Bloody Roses
Chapter Two
A Dandelion's Aid

Cardinal Caterina Sforza sat at her desk, her hands forming a bridge underneath her nose. She stared into the air in front of her, thinking about the situation that occured not even an hour ago. She wasn't alone. Standing around her were most of the members of her special ops team, AX; Vaclav Havel, Tres Iqus, Kate Scott, Hugue de Watteau, Monica Argento and Kaya Syokka. They were waiting patiently for William Walter Wordsworth to return with his analysis on the object the young woman dropped. Monica had only just returned from a previous mission and found the story of the young woman to be ... interesting, at best.

"And you believe the girl told the truth?" Monica questioned with her arms crossed in front of her, breaking the silence.

"Pardon?" Caterina asked, looking up at the Black Widow.

Monica narrowed here eyes. "She just falls into the Vatican, right in the middle of a meeting with the Pope and the College of Cardinals, and you are saying we shouldn't be suspicious of her?"

"I didn't say that, Sister Monica," Caterina answered, holding her gaze with the raven-haired beauty. "All I'm saying is we shouldn't jump to conclusions, especially with the Inquisition keeping a close eye on her. Francesco would be too suspicious if we were to just drag her out of jail without some proof of her claim."

Monica sighed and said nothing in reply. Silence fell across the room once again and Caterina found herself absorbed in her thoughts. Moments later, there was a brief knock at the door. The cardinal looked up to the Professor entered, his left hand holding his pipe to his mouth and in his right was the object the young woman dropped. He placed in gently on Caterina's desk. She straightened herself and looked at William. "Well, what have you found out?"

"This object is, as I suspected, from pre-Armageddon," the Professor replied.

"And?"

"It appears to have been tampered with. Not only are there units of Lost Technology within its shell that don't belong, but it also appears to have be altered magically."

"The Order of Rosenkreuz, no doubt."

"Indeed," William said in reply. "However, there is one thing that puzzles me."

"What would that be?" Caterina questioned.

"According to one of my books, this object is the only one of its kind and was completely destroyed several centuries ago during a terrorist attack at the museum in Londinium," William replied. "So, why and how did Rosenkreuz get their hands on it, and what does this have to do with that young lady?"

"All valid questions," Caterina commented. "Do we know where this girl is being held?"

"In the cell right next to Dandelion," Kate said.

Caterina looked up at her holographic friend. "Are you positive, Sister Kate?"

"Yes, Your Eminence," Kate replied. "I overheard this news from Brother Matthaios and Brother Batholomaios of the Inquisition. Perhaps Leon would be able to find out more about this girl."

"My thoughts exactly," Caterina replied. "Sister Kate, go to Leon's cell and inform him of the situation."

"Yes, Your Eminence." Kate's hologram vanished.


Leon Garcia de Asturias had been jolted out of his little nap with the arrival of Brother Petro and the Inquisition. He was going to argue with them for interrupting his sleep when he noticed they were carrying a new prisoner, someone unfamiliar. Leon watched in silence as they open the cell right across from his, threw the prisoner inside and locked it.

"She doesn't appear to be Methuselah," Brother Petro commented, unaware that Leon was listening to every word.

"Negative." That voice sounded almost exactly like Tres, only deeper. "Sensors indicate her body does not contain evidence of the Bacillus."

"Poor girl. If she didn't struggle so much, we wouldn't have had to hurt her," came the voice of a woman. She was quite obviously not Sister Paula, although Leon couldn't see who she was.

"Until we know for sure who she is and why she's here, she will remain in this cell," Sister Paula said in slight monotone.

"We must report back to Cardinal Medici," Brother Petro said and turning, he led in Inquisition away. When Leon was sure they were gone, he looked at the new prisoner and saw it was, as they had said, a woman. She was young. Leon guessed she was in her late teens. She lay unconcious and shivering on the cell floor. He sat there, watching the girl for was seemed like forever. Perhaps twenty or thirty minutes passed by. Something about her made him think of his daughter.

"You've seen the new prisoner?"

Leon jumped and turned to see the hologram of Sister Kate Scott. "Dammit, Kate! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Shut up! You know I shouldn't be here!" Kate hissed. "I have orders from Her Eminence."

