Chapter 11: "Blood at the Garden"
-"I never expected to see these guys again. What am I saying?! I sure did expect to see them again, but just not now and probably not today!"
Thousands of thoughts and sounds revolved around him in complete disarray, intensifying the smallest sound and confusing simple concepts with abstract ideas. Time seemed to have slowed for him, when it actually moved many times faster. Disorientation would be the best word to describe this moment, he might have known where he was standing but not on what he was standing on, meaning he was confused on what just had happened few moments ago. He did knew that many kilometers, far away from where he was standing, his sister would be facing danger of some sort that would try to take her life away, like in many other occasions. He knew that he had done wrong, in not saying important information, but he did not comprehend why it should have to be so though to understand, that she had left telling everybody but him.
Trying to hold his breath and calm down will not help her, but it would help him relax in a moment of complete confusion and frustration. He lied his head on the table, just seeing swarms of people coming in and out of nowhere, most of them carrying guns or any sort of weapons. This highly made him reconsider about what was really going on, if they where to enter a "rescue mission', or if they were preparing for a war against an army of the blood-sucking monsters they had fought endless times in the past.
"How stupid am I" he said to himself, "She might be suffering and I can't do anything."
"Don't punish yourself so hard," a warm voice said behind him, "It was not completely your fault, she really did not told you if it was also part of her plan visit him too."
"Gee, thanks honey." He said to his wife," I wonder if we will we get on time, though."
"We always do." Lewis said chuckling.
"I hope so." Kai said as a warm smile appeared on his face,"Will she be ok? She has not her katana with her or anything to defend herself."
"You underestimate her too much, Kai." Lewis said as he dropped a heavy box on the table.
"You made a new katana for her?" he said as he looked at the box, "I should not be surprised that is better than the last one."
Lewis chuckled, as Kai passed his fingers on top of the black velvety box that held Saya's new katana. The velvet felt soft and delicate and it had traditional Japanese patterns in a lighter tone of gray, which beautifully contrasted with the raven colored velvet. He carefully took the lid of the box and opened it; the katana was designed the same way, with its special mechanism, its blade shined in a tone of silver and it had a red pendant hanging from the scabbard of her katana, probably George's or Diva's crystallized chiropteran blood. It looked the same, but somehow it did looked totally different, like if it was hiding another weapon.
"Like it?" Lewis said and Kai nodded,"Well, I got something for you too."
Lewis dropped a smaller box; this was plain white cardboard, the size of a shoe box. No details, no elegancy, no high-quality handcrafted goods, no glamour whatsoever, just a plain box with a yellow post-it on top with Kai's name written on it. He took it with both hands and opened its lid; inside there was a new gun and his usual custom green and red bullets.
"Thank you Lewis." he said with a little of disappointment.
"Don't thank me, thank David and Joel." he said chuckling.
"I'll thank them latter." He said as he left for the deck.
The deck was oddly deserted for a day high in activities, and for the first time in weeks it was dry. He held his new gun in one hand and the box under his left arm as he lean over the handrail of the deck. He found the gun quite of awkward, just the same kind of awkward as he had find Saya's katana. He turned his head to face the sun, but his eyes where blinded by the sunrays. This had become a relief after so long of not seeing a clear sky for weeks, it cleared up his mood; but even though some preoccupations did not go away that easily.
It might have been just his imagination, which by now had thought of endless scenarios of what could be happening in that city across the sea; but he could probably swear something fishy was going on, and it was not necessarily linked to what they thought it might be going on, or of what they thought they knew, but indeed it was something else.
Far away in the horizon, back in Paris, the chiropteran queen, walked in the shadows of the abandoned building, making her way through ruble, piles of yellowed papers, and other things that became indistinct in the barely lighted building. Her footsteps and the squeaking of rats were the only sounds heard, by now the panting sounds had stopped.
