Nathan turned to them. "A Queen appears to stop aging in her late teens, but she does not reach sexual maturity until she is well past her fifties, at which time her fertility cycle begins. Like a human female, she must periodically shed and renew her reproductive abilities, but for a Queen, this regeneration is extremely stressful on her body, making it necessary for her to go into hibernation during the thirty-year process." Nathan laughed briefly. "I guess you could say that your little incident in Vietnam was just a very bad case of PMS."

Saya shot to her feet, ready to rip Nathan apart for speaking so lightly of such a tragic incident. Nathan calmly continued talking as he dodged each of her attempted blows. "Like a human female, if a chiropteran Queen becomes pregnant, her fertility cycle stops. However, a Queen can only conceive once in her lifetime, so once she has done so, her cycle ends, thus ending the need for hibernation."

Saya's rage evaporated and she stopped dead in her tracks. "So if I get pregnant," she turned to Haji. "I won't have to sleep anymore?"

Nathan smiled. "Yes honey, that is exactly right. But there is a catch."

Saya and Haji turned back toward Nathan.

"A Queen can only conceive during her first time having intercourse."

Saya's eyes narrowed. "Somehow I find it hard to believe that Diva was a virgin when she raped Riku."

"I know, I know, even Amshel thought she had mated before, but he was misinformed. Diva once confided in me that every time she had been asked to mate with a human, she would simply kill him and tell Amshel that she had done the deed with him first. I learned from personal experience that whenever she was to mate with one of her Chevaliers, she would just make said Chevalier promise to tell Amshel that they had done it, and naturally all of the Chevaliers agreed since not even Amshel had higher authority than Diva herself. As for Amshel and Diva, well I don't know what the deal with that was. From what I could see, in general, Diva was terrified of sex - humans aren't the only ones who fear what they don't understand, and love and intimacy were foreign concepts to her. Also, do me a favor and do some research on the symptoms of extreme childhood neglect and isolation – in such cases the victim often spends the rest of their life thinking and acting like a very disturbed child. I would imagine that's why she finally choose Riku, because he was a child too."

"Then why did the Chevaliers refer to her as their mother and lover?"

"They got that term from me, it's the literal meaning of the honorific used to by Chevaliers when addressing their Queen or their Queen's sister, though I must say, it looses a great deal in translation, it's meaning is far more complex than it sounds. But trust me, to Diva, Chevaliers were nothing more than surrogate fathers, brothers or sons, depending on her whim at the moment." Nathan's tone suddenly darkened. "They were made only for Amshel's schemes while exploiting Diva's desire to have a family." Nathan paused to collect himself. "Anyway, I know the virgin prerequisite sounds odd, but keep in mind that when a new chiropteran is made, there is blood involved, and in general, the same is true when a girl looses her virginity, if you take my meaning. Now, I know you and Haji have had quite a bit of time to get down to business, but judging by the fact that you are an insufferable prude and Haji is the most sexually frustrated person I have ever seen, then I think it's not too late."

Saya and Haji glanced at each other uncomfortably. Saya gave a slight nod.

"Good. Now, I trust you both know that it is impossible for Haji to impregnate you." Nathan smirked. "You need someone else for that."

Haji scowled a Nathan, who immediately burst out laughing.

"My word! If looks could kill I would have just dropped dead! Save your dirty looks for Solomon!"

"Solomon?" whispered Saya.

"Yes honey, he's the only one capable of fathering your children, being the Diva's only living blood-Chevalier."

"So then it's true then, you're not Diva's Chevalier."

"Oh holy cow! Do I really have to spell it out for you? I was not made by your sister! I was made by your mother!"

"My mother?"

"Yes."

Haji looked at him questioningly. "If you were not Diva's Chevalier, why did you choose to serve her?"

"When I found out that the girls survived, I wanted to help look after them, I felt I owed it to their mother. After all, their she did give me ungodly powers and eternal youth and I suppose I still have a little bit of that famous Chevalier loyalty in me as well."

Haji was not satisfied with that answer. "Why did you choose to serve Diva instead of Saya?"

"Well, first of all, I didn't want to get involved in your little suicide pact, but there were other reasons too. Diva did have that heavenly voice, but mostly it was because I felt sorry for her. You may have some serious issues honey, but you are nowhere near as messed up as Diva was. I did what I could to help her be free of Amshel, but he was all she knew and she was dependant on him, so in the end there was only one way she could escape his experiments. It is a pity that you got to Amshel first, I was just biding my time." His voice changed to an intimidating demonic growl. "I would have made sure he got what he really deserved." Nathan paused and regained his usual cheerful, effeminate tone, "but I guess you snooze, you loose."

Saya was silent for a moment, digesting what he had said.

"Why are you telling me all of this now?"

"Well, you've been pretty busy since you regained your memories, and the last time you were awake, I was supposed to be your mortal enemy." He let out a slight laugh. "Believe me sweetheart, I am not getting involved in this just to get my brother laid. I just don't want to see our kind go extinct, not while I can help it, anyway."

"If you are so dedicated to preserving chiropterans, then why are you involved with the Shield?" asked Haji.

"The creatures created from the delta series are not real chiropterans, they are man made abominations and the world would be better off without them. Besides, I am not really part of the Shield, my loyalty is to the Queens and the Queens alone. Haji, you of all people should understand that. You serve Saya, not the Red Shield, and you know damn well that if Saya would have come over to Diva's side all those years ago, you would have followed her, however reluctantly."

Haji glared at Nathan.

"Oh! There's that look again! I better go before Haji scowls me to death," Nathan said as he took a few steps toward the house, but then stopped and turned to face them again. "Oh, and when it comes to you getting pregnant, I wouldn't put my money on any new-fangled scientific procedure, artificial insemination will not be successful."

"How could you possibly know that? They couldn't have tried it," Haji said under his breath.

"Oh yes we did," Nathan said in his most teasing tone. "I bet even Haji doesn't know how we got the materials though! Oops! I think I said too much!"

Saya turned to Haji only to see that he was just as confused as she was, if not more.

"What are you talking about?" Haji demanded.

"Oh honey, don't make me tell you," he sighed. "Well, I guess I might as well, since I came here to prevent you two from getting it on, and this ought to do the trick – Haji you must remember a certain very lovely girl you met in Hong Kong, I think it must have been around say - 1973. We picked her out for the job because she looked a bit like Saya. We extracted your genetic material from her."

Haji's eyes widened to an unnatural degree, his head snapped to the side and he stumbled, as if he had been slapped in the face. Saya stared at him, horrified.

Nathan was clearly quite entertained, and grinned in delight.

"I guess you two have a lot to talk about, so I'll leave you to it. Just think about what I said, honey. I know you two have had a lot of weird things happen to your relationship over the years , but would it really hurt to add one more? Haji got one the side, now I think it's your turn, Saya. Solomon may not be as pretty as he used to be, but really, a girl could do a lot worse." Nathan disappeared into a blue streak.