This caught Leon's attention. "Really? So what does the Lady Cardinal want of me this time?"

"You must talk to that girl and find out whatever you can about her."

"What?!"

"This is serious, Leon!" Kate countered. "She appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, in the middle of a meeting with the Pope and the College of Cardinals, and was arrested by the Inquisition. She was carrying an object the Professor determined to be connected to Rosenkreuz."

"Okay... So, if she's from Rosenkreuz, why don't we just get rid of her?"

"That's the thing: we don't know if she is or not. She appeared to be confused with her surroundings and she even didn't know what a Methuselah was."

Leon crossed his arms, a stern expression plastered on his face. He looked over at the girl and after a moment, he sighed. "Alright, I'll see what I can pull out of her. Her Eminence better be taking time of my sentence for this!"

"You'll have to talk to her about that yourself. The Professor and Know Faith will be here to pick you up a couple of hours. You should have something by then." Kate vanished before Leon could argue.


Natasha couldn't remember when she blacked out. She assumed it was right after she saw the concerned face of the young Pope, as that was all she could remember after that fierce woman punched her. She felt the cold pavement beneath her and opened her eyes, blinking several times until she could see a set of bars in front of her. Shivering and still a little sore, she pushed her body into a sitting position and looked around. She found herself in a small cell with dim lighting; it looked very much like how television and movies made it appear. She forced herself to stand and approached the bars. Although she knew it would be pointless, she grabbed the bars and pulled hard with all her might, hanging on to a small hope that this was all nothing but a dream. When they refused to give way, she sighed and sank to the floor.

"What's makes you think you can move those bars, little lady?"

Natasha jumped and she stared at the sounce of the voice with wide eyes. It was a man with long unkept black hair and black eyes. His skin was slightly tanned and he had a slight Spanish accent. He had friendly smile on his face but he was wearing a prison uniform and that was a good reason to cautious.

"Hey, hey! Take it easy, senorita. I only asked you a question," the man commented when she started backing up. "Besides, I'm locked up too, so I can't do anything even if I wanted to."

Approaching the bars again, Natasha paused for a moment before speaking. "I was just ... kinda hoping that this was all a dream."

"Heh! I wish. If this was a dream, I wouldn't be locked up right now," the man commented. "By the way, the name's Leon. Leon Garcia de Asturias. Yours?"

"Um, I'm Natasha Summerz," she replied. I'm not even going to ask why he's locked up here. I don't think I wanna know. Then again, it could be something stupid like what that "cardinal" was accusing me of. Oh well...

"So, where are you from?" Leon asked. "You don't look like you're from Rome. You from Albion?"

"Um, no. I'm from Canada, actually. The province of Ontario."What's Albion? And why am I telling him where I live? For all I know, he could be a murderer!

Natasha frowned when she saw shock in Leon's eyes. He seemed to analyse her for a bit before giving a sympathetic smile. "Nice one, kid. You almost got me there."

"What are you talking about? I'm serious! I was born in Canada in 1986. Twenty-two years ago today."

Leon's eyes seemed to become sad as he looked away. "Well, if you say so. I'd hate to be the one to tell you kid, but Canada no longer exists."

Now it was Natasha's turn to be shocked. "What? What do you mean?"

"The Americas were destroyed during Armageddon, Canada included. Nothing lives there anymore. It's been that way for almost 1000 years."

Natasha was still trying to absorb this information. Canada destroyed? Armageddon? It was all too bazaar to believe. "Wha-what year is this? It should be 2008!"

"3062 AD," Leon replied. He watched as her face dropped. Her hands seemed to weaken as they slipped off the bars and into her lap. He almost felt bad for her. It seemed she really was telling the truth after all. "Sorry you had to hear that ..."

"Don't be. It's not your fault," Natasha said, her voice barely more than a whisper. She pulled her legs up to her chest and burried her face in her knees. Leon watched her in silence. He could hear her sniffling, and knew she was crying. He tried to think of something to say but nothing came to mind. How do you try to confort someone in this position? It was a tough call. He subconciously touched the pendant around his neck and thought of his daughter. He rubbed the cool metal gently in his hand and opened it to reveal a picture of a child.

