A/N I'm posting this in the morning so I won't forget. It's been a busy week and next week isn't looking much better.

April 2033

Julia sat in her office, typing her notes on the three princesses in front of her. Amy, Renee, and Denise sat in front of her. Amy, the oldest, had dark, straight hair and a tall broad frame. Her eyes were brown and calculating, just like her father Amshel's once were, only Amshel's were blue. She and her two sisters were possibly the most intimidating women Julia had ever met.

Renee and Denise were from France, but Amy was from Italy. According to Joel's diary, Amshel had been married, but his wife ran off to Italy when he became absorbed in the study of the anonymous test subject locked away in the tower. All the women had lived into their 100s, but their hair contained only trace amounts of grey and barely a wrinkle among them. They were in excellent health and Julia found that their blood contained properties that heal human illnesses.

Unfortunately, their blood could also create chiropterans, but they were weak and even slower than the ones Saya, Hagi, and the Red Shield had hunted over 20 years ago. A sandy blonde-haired young man came into the clinic and walked to the lab. Julia glanced his way briefly before she continued to question Renee.

The sandy blonde joined them, closing the door behind himself. As he took his seat, Renee continued in French. The young intern was had just graduated with a degree in languages. Julia had so many new clients from all over the world and was grateful for her son, Michael's help. His special talent for learning languages was earning him a living now.

He translated her information to Julia and tried to calm the elder princesses down as they began to shout excitedly.

Once things settled down, Michael gave the translation, "Renee says, 'I was approached by a man who claimed to be with an organization called Fimm Örvar. He wanted her to come with him to run a few tests.'"

Amy jumped in shouting in English, a language she picked up when she was staying with her granddaughter in England, "He showed up and my granddaughter's house, too! They wanted to take me to their facility and claimed I would be there for a year. I told him I was not some experiment to be prodded." Her face scrunched as if she was looking at a dead rat.

Julia tried to calm her and responded, "We have never heard of this company before. Please give us some time to research it and find out more information." She waited while her son translated to the others and then continued, "When you go home, take extra precautions: don't open your doors to strangers, don't go anywhere alone, and keep a watchful eye for people lingering around your homes."

Michael translated and the women nodded. Denise spoke up, Michael translated, "Are our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren in danger?"

"No," Julia responded, "they have very little of the queen's blood in them and no powers beyond a slow aging process. But they should stay watchful. We really don't know how much this rival company knows. Do any of you know where this company is located?"

All shook their heads as they began to rise and head for the door. Julia rose and followed them out, saying a very polite goodbye to each of them. She huffed as she shut the door and looked out her office window at the pouring rain just outside. The monsoon had arrived and the rain would be around a while. She sighed as her son came to her side. Finally choosing to speak, she asked, "What does Fimm Örvar mean?"

"I don't know. It sounds German, but it isn't. I would have to talk with my old professor, maybe he'd know," the young man responded. His firm jaw set, he noted, "They seemed a bit angry."

Julia smiled and responded, "I would be, too. Can you imagine how they must feel? They are just happy old women wanting to live out their lives and enjoy their families, but someone wants to rip them from their happiness to run some tests." She took a deep breath and reached for a cigarette. There was more to be concerned about. The company could be trying to create more chiropterans like Cinq Fleches.

Who was running it was no mystery. With all Diva's chevaliers dead, as well as Diva herself, no one was left other than Van Argiano. Dr. Aston Collins was long dead, cancer took him to the grave.

Argiano was certainly a CEO, but he was no scientist. What was his plan? He obviously was gathering princesses, but why? All the scientists that even knew chiropterans existed were all members of the Red Shield.

At that moment, a slender woman in her 30s with long brown hair barged into the room shouting behind her, "Will you move already? I would like to get as much information as I can before we head back to Hanoi and that bastard, Richards."

A laid back looking, taller man with graying sideburns and stubble came into the room. He looked like he had just come from the jungle, while his wife was looking fresh as a daisy. Julia stood and greeted, "Mr. and Mrs. Okamura, it's been a while."

"Hey, Dr. Julia," Mao greeted hurriedly. Waving her hand, she requested, "Can we skip the formalities since my husband and I need to get back to Vietnam before Dr. Richards goes home."

Julia raised an eyebrow, "Richards- isn't he the Dean of Medicine at Bach Mai Hospital?"

"One and the same," Okamura responded as he leaned against a wall. "He's withholding information from us." He didn't wait for a response as his wife was tapping her heeled foot impatiently. "We have been informed by a number of reliable sources that a princess may have been born there under very mysterious circumstances… in 2021."

Michael's face scrunched, making him look like his father when he was angry. "Wait… all of Diva's chevaliers died in 2007."

Julia took a breath and pulled her glasses down to rub the bridge of her nose. "There must have been another experiment by Cinq Fleches…"

"Impossible," Okamura responded. "The company hasn't existed since 2007."

Mao snorted, "I bet Argiano's behind this. You know he was released from prison around 2021. He disappeared and we have absolutely no leads." Irritated by this sudden change in topic, she spoke, "Besides, we haven't gotten to the weird part." She sat down and continued, "The woman that gave birth to the child was a Jane Doe that was, according to hospital records, brought to them in 2009- in a coma with a huge laceration that had cut deep into her brain."