She kept walking through the many floors of the building, until she found a girder obstructing her way. She jumped through the free spaces where the girder did not block, but she was still too tired and the moment she landed she fell to the ground, cutting her knee and bruising her arms. The indistinct aroma of the iron in the blood flowed in the room, although the small cut had healed few moments ago. And the panting sounds returned again, but this time they surrounded her appearing out of the shadows and taking a shape; they where chiropterans, big brown, blood thirsty man-made chiropterans which panted in desperation. She stood up and looked around her, the floor was full of them, every place she turned around there was a chiropteran waiting for her. By now she realized that dodging them would not be an easy task; she moved in blurs between them, with the purpose of confusing them, but apparently it was not working and she was getting tired. She stopped for a second and the swarms of chiropterans were surrounding her with great speed. She tried once again to move away from them, but this time they had become quite agitated, and started raving ferociously at Saya. She avoided most of their hits, there were few that she did not and luckily did not cause her much harm other than a bruise or a scratch that quickly faded away. This kept for some time, when her eyes started glowing, focusing on a small pack of chiropterans. She focused her gaze for a while on them and few minutes later, their bodies where covered in deep cuts.
"So this is the ability Nathan talked about." she said as she dodged another pack.
She started backing off, slowly one step after the other, when a hard slash from a chiropteran behind, lift her up and made her hit the ground. She was paralyzed by the pain; her body numb and she could not make it respond. She rolled over her back, trying to reach for a safe place, but her sight had once again been blurred by the blood from her wounds.
"Ah! Haji!! " she screamed unconsciously in pain.
The chiropterans started to gather around her, the smell of blood had called them. They all screamed in an eerie unison in desperation for the crimson nectar. Suddenly thudding sounds filled the floor, one after another with no reason the chiropterans started to fall, just as if they had been hit very hard by something as heavy as a really big iron rod and at the same time as sharp as a sword. When the thudding stopped, all the chiropterans laid on the floor, most of them dead others just bleeding really heavily.
She crawled to see what had happened, but her vision was still blurry and she could not see much than a tall shadow standing in front of her. The shadow kneeled and took her in his arms, carrying her as they made their way out of the dead bodies. Her mysterious savior, carried her somewhere in the building, she felt a warm and familiar embrace surrounding her numb body. This made her feel quite relieved but at the same time uncertain. She could recognize many things of her mysterious savior, the warm embrace, the delicate touch, the smell of his body, all of this aroused a relief she had not felt in such a long time and she desperately seek and longed for. A cold hand passed through her forehead, removing a bang of her hair, but she stopped the hand as it moved, and she held it tightly. She tried to open her eyes, but it only made her drowsier making her eyelids fall.
"Is that really you?" she said in a sleepy voice.
Her savior did not answer, but he did give a warm smile as he carried her through the rubble and debris of the building, finding a proper place to settle down for a while.
Many floors below, in the lobby of the building an impatient troop of Red Shield agents and familiar faces entered. Most of the troops searched the building for any type of signs. The lower floors were clear of threats, but as they keep going up, some chiropterans appeared her and there, but it was something it could be resolved by using one of the many variety of weapons they had brought with them.
"I never expected to see these guys again." Lewis said as he shot some chiroptera, "What am I saying?! I sure did expect to see them again, but just not now and probably not today!"
"You did expect them to see these things again?" Mao asked skeptically.
"Sure I did!" he said as they moved into one of the highest floors of the building,"After all, this is on what we Red Shield agents make a living of. "
"Sad it might sound, but this is indeed true." Okamura said as he took some pictures for the archives. "After all, there is something fishy with that Nathan Mahler."
Mao just sighed, keeping a short distance between her and his husband's body.
"Why did I ever refuse to watch over the kids?" she mumbled under her breath.
"Because of your stubbornness." Kai replied,"Besides, it was dangerous for Lulu to come."
They moved between the piles of rubble up to the floor, were Saya had been. Piles of chiroptera remained on the floor, all of them dead, producing a stanching and rotting smell that contaminated the room. They moved through the bodies with caution, and stopped for a while. The wounds in the chiroptera catch Julia's attention, she kneeled to see them closely and she noticed something quite strange but familiar.
"The chiroptera died in hands of a chevalier." Julia said turning to David.
"I'll send in the troops to pick up the bodies for study." David reply.
