade, they looked around them for the first time since the battle had begun in earnest. The sight that greeted them was horrific. The ground was covered in blood and littered with the bodies of slain hunters and piles of sand that showed were vampires had fallen. The once fine clothes they had worn were now saturated with blood and covered in things that they didn't look to closely to identify. Many of them looked at their own bloodstained hands in horror as they realized what they had done.
Once they began to look around, Yuuki dropped the barrier and began to make her way through the shocked crowd to where the new President of the association was standing warily. Fighting the exhaustion that caused her limbs to shake, she moved towards him, her head held high. She wasn't sure where Kaname was, but she wasn't sure that she could afford to wait for him before taking the surrender of the hunters if she wanted to be sure there would be no more fighting. She swallowed hard. She had never done anything like this before.
She turned hopefully as she felt a hand grasp her shoulder, expecting to see Kaname standing there prepared to take the lead on this, but instead it was Kaien smiling down at her. He nodded to her and she smiled weakly before she turned and moved towards the hunters, comforted by Kaien's supportive presence behind her.
She watched the surviving hunters shift uncomfortably at her approach and felt her heart clench in sorrow. She meant them no harm and for them to think that she did was hard for her to accept. But she swallowed down her disquiet and continued towards them. When she was about halfway across, she stopped and the President moved to meet her in the middle, three hunters coming with him. She was a bit taken aback by the number until she felt Zero's hand graze her elbow and saw his gentle smile. The President only sought to match her numbers.
"Can we end this?" she asked once they were within easy hearing range. "Will you surrender? We can kill you if we must, but I would prefer to end this without further bloodshed."
"You would end this that way?" The President asked. He was genuinely surprised. He had figured that the purebloods would not be satisfied until all of the hunters had been wiped out. He had known that the conflict would have no peaceful resolution and now here was the pureblood princess Kaien had raised offering peace.
"I would have ended it this way before anyone needed to die," Yuuki replied her tone cool. "I did not choose to start this war, but I would choose to end it."
"What are your terms?" The President asked in a resigned voice. There was no way that the remaining hunters he had left could fight their way out. He would have to agree to whatever she asked. She held all the power here. There was nothing left for him to do.
"I have no terms," Yuuki replied. "There is nothing you can offer or give that these people that will make up for what you have done. You have already paid for your war with the lives of your friends and with the weapons of all the hunters. I would not seek to punish you further."
"You have no terms?" The president asked incredulously. He had to have misheard her. There was no way that she had truly said that. "You will just let us walk away as though nothing happened?"
"I hope that's not what you do," Yuuki replied. "I hope you never forget what happened today. I hope that you remember that this—death, useless death—is what happens when you let hate cloud your minds. But, yes, you are free to walk away."
"Why?" the President asked. He needed to know why she would do that. She could demand anything that she wanted—even their lives—and here she was prepared to let them go. It made no sense. They had attacked her, threatened all that she loved. What she was doing now went against everything that he had ever heard about pureblood vampires.
"There's been enough death today," she replied. "And I will not have your deaths on my hands unless you force me to. However if you refuse to stop this stupid war, I will kill you all myself." Everyone that could hear her was surprised at the steal in her voice as she said the last words. It was clear that even though she was offering a peaceful solution she would follow through with her threat.
"Your terms are more than fair," the President replied. "We will agree to them. Will the others abide by your decision?"
"Yes," Yuuki replied nodding her head to strengthen her words as a smile crossed her face. She had brought them peace. "The only one who could disagree with me would be my brother and he will not fight me on this. Our agreement is binding."
"Are you sure of that, Yuuki?" Kaname asked. He had been surprised when he had returned to the site of the main battle to find that it had stopped and that the last of the hunters were cornered by the vampires while Yuuki, Kaien, Zero and Seiren were in the middle with four of them. As he had gotten closer and realized that they were talking peace his blood had boiled. There would be no peace with the people that had lied to him.
At the anger in his voice she turned to face him, surprised to see fury written across his features. She was even more surprised to see the woman standing behind him glaring at the hunters. She had never seen her before, but she could tell that she was a pureblood. And from the bruises and cuts, she could guess that she was the pureblood that Kaname had been going to "take care of." What bothered her the most about the scene before her was how much the two of them looked alike. It was uncanny.
"Why would we not?" she asked calmly trying and failing to understand his anger. "They have already paid for their transgression in lives. There is no reason to do more. There has been enough death."
"I disagree," Kaname snarled. "They have by no means paid for what they have done."
"Their friends are dead!" Yuuki snapped upset that he would take that tone with her when she was the only one talking any kind of sense. "They have lost their only weapons against the Level E's and therefore their entire purpose in life! They have paid."