"Leon?"

He turned to see Natasha looking at him. Her eyes were red and puffy, and a stray tear was still crawling down her cheek. "If you don't mind me asking, who is that child?"

Leon looked back at the small photo and gave a sad smile. "My little girl."

His daughter? "She looks beautiful."

"She is," Leon replied. "She's the most beautiful woman in the world. I love her more than anything."

Natasha smiled and chuckled to herself. "What is it?" Leon asked.

"My mother and sister. They were the most beautiful women in my life," Natasha answered. "My mother disappeared in 2005 and hasn't been found since. I took care of my sister until she turned eighteen and now she lives with her boyfriend. I miss her."

"I take it she's younger than you."

"By three years. She and I have always been close. We apparently looked so much alike, people used to stop us on the street to ask if we were twins," Natasha said in reply. "My mother said I must have been psychic because even before she was born, I knew I was going to have a sister and no one could argue with me."

Leon smiled. "That's good to hear. Not a lot of people seem to care that much about their siblings. Cardinal Francesco is one of them."

"Francesco?"

"Yeah. He's the Pope's half-brother and likes to order him around. Since the Inquisition brought you here, I'm assuming that you've probably seen him."

Natasha thought for a moment. "Well, when I ... arrived here, I saw the Pope and there were two people next to him who looked like they would be cardinals. One was a woman with blonde hair and the other was a man with brown hair."

"Yep. That's him."

"What?! He's the Pope's brother? But he's a rotten bastard!"

"Keep it down!" Leon growled. "You don't want to guards to hear you."

"So, if that man is Cardinal Francesco, then who is that woman?"

"Cardinal Caterina. She's the Pope's half-sister, and my boss."

Natasha's eyes went wide. "Your boss? Really?"

"Yeah. She leads the Ministry of Holy Affairs and the AX unit, which I'm part of."

"Wow," was all Natasha could say at the moment.

Leon nodded and smiled brightly. "Yep. My code name is Dandelion. Don't ask why and don't laugh."

Of course, Leon's comment almost made her laugh but she held back and smiled instead. "So, how are you working for her if you're still in jail?"

"She gives me jobs to do and takes a few decades off my sentence as a reward, providing I complete my task and come back alive."

"A few decades? How long is your sentence?"

"1000 years," Leon answered. "Or, it was until I started working for her. I lost track of where its at now but it's a lot less than what it used to be, by at least a few hundred years."

"So, you've been doing a lot of work for her then?"

"Yep."

"So ... do you think you could get Cardinal Caterina to let me out of here?"

Leon gave a knowing smile. "I thought you'd never ask."

"What do you mean?"

"Although, I don't think word of mouth is gonna cut it. Cardinal Francesco is a tough nut to crack and his Inquisition squad isn't any better. You'll need solid proof."

Natasha crossed her arms and frowned. After a moment, her eyes lit up and she began to fish through her left pocket. She pulled out a small object and held it up for Leon to see. "Could this work?"

Leon raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"It's called a flash drive," Natasha explained. "This one holds approximately two gigabytes worth of computer files. Anything from images to text and even videos. The last edited dates on those files should be enough. I don't think anything like this survived Armageddon."

"You know, that just might work. I don't know what you're talking about, but I know a collegue who could figure it out. Leave everything to me."

Natasha threw it over to Leon, who caught the small object in the palm of his hand. "Thanks, Leon."

"Don't thank me just yet. Wait until it's over."

Leon's face became stern when the sound of footsteps approached. Both watched as a guard approached and stood in from of Leon's cell. "Hey, Garcia. You have visitors."

"Well, sound's like that's my queue," Leon said, standing up as the guard opened his cell. Just as the guard began to move him along, Leon stopped for a brief moment and looked at Natasha. "I'll do what I can."

Natasha smiled in reply and watched as the guard led Leon away, hoping to God that she did the right thing.


Author's Note: Thank you for the reviews on the previous chapter. I'm glad you like the story so far. As you may have noticed, I'm trying to include characters that didn't appear in the anime. And someone correctly guessed the indentity of the woman from the previous chapter. You'll see more of her later too. Thanks for reading and I'll see you at Chapter Three. :)