Life was good for Saya, especially since Amshell Goldsmith's defeat at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Not only did she manage to save herself and her sister, but also, the many humans that could have been turned into mindless beasts; but somehow, through the joined efforts of Julia, Solomon, and the research teams of the Red Shield, they had found that once a Queen performs her primary function, which was to bring forth the next generation of Queens, hibernation would cease to have a hold on them. That meant that they would be free to be with the ones they loved, free to see their children grow up…
"Look at that!" Saya's thoughts were interrupted by the chorus of voices at the school gate. Yes, after she and her family had settled down back in Okinawa, she had enrolled herself back into school, starting from where she had left off. Although the process was tedious, it was what she could do to take her normal life back, along with a certain "long-lost twin sister" in tow. She looked up to see what was all the hubbub about, the fences of the school's outer walls beginning to be plastered by the bodies of curious teenagers.
"Wasn't he on every cover on business magazines a while back?" asked one male student to the other.
"He is just too hot to even exist!" shouted a girl.
"I have to have his autograph, he could be a hidden rock star!"
"A rock star? Are you crazy, he's wearing a business-suit!"
Diva just sighed. Almost a year ago, she was the literal center of attention, even if the puny humans did not know that she was about to bring about their downfall. But she would rather like bygones be bygones, particularly when she had an end-of-term test coming up, and two boisterous twins to raise… "Nee-sama, is that not Solomon?" she asked her sister, noticing the very familiar head of straw-blond at the gates. He was not a man of tall stature, but judging the screaming of the girls around them, it would probably be him.
Saya looked out the gates and found her sister's words to be true. It was Solomon, albeit in a very, very sleek mode of transportation. Mao had once told her that her husband's driving skills were as comparable to his Chiropteran powers, and it was not long into their blissful peace that she had discovered his penchant for the fastest and most expensive of cars. This time, it was a Bugatti Veyron, indeed, the top of the every list of the automobile fan-boys.
"Would my Queens care for a ride?" he asked with a smile that made more teenage girls swoon, after kneeling towards them and kissing their hands and typical Chevalier-fashion (not that Saya and Diva's school-mates needed to know).
Diva laughed. "Solomon, you do know that Nee-sama loathes such public displays of affection?" she teased him, with a nudge to Saya as well. "Can you not see how much she is blushing?" The Red Queen did not need the high reflective mirrors of Solomon's latest purchase to tell her that her sister was right. As much as she needs to become accustomed to this, she absolutely hated it, when Diva was right.
Smiling sheepishly, Saya chuckled and said, "Let's go home," and Solomon did not need to be told twice. They took the route closest to the sea, where the beach was constantly in view, and that, he had learned from Kai, was her favorite scenic route, and he had come to appreciate it as well.
"Diva, thank goodness you're home!" Mao shouted the moment the Bugatti Veyron was parked into the household garage, along with Solomon's "illegitimate children" as Kai would love to call them. Long story short, after their return to Okinawa, the Omoro underwent a massive refurbishment to accomodate the many individuals that would come to call this place a home. Having said thus, Joel VI had given them a location right in the business district, with private apartments above the restaurant for its landowners enough to house five families comfortably. "Aya and Anna have been crying all morning, and I can't find a way to make them stop!"
She quickly handed the twins to their mother, who stopped crying immediately when Diva started to sing. It was no longer the chilling tune that she always sang, but something more soft and tender, just for the two of them. Within a moment's notice, the twins immediately stopped crying, much to Mao's relief. "They just miss me, that's all!" she chirped happily, and went into their house while her sister and Solomon lagged behind, possibly enjoying what remained of their "alone time" until her nieces were born.
Solomon looked at Diva and shook his head a little. "Who would have thought that we would live to see this day?" he asked Saya, his fingers entwined with hers, their wedding bands shining in the sunlight the full windows of the garage allowed in. Saya nudged him at the shoulder and said that from the very first time she had met him, he already made other girls faint and sigh like no tomorrow. "That too, but have you ever imagined that you would be living here in Okinawa with Diva and your human family?"
