Several of the most respected members of the Red Shield descended on the Goldschmidt's estate in order to see this new Queen for themselves. Even Dr. Julia had managed to pry herself away from her son's bedside in order to participate in this new breakthrough.
Kai had managed to finally make contact with the twins, the news of Dave's improving condition and the discovery of a new Queen seemed to be enough to convince them to abandon their vendetta against Nathan, at least temporarily.
Joel VI sat at the head of the long conference table.
"First things first- she needs a real name, we can't keep calling her 'the subject,' it is unacceptably demeaning."
"Well, the original mummy was called SAYA," suggested his son.
"We can't call her Saya, it would be too confusing, we already have a Saya," Kai groaned.
"So what do we call her?" Added young Joel, the redundancy of his question earning him a pair of rolled eyes from Aka.
Everyone in the room seemed slightly shocked that Haji was the one that broke the silence.
"Saya, what about the idea you had the other day, from the fairytale."
Saya became suddenly self-conscious when everyone turned their attention to her.
"Um, nah, it's silly."
"C'mon Saya!" urged Kai.
"Um," She fought off her embarrassment and crawled out on her limb. "This whole thing kind of reminded me of a story that I read when I was little. In the story, the princess died and was placed in a glass coffin, but came back to life, just like her," Saya said. "Because of that, I was thinking that maybe we could call her Shirayuki."
Saya braced herself for the ridicule she believed to be eminent.
"Sounds good to me," said Kai. "We could call her Yuki for short, that's a nice, normal, non-attention-grabbing name."
"Then it's settled, the subject will tentatively be called Shirayuki," declared Joel VI. "Now, Dr. Julia, if you would present your findings."
Dr. Julia stepped forward. Though she was now in her late fifties, she still possessed the pleasant face she had decades ago, though her hair had faded to gray, and her figure had filled out considerably.
"We know only one thing for sure. The DNA analysis has proven beyond any doubt that she is the biological mother of Saya and Diva."
A chorus of gasps did not erupt, only because that tidbit of information had already been circulating for several hours.
"However, because this case is completely unprecedented in modern scientific history, everything else is pure theory.
"We know from Joel's diary that the original specimen was not crystallized, but mummified – the skin and dried flesh were relatively well preserved. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Nathan was indeed her Chevalier and used his blood to revive her. Apparently a large amount of his blood was needed in order to perform this procedure, in which we can guess that he applied his blood to the mummy and the mummy absorbed it, just as the two cocoons did in the diary.
"Because she has already absorbed the blood of her Chevalier, it stands to reason that her memories could return at any time, or they may never return, we have no way of knowing.
"Once again, because this case is completely unprecedented, we can only guess as to how she will progress. So far her behavior and vital signs appear to be very similar to those of Saya when she has just awoken from hibernation, so we can hypothesize that she will continue to follow this pattern. Like Saya in her first week after awakening, she appears to be acquiring language at an astonishing rate, her vocabulary is now estimated at nearly a thousand words in less than two days. She also still appears to be somewhat disoriented and easily distracted, but assuming that she continues to follow Saya's pattern, this receptive-disoriented phase will gradually end during the next few weeks, at which time, her behavior will begin to normalize."
"Yeah," said Kai, "that's all very interesting Julia, but what are we going to do with her?"
"That is why we are all at this meeting," said Joel VI. "Dr. Julia, you are the expert, how would you suggest we proceed?"
"Well, since her behavior has been consistent with Saya's awakening's, perhaps it would be wise to put her in a similar situation to what was done with Saya."
"You mean you want me to do all the work," Kai muttered in a tone of mock-exasperation.
"You have dealt with an awakening chiropteran Queen twice before, and that peaceful environment seems ideal for a queen who's - future behavior cannot be predicted."
"Yeah, yeah, you don't have to ask me twice. One chiropteran Queen as my foster daughter, comin' right up."
Saya looked unsure of the decision. "I'm not sure I like the idea of lying to her."
"Saya, we know that you must have strong feelings about this, but we have to bear in mind that her awakening could probably be considered unnatural, so we can't rule out the possibility of her -" Julia paused as she searched for an appropriate euphemism, "-loosing control."
Saya gave a sidelong glance at Haji.
"However," Julia continued, "we know from experience with you that this may be less likely to happen if she believes herself to be human, so she will have a firm foundation to on which to base her behavior, and its even more important that she spends some time as a member of a supportive human family."
Saya gave a sidelong glance at Kai.
"Then I want to help take care of her. I know how it feels to have no past and no identity, and I know how it feels to get it all back at once."
"Cool. You can move back in with us then," Kai said enthusiastically. "Mao already started using your room as a place to put her spare random crap, but we can move it."
Lewis scooted forward in his chair. "But what about the current operation? We still need a squad in Honolulu to prevent the military from shipping out more corpse corps, but that may be harder with Saya in Okinawa, and I assume that Haji will go with her as well. Can the twins do it alone?"
Aka and Ruka looked at each other.
"Won't be easy, but I guess so," said Aka.
"I think we can do it, but we'll miss having Saya around, not just as our Obachan, but she does help out a lot in battle," added Ruka.
"Hey!" Exclaimed Aka. "What about you Solomon-Ojisan, maybe you can help us!"
"Yeah!" Added Ruka. "Please Ojisan! We know you have mad skills!"
Solomon turned to Saya. "Give me the order, Saya."
She took a second or two to consider. "I guess if Aka and Ruka think you could help, then you'd better go with them."