Her husband continued, "In the time she was there, she never aged and never awoke. It was in 2020 that she was given an experimental stimulant that awakened her for only 3 days. In those three days, she never responded, only looked at the ceiling. It was a few weeks after she fell back into a coma, it was discovered she was pregnant. She died bringing a daughter into the world."

Mao produced a photograph of a tiny infant with blue eyes, black tufts of hair and very fair skin. "Looks like Amshel, but the tiny curls make me think…"

Julia rose from her seat and looked out the window into the rain. "We can't truly know until we find her and give her a DNA test."

"That's harder than it seems," Okamura responded. "She was taken to a small orphanage on the border of the ocean. The records are sealed, but for some reason, we know she was moved to several orphan homes throughout Vietnam. We can't find her. I was wondering if you could send Hagi out there. Maybe he can locate her."

"I'm sure he'd agree, especially now," Julia responded. "There is a new company out there. It's called Fimm Örvar. They want to run tests on the princesses. We only know that they have contacted Amshel's offspring. I need to contact the others and see what can be done." She then asked, "What did your contacts tell you?"

She smiled at Mao's confused expression, "You must have unearthed something worth flying all the way back to Hanoi in such a hurry."

Okamura cleared his throat and continued, "According to many sources that worked at the hospital 10 or more years, the Jane Doe was there a lot longer than just 15 years."

"Yeah," Mao interrupted, "there was one lady that worked there for 20 years. She said that the woman had been there at least that long… and never aged."

"Is it possible this woman was one of the princesses herself?" Julia asked.

The couple looked at each other. "Why didn't we think of that?" they asked simultaneously.

"Where is her body?" Julia asked.

"I think they may have buried it in a common grave," Okamura assumed. "We could have a Vietnamese contact claim to be a relative that wants an autopsy."

They all looked at each other and then Mao and Okamura sprang into action. As they made it out the door, Michael asked, "Do you think the dead woman is one of the princesses?"

"It's the only way to explain it, Michael," the silver haired doctor replied. She looked out into the rainy weather and toward the ocean. "I wonder what Saya would think of this world when she awakens. We have all changed so much." She then looked down, "We thought the fighting was over, but it looks like another battle is rising up along with this mysterious new company.

~~in Louisiana~~

The dark haired, dark skinned girl was bringing the potato salad to the table, just like her grandmother had requested. Her mother had the same look as her. The same as the man whose picture sat on the mantle place next to his wife. They were her great-grandparents, Latisha and James.

Kendra told the tale of her parents to her children and now her children's children. Latisha was a sweet and wonderful woman- a very active woman in the Southern Baptist church and an amazing mother to her two daughters, Kendra and Jendra. She passed away peacefully in her sleep in 1988.

Her husband was killed in Vietnam, or so they were told. He was a military man of some note and was assigned to a special project during the Vietnam War. The only thing the family knew was that it was a special mission and he was to guard the asset of the United States Government. It was a weapon known as Diva. He was gone for long periods at a time and when he returned, he looked the same as he always had- not a grey hair… not a wrinkle.

After the war ended, he disappeared. It was believed he was killed.

Kendra was 8 and Jendra was 5 when he left for the Vietnam War, but they both remember him. He was very strict away from his family, but at home, he would smile and play with the girls. The last time they saw him, they were 12 and 9. He was no longer smiling or even showing a hint of love. Their mother would just sigh and say, "He was more in love with his work than he was with me."

Suddenly, a loud bang attracted the attention of the 8-year-old granddaughter as she set the table. Her mother and her looked toward the front door as the tall, muscular creole mad she knew as her father answered the door. They couldn't hear what the person wanted, but they did hear their father and husband's response, "Tain't no way you takin' Kendra wit you. I won't let it happen."

Suddenly, they were surrounded by guns and they heard a scream come from the kitchen. The reflection of the events reflected in the dark brown eyes of the young girl as she watched them forcefully take her grandmother away. She screamed and heard her mother's scream as well. They pulled the woman that was now 75, but still only looked to be in her late 20s.

Kendra was thrown into the back of a van and locked in. The window had some sort of bars on it that blocked most of the light. But stripes of light still came through where the bars didn't cover and fell on the floor, looking like tubes of light in the darkness. A rustle stilled her and she tried to peer into the darkness to see who was there.

"Kendra?" a voice asked. It was sweet and melodious to her ears. She'd recognize that voice anywhere.

"Kaylee?" she asked. The two women embraced in the darkness, clinging to each other for every ounce of comfort.

When Kendra went to the Red Shield 10 years ago, she found that she and her sister were not the only ones that had a lack of aging. Apparently, their father was a servant for this creature named Diva. The doctor claimed Diva looked like an ordinary teenage girl, but she was am immortal chiropteran queen that was really more than 150 years old when she died. James, her father was Diva's youngest chevalier and the only one that had a family.

According to the documents of her oldest chevalier, Amshel, James was turned in 1959- before the war began and before the girls were conceived.

Kaylee was from Georgia and born in the 1950s. Her mother worked in New York as a receptionist for a man named Solomon Goldsmith. She never told Kaylee who her father was, but Julia did a DNA test and proved it. According to Julia, Solomon had 12 daughters scattered throughout the United States, one in Germany, and two in France. From the photos Julