Alice woke up with a loud gasp. This startled Lewis, but as soon as he turned to look, he was relieved to see Alice, sitting up.

"Thank goodness, you're awake." he breathed.

Alice said nothing. She looked down on her body, noticed she had band-aids on her, which she tore away to look at her wounds. To her surprise, despite the blood on the band-aids, there weren't any wounds.

"It worked." Lewis smiled.

"Is that a good thing?" Alice wondered.

This surprised Lewis: "Aren't you happy you survived?"

"But I shouldn't have!" Alice bit back, "I got shot, but I live! I was born in the Middle Ages, and yet I look like I'm old enough for school!"

"Alice, calm down." Lewis tried to reason with her.

"I just found out I'm not human!" Alice snapped at him, "Could you calm down?"

For some reason, this got Lewis to chuckle.

"You think that's funny?" Alice couldn't believe it.

"Sorry." Lewis tried to make a straight face, "It's just that it wouldn't be the first time I heard someone say that."

"What do you mean?" Alice was dumbstruck, "There are others like me?"

"No." was Lewis' answer, "Well, not quite like you."

Alice raised an eyebrow at that, which was enough for Lewis to realize he should get back on the subject: "What I meant was that I heard many people say something along those lines. I'm only human, or it's human to make mistakes, and in your case, and I quote, finding out you're not human. But what does that even mean? To be human?"

This was something that made even less sense to Alice, so Lewis explained: "If you define "human" as something that walks on its hind legs, wears clothes and talks, then those bloodsuckers aren't any more or any less human than we are. If you define being human as a being that's capable of love and won't kill unless it's for survival, than every single living thing on this planet, including the bloodsuckers, are more human than we are."

Alice didn't know what to say to that, but Lewis knew just the thing that would cheer her up: "In the end, Alice, all that really matters, is not what we are, but who we are."

"Alice." Alice said her name with a mock tone, "That's the name of someone that I'm not."

"Of course." Lewis raised his hands apologetically.

"But that's all I really know about myself." Alice continued, "I don't even know who I am anymore."

"Don't you?" Lewis questioned, "Those two girls, who are always mean, you've had a chance to kill them before, but you didn't it until they threatened your life. You did the same with those bloodsuckers back in town. You also had your chances to kill me, if not for lying to you, at least for revealing something to you that you didn't want to know. But did you?"

"What are you saying?" Alice asked.

"I'm saying that you may be a whole lot of things." Lewis answered, "But a killer isn't one of them. From what I've seen, you only killed to survive, you didn't kill for the sake of killing."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Alice said.

"Why's that?" Lewis asked her.

"While I was asleep, I had a dream." Alice answered, "More like a memory. I was about to be burned at the stake, but I escaped, killed everyone in sight."

Lewis didn't see the problem: "If I were in your position, I'd have done the same."

"I know." Alice replied, annoyed, "Kill to survive right? But why was I tied to the stake in the first place? Must be because I did something wrong."

"Depends on your idea of being wrong." Lewis said, "Just thinking differently than anyone else, or just being different than anyone else, was enough a reason to get people burned at the stake. You probably didn't do anything wrong, but you were different than them, and they feared you. That's why they wanted you dead."

Alice looked at him questioningly, as if wondering how he could possibly know any of this, so he explained further: "It's not that uncommon, really. They don't use stakes anymore, but people are still horribly treated, just for being different."

This made a little more sense to Alice, but she still had something else nagging at her: "What about that woman?"

Lewis didn't know who she meant: "What woman?"

"I saw a woman in my memory." Alice explained, "She didn't do anything, but I saw her... I knew her, and I wanted her dead."

Lewis looked away from her, recognizing the woman: "Onigen."

Again, Alice had her quizzical look: "She was my mother?"

"Was being the operative word." Lewis replied.

This sounded strange to Alice: "How did you know I killed her?"

There was a twitch, but Lewis shrugged it off: "I didn't. But based on whatever little information we have on her, we know she once had a body, but that got destroyed. So now she's a sort of ghost that possesses others."