Truth be told, it was a possibility that Saya never could anticipate. From the start of her personal quest to rid the world of Chiropterans, she had told Hagi that once she had killed Diva, he had to kill her. It was their promise, and their bargain to one another. Who knew that she would have fallen in love with Solomon, and who knew that Diva would take the initiative to beg for mercy on her daughters' behalf? She had once thought that every single possibility for her to live like she had before in Okinawa was gone, not until she had set foot on this hallowed ground after she had killed Amshell with Diva. "No," she answered Solomon. "I thought death was the only path remaining for me, and that was why I told Hagi to promise me that once everything ended, he would kill me..."
"I am glad that you found a new path for yourself, Saya," he replied, tipping her chin for a short, tender kiss.
"It is with great honor and happiness that I announce you this news," Joel VI said to the press conference before him. Reporters from the far corners of the world had come to this one place, this haven once known as the Zoo to witness this event that he had planned for many long years. "Over the years, much has happened to my clan and family, but nothing more hurtful than what my ancestor Joel Goldschimdt I had done to the ancestors of these young ladies with me today." The flashing lights of the cameras were then focused upon Saya and Diva, who looked at each other with much nervousness, while Solomon took both their hands, and Nathan smirked as the reporters kept glued into what was going to happen. "And to repair the sins of my clan's past, I hereby adopt Otonashi Saya and Miyagusuku Diva into the Goldschimdt household, and they shall be my joined heirs forthwith, barring the inheritance of the title of Joel."
That very moment had marked the healing of the first, but most terrible scar in the pasts of the Queens, and although nothing more could be done to erase what Joel I and Amshell had done to them and to their birth-mother, it was the only thing Joel VI knew that he could do. He had no other alternative, and despite the fact that Saya and Diva had already put the past behind them, it was the least he could do for them.
"Joel, you do not need to do this," Diva said in a hushed tone. Prior to her reconciliation with her sister, she had known that all generations of Joel Goldschimdt to be her enemies, but not this one. He was kind, and caring, unlike his ancestor that treated her as nothing more than a test-subject. "Nee-sama and I are already past that..."
Joel's smile interrupted her. "I know, Diva, but think of it as a way for me to clear everything that my family has done to you," he told her. "We have seen you as nothing but a monster, and Saya, as the only weapon to kill you... All this while the Red Shield existed for this purpose, to destroy all Chiropterans while we have forgotten that it was the first Joel who started all the pain and hatred that we have suffered. From now on, the Red Shield functions to protect you and your kind, no longer to destroy."
Tears were forming around Diva's eyes, and she went on her knees to take Joel VI's hands in hers. "Thank you, Joel..." she murmured, a word that she herself knew, was rare in utterance. "I will treasure what you have given to me."
"There is one more thing that I must ask you you, Diva," Joel added with a smile. "One that requires your total understanding and agreement."Will you give me the honor of accepting me as the adoptive father of your children?"
Although she was not tied to the laws of men, the Blue Queen knew what it meant should Joel VI adopt Anna and Aya. Not only would they have a father to love and cherish them, but they would be better looked after, and that they would have a future that will begin with stability. "I beg you," she replied, "that this is the last request you would ask of me."
"Mama, Papa, look!" a child naught but the age of five exclaimed from the helicopter her family was in. Looking down from where they were, the Nothern Lights had caused the surface of the lake to be filled with what appeared to be ribbons of greens, blues and purples, while the sky was alight with much color.
Her mother smiled and asked, "It is really beautiful, isn't it?" She looked towards the child's father and shared a knowing look with him.
The child's sister was also quick to join in with the sight, her ice-blue eyes widening at the sight of the dancing traces of light. "What do you think makes the lights dance, Papa?" she asked their father, who was piloting the helicopter.