Solomon managed to hide his disappointment. As much as he enjoyed the twin's company, he did not want to be so far from Saya.
"Then there is the issue of Nathan, he could still be a threat," said the elder Joel.
"Well," said Solomon, "from what I know, even a Chevalier could not survive loosing as much blood as we found at the scene."
"Yeah, but we never found a body! It seems pretty obvious that he's still out there," Kai said darkly. "Even if he lost a lot of blood, I mean, how many times have we thought a Chevalier must have died only to have them show up again later."
"That is a good point," Solomon conceded out of politeness. "But you must understand that as long as the blood of his Queen flows through his veins, a Chevalier will always regenerate. The only proven way to kill a Chevalier is to stop that blood from flowing, and the only way to do that is to either crystallize it or remove it, thus preventing regeneration. Loosing the amount of blood we found at the ruins should be fatal."
"How do you know how much blood a Chevalier can loose before they die?" Kai asked skeptically.
"It is a theory I once tested many years ago, in Germany."
"If you're so sure he's dead, then what happened to his body?"
"I am not saying that I am sure he is dead. I realize that it does not sound like Nathan to simply crawl off somewhere and die, but at the same time, I would think that if he went through the trouble of resurrecting her, if he survived, he would also want to fulfill his duty as her Chevalier and look after her, not leave her wandering around in the French countryside. There is evidence to support both the theory that he is alive and that he is not. I have known Nathan for a long time, but I admit that his true thoughts have always eluded me, but there is one thing I have learned for sure… With Nathan, it's never the simple answer."
"I still don't like the idea that he's still out there, after what he did to Dave," Kai muttered.
"Well," Ruka added casually, "if he is alive, then he best keep hiding if he wants to stay that way."
A chill shot up Saya's spine. She knew that in terms of behavior, the twins bore no resemblance to their mother, but Ruka's blasé tone while making a death threat made her sound exactly like Diva.
The attention of everyone in the room suddenly turned toward the door.
The ancient new queen carelessly sauntered in to the room.
She had been cleaned up, her hair had been cut short, though not as short as Saya's had once been and she still wore Saya's white nightgown, since she had resisted wearing anything else. She slowly ambled around the room, making eye contact with on one as her fingers scraped lightly against the ornate scrollwork on the wall, its texture seeming to fascinate her.
Dr. Julia pondered what a scientifically groundbreaking case she was.
Lewis and the two Joels wondered if she would become a threat.
The twins found the strange and infantile behavior of their biological grandmother somewhat amusing, and looked forward to getting to know her better.
Haji and Kai both wondered if she would be more like Saya, or more like Diva.
Solomon too wondered which of her daughters she would take after, observing that she did have a bit more of a physical resemblance to Diva, though her new haircut gave an added similarity to Saya, somehow. He couldn't help but recall what his former co-chevalier had observed about her.
Nathan once told me that his first queen made Helen of Troy look like a hag, but I don't quite see it. She is somewhat pretty in some way, I suppose, but really she's nothing to Saya, or even Diva for that matter. He thought. Then again, who could be more beautiful to a man that the woman he loves – perhaps Nathan… That would explain why he was willing to give his life to resurrect her... I suppose he might have been just hitting on James just to irritate him, or perhaps… his preferences leaned in more than one direction… never the simple answer.
Poor Saya wasn't entirely sure how to feel about the strange young woman.
My mother.
In my whole life, I've never had a mother. I have had a father twice before, but never a mother. Miss Eloise used to look after me when I was little, and then there was my governess, Miss Beaumont, but neither of them was really quite like a mother to me.
I wonder what she will be to me.
Kai stood from his seat and turned toward the newly named Shirayuki. "Hey!"
She continued to gaze out the window.
"Hey! Hey!" he shouted, clapping his hands several times to get her attention.
She finally looked at him.
Kai pointed at her. "Your name is Yuki," he said, each syllable pronounced with excessive volume and care, as if she was mostly deaf.
She smiled and silently pointed back at him. He took a few steps toward her and placed his hand on her head. "Your name is Yuki," he said as he removed his hand.
She placed her on hand on her own head. "Your name is Yuki."
"I am Kai. You are Yuki.'"
She smiled. "I am Yuki."
Kai patted her head. "Very good."
She immediately began to prance about the room, singing "I am Yuki!" over and over, using an unknown, yet hauntingly beautiful melody.
Aka turned to Dr. Julia. "Don't tell me it's just that simple!"
Dr. Julia shrugged. "She is very prone to suggestion in this stage. You could probably convince her that she's a lawn mower if you wanted to."
Ruka giggled. "Oooo! Sounds like fun!"
Kai turned and gave her a fatherly glare. "Don't even think about it."
"You never let us have any fun," the twins whined in unison.
Meanwhile, Saya still hadn't finished her musing.
How am I supposed to feel about her?
I don't feel like she's my mother.
But how would I know what having a mother feels like?
End of Act 1: Where Black Met Gold
Preview of Act 2: The Snow Queen
Saya's life looks deceptively simple when she goes back to playing the role of an ordinary Okinawan high schooler, but she still has a great deal on her mind – her 'big sister' who is really her amnesiac mother, her cello teacher who is really her fiancée, and her absent self anointed chevalier, who is to father her children. At least she gets some time off from fighting monsters…but if there is anything the past has taught her, it's that peace and quiet never lasts long.
So yeah, I have decided to divide the story up into three "acts," mainly just because I feel like it.
Thank you reviewers! You are awesome!