"You don't understand," Kaname replied, his tone condescending. It was almost as though he thought that she was incapable of understanding, not that she lacked information. And to an extent she was. As she had never been a parent, there was no way that she could understand his anger at being deprived the right to raise his own child.
"Then explain it to me!" Yuuki yelled, rounding on him with her arms wide. He was right. She didn't understand why he would want to end something with bloodshed that could be ended in peace. "I would love an explanation, Kaname! They are prepared to end this. What more do you want?!"
"I want them to pay for what they did to me," Kaname answered, his voice cold and level.
"What did they do to you?" Yuuki asked her voice high in her confusion. He wasn't answering the question. He was only making more cryptic remarks. It was infuriating! "Yes, they declared war, but it's over! The man who did it is dead, Kaname. These people did nothing! They only followed orders!"
"Do you know who this is, Yuuki?" Kaname asked grasping the other pureblood by the arm and pushing her in front of him. The woman flinched at his touch and looked at Yuuki with wide blue eyes. She seemed to be as confused by this turn of events as Yuuki was.
"Their pureblood," Yuuki replied levelly. She didn't miss the way that the hunters looked from one another in confusion. They hadn't known they had a pureblood. Only the vice-president shifted uncomfortably as she was pushed forward. He had known.
"My daughter," Kaname replied looking directly into Yuuki's eyes, his face impassive.
"Your . . . " Yuuki breathed, feeling the blood rush from her face at the word. He had a daughter that had been working with the hunters? It made no sense. How could the hunters have one of Kaname's daughters?
"Daughter," he repeated unease washing though him as he saw Yuuki's face pale at the news. She seemed to be taking it badly and a portion of his mind suggested that this was not, perhaps, the best way to introduce the two women. "A daughter I never knew existed. A daughter that they hid from me for thousands of years. They kept her in the dark, in the basement, Yuuki! Just like—"
"Just like my parents did me," Yuuki said quietly. "They let no one know about me either. Did they deserve death?"
"No," Kaname said, his voice hard. "But they showed you love and kindness. They gave her nothing like that! They need to pay for what they did."
"Kaname," Kaien said softly. "There was no pureblood in the basement of the association. I'm an elder. I would have known. They kept no secrets from us."
"Then you knew as well!" Kaname snapped rounding on Kaien and beginning to feel like an animal caught in a trap. It seemed that everyone was against him, even Yuuki. He had known that bringing back a daughter would cause problems between them, but he hadn't expected her to forsake him completely. He had still figured that she would see his side of the argument.
"Do you intend to kill them all?" Yuuki asked her voice quiet, and filled with regret since she already knew the answer. She could see it in the fury that burned in his eyes. "Every last hunter that might have known?"
"Yes," Kaname snarled not seeing the pain in her eyes due to the force of his anger. "For what they did, they will all die."
"Fine. If that is your goal, then you will have to go through me," Yuuki replied stepping between them and staring at her lover levelly. She cared for him, deeply, but she would not stand by while he murdered innocent people. Not if there was anything that she could do to stop it.
ooOO88OOoo
There we are all, a new chapter out! Sorry about the delay on this one. I have been sick and it's kinda hard to type when you keep falling asleep unexpectedly. I hope it was worth the wait.
As always, thank you to everyone who read this chapter and to all of you who have added this story to your alerts or favorites.
And a special thank you to:
Piplup225: Thank you! and she hasn't really commented just yet, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Anne Fatalism Dilettante: Yep. Not a particularly pleasant truth, but not all truths are nice. Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Rio: I won't stop, not before it's done. I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)
Yachiru-chan92: Yep, it was hard but he managed it. I'm glad that you saw that one coming and hope that I managed to surprise you with this one and that you enjoyed it :)
Kannabi888: Yep, she's Kaname's daughter. And we'll actually get to see what Yuuki thinks once she's out of her shock at learning about it. I'm glad that you enjoyed the last one and hope that you enjoyed this one as well.
Anon: We'll have to see, but my bet is not well ;) I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Akira 91: I hope you enjoyed her reaction and this chapter :)
CheekyChemist: I'm glad that you are enjoying it even though it wasn't quite what you were looking for! I'm glad that you think I am doing a good job with the inter-character dynamics. To be honest it drives me up the wall how many fics have a completely passive Yuuki. And I thought a constutitonal monarchy was a good touch, I didn't realize that I was the only one. And I agree with you about Seiren, but, as you said, she's kinda just there in both the manga and the anime so I just decided to run with it :). And we may get a bit of both . . . a huge fight and then a breakdown. And we'll have to see about that element, won't we ;). I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Well, that's all for now folks. I hope you enjoyed it and would love to hear what you think (even if you hated it) so leave me a review if you have the time and/or feel so inclined.
Stickdonkeys.