The father smiled and said, "The Vikings used to think that they are the shining lights that come from the weapons of their Gods, Diana, but the Romans and Greeks tend to think that it is the goddes Eos, or Aurora, flying forth to welcome the sun." Both his daughters listened to his tale with undivided attention, while his wife looked at them, her face adorned with a smile that only motherhood could grant. "Do you know what I think?"
"What, Papa?" asked the child with eyes of ruby, alike that of her mother. At such a tender age, her distaste for suspense was already easily noticed, preferring things to happen immediately as opposed for waiting for that magic moment, a trait, her father mused, that made her so much like her mother.
Her father chuckled and answered her question promptly. " Well, Athena, the Northern Lights exist because the skies rejoice that the promise of a young and hasty Chevalier to a Queen has been completed." The twins just looked at him, puzzled. "You will understand that when you are older my dears, do not worry."
"But when are we older?" asked Diana.
"Why do we have to wait till then, Papa?" Athena added. "Could you please tell us?"
Saya had just put her twins to sleep when Solomon had entered their room quietly. "They grow up so fast," she told him as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder. It was as if it was yesterday, when they emerged out of their cocoons atop the ship that was the Red Shield headquarters on the anniversary of their triumph that happened almost an eternity ago.
He smiled and caressed each of their little faces. "And soon, they will want to have their own crazy adventures like we did," he replied, "Destiny holds a great deal for them, Saya, just like it did for you." He pulled his wife into a small kiss, which soon escalated into something more.
"You told me once that the land can glow like a rainbow, that the sea can be tinted with red, but today, you have shown me another miracle," Saya said, nuzzling against his neck, as though as she was about to feed upon his blood.
"And what might that be, my Queen?" he asked, raising his hand to the small of her back.
Hagi was never one to intrude upon the privacy of anyone. But this one time, his Queen had spoken so softly that he had to strain his ears to listen to what she had said to Solomon. Thanks to you, I am now free... were the words, and he knew that she could not be more right about the matter. Had Saya chosen him over Solomon, death would only be certain to her, as he knew that he would do whatever he can to ensure that her will was carried out. It had always been like this ever since he was brought into the Zoo by Joel I. Although he had been the person closest to her for a majority of her life, he also knew best that he could never give her the happiness that the other Chevalier could. It was not about the lavish homes, the beautiful vacations and the most expensive things money could buy, nor was it about the sweet romance that started out as a forbidden love between enemies.
In the end, he knew that he had lost because he never had the ability to make her see that she too, was a miracle of nature, that she was not a monster as she once thought she was. When he had first lost himself to his Chevalier powers, he too, was deathly afraid of what he had become. He knew not what was going on, but he knew that from her expression of pain and fear that he must shield her from such grief ever again... That was where he had gone wrong, for in his quest to keep her from grief, he had neglected that there was another way to give her the happiness that she had always wanted to find.
That was why, the man in the room with her children, the man holding her in his arms, was not him. And for the first time in his life, he finally understood truly why Solomon had won Saya's heart. Thus, he takes a piece of paper and writes:
Good luck, my Queen, you have found your happiness. I wish you only the best, and that you will find what you seek with the choices that you have made. Although I may seem that I have left your presence, do not hesitate to summon me if you need me.
He leaves, and departs into the shadows of the world. Far from the sight of the two lovers and their children, their large, and sometimes strange, extended family. He knew that he could well be a part of all that, but his tale in her life had ended. He was created to protect her, and now, with the peace that was undisturbed in her life, with the love of a powerful Chevalier, she no longer needed him. But he would wait. He would wait for her to call upon him, and he would come to her faster than the wings of dawn.
But until then, he would remain hidden, hidden until she calls for him, hidden until she needs him.
For the love of a Chevalier needs to reinforcement, be it for his own Queen, or the Queen that was to be his mate. Their bond would always remain, for their love, was written in blood, and so long that it flows within them, it will live forever.
HAN: So, how did you like the ending! I must say, this fic began with a spark of inspiration, and it died down into nothing but a little bubble in my head that would not go away. I am so relieved that it is finally finished, and that it ends to your liking!