"You mean he is really here?" Kai asked.
"We cannot be certain," Julia said as she stood up, "but he probably saved Saya, she alone could not have done this much harm without a weapon."
"Let's look for him then!" Kai replied energetically.
"There is no need to rush, Kai." David yelled, "Is there something besides empty offices?"
"There is a conservatory in the last floor." a queer voice answered.
"Nathan Mahler show your self!" Kai said rushing.
"Long time no see." He said as he appeared behind Kai's back and then moved besides the girder. "I see you have a lot of questions to ask me. Am I right?"
"Should we start asking, or you want to say something before?" Kai snapped ferociously.
"As a matter of fact yes I do." The queer chevalier said moving closer, "But let's first takes you people to the conservatory, is a nice place over there. Besides it is the only thing left in this building that is not destroyed and that has enough light to see you all."
"So be it." David said as they followed Nathan through the stairs.
They followed Nathan, through the last couple of stairs, as they reached the last floor a warm light started to fill the room. He opened the door and they found a beautiful garden, full of white roman marble columns, bushes of blooming roses, replicas of giant dinosaurs and a diagram of all the phylias in the front of the garden. It was indeed lighted and beautiful; they all gazed at the garden and lost sight of the chevalier, who was now sitting on top of a column. They looked at him, and patiently waited for his words.
"So what is so important for you to tell us?" Kai said charging at him.
"Easy there, haven't they told you that you tend to rush?" he said in a calm voice.
"Endless of times." Mao answered under her breath.
"First of all, I did not send the chiroptera, after all I have no reason why for." he said.
"How can we believe your word?" Okamura asked.
"Because, I know who send them." he said as he landed in the floor "You might like to take note of this, Red Shield agents."
He moved through the garden, and reached the table at the center of it. The rest just followed him and watch him take a seat at the table, and helped himself a glass of Chateau Duel, and took the cup in his long fingers.
"Remember that old and gray haired doctor Miss Julia?" he said looking at her.
"It is impossible!! How could he done it?" Julia answered, "He had no access to the Delta-67"
"Well apparently, Collins had his way somehow." he said looking at the wine. "As far as I know he plans to set us all up, Red Shield, Cinq Fleche and chiroptera."
The garden fell into silence, everyone meet gazes as they tried to absorb the information they had been told a few moments ago, and after all they did had a human enemy.
"And this troubles you how?" Mao asked imprudently.
"Well, lets just say I appreciate privacy a little too much." he said leaving the cup on the table.
"Does he know Saya is awake?" David asked.
"About that, he's so clueless." He said as he stood up, "He even ignores than Aki and Aoi are already born. Yes, before you ask I have been keeping an eye on you for a while."
Kai found all of this infuriating, how could he get to know so much and them too little? This question bounced over his head for a while.
"You have been quiet," he said as he moved behind Kai's back, "there is a lot of time for questions, but I'll give you the last question of the evening. You might ask anything you want. I bet you want to know where your lovely sister Saya is."
Kai found Nathan's tone quite provoking, and at the same time such sincere, like if he had read his mind, or was it that Kai was easy to read and provoke? And that was why he gave him the last question of the evening? He did not know, but he did not waste the chance.
"Where is she? And who saved her down there?" he asked.
"Kai, Kai, Kai, that are two questions, but indeed one same answer." he said chuckling, "She is with the person she needs most in this moment and has missed for so long. I guess you already know who I mean."
A mischievous smirk appeared on Nathans face as everybody else's minds flooded with many questions, questions doubting the credibility of his words, questions about if he was trustworthy enough to consider him more of an alley rather than a threat, questions about the questions their self. These doubts popped on everyone's head, they were impressed at what they were facing now. True or even false, after so many things they have lived and passed through a truth like this would not be hard to swallow but indeed hard not to doubt.
"You choose to believe me or not," he said as he crushed the cup of wine in his bare hand, "but I hope you take the right decision"
After all these battles, after so much blood shed of un-human enemies, they now faced an enemy far beyond more dangerous, a human enemy with the purpose of unrevealing a secret kept for so long, by using the secret as a weapon itself.