This explained it for Alice: "So that's what she was trying to do."

It was Lewis' turn to look at her questioningly, so Alice explained: "I decapitated her, and then she tried to possess me."

"That confirms what was suspected." Lewis replied, "When she possesses a body, she modifies it so it so she can still use her powers, and feed herself on others to survive. The only problem is that... well let me put it this way: transforming someone into a bloodsucker is quite a bit like being infected with a virus that tried to transform another organism. But since she's an immaterial being that tries to transform a material body, her body is constantly trying to resist it. And although she can live for quite some time in one body, even allow it to live beyond its years, it won't last very long and will eventually deteriorate."

"Why doesn't she just try to possess another bloodsucker?" Alice asked.

"That won't work." Lewis replied, "Their bodies are stronger than a human's, they can easily reject her. But you... you're her daughter. It would be as if she's just re-entering her own body again. And even if that wasn't the case, your body has a better endurance, and will last longer. Perhaps even permanently."

"But she tried it once before and it didn't work." Alice said.

"Only because you knew what you were fighting against." Lewis said, "But by now, she's probably found a way to break through your defenses. Right now even more so, as with your loss of memory you now don't know what you're up against."

Alice now finally understood the danger she was in: "Is that why you searched for me? To protect me?"

Lewis hesitated, but answered eventually: "Not exactly. Given your history, my bosses wanted to be sure if you'd be on the side of us humans. If you were, you'd be used as bait for Onigen. If not, you would have to be killed, so you can't kill others, or be used by her."

Alice was almost speechless to hear him say that, as she now understood what that man back at the hotel wanted from her, and what Lewis had done for her.

"And with you having killed three humans by now, or four if they will blame you for Michael... that older man's death, they're convinced that you should die." Lewis continued.

"But if she's a ghost, how do you plan to kill her?" Alice asked.

"We weren't." Lewis answered, "We'd capture her, put her in a freezer, and keep her from escaping."

Alice sighed: "So now what do we do?"

"Obviously we can't return to H.Q., as they'll shoot you on sight." Lewis said, "However, if we can find Onigen ourselves, what she looks like and where she hides, that would give us some leverage, and help them convince you're on their side."

"Why would I side with the people who killed my father?" Alice questioned, angrily.

"He's not your fa..." Lewis started, but stopped himself, "Anyway, all I said was convince them you're on their side, but that doesn't mean you have to actually side with them."

That sounded like a tempting offer, which Alice considered, but Lewis wasn't finished: "Unfortunately, we know very little about her now. Obviously she's possessing a Japanese woman now, or else she wouldn't have made her reputation as Onigen, but since we're actually in Japan now, that doesn't narrow it down."

Alice was thinking, but not along the same lines as Lewis, as she had just one other question on her mind, which she eventually asked: "How did I lose my memory?"

Lewis looked at her, somewhat annoyed with her interrupting his thoughts, but he realized, if anything, she deserved to know this: "Apparently it wasn't the first time my bosses hunted you down."

Lewis gave Alice some time to let that sink in, before he continued: "They had sent an operative to kill you. Someone who's just as good with swords as you are, and something of a bloodsucker of her own. Not of the same variety as Onigen's, but a bloodsucker none the less. She's usually the one we use against them."

"You have a bloodsucker on your side?" Alice didn't understand.

"I've never met her before, and my bosses act quite strange when talking about her, so I can't tell you any more if I wanted to." Lewis replied, "What I do know is that you two, apparently got involved in a heated battle, that somehow involved crashing a lot of cars, metro-lines, breaking buildings and explosions. If your brains got damaged somewhere along the... ride, it may have damaged your memories as well. While you may be able to regenerate damaged tissue, at a better rate than us, your memories are a different matter."

Alice sighed: "Is there any chance I get them back?"

Lewis shrugged: "Who knows."

This didn't make Alice feel any better. Beat, she laid herself down again and closed her eyes, hoping that all this was just a bad dream that she'll wake up from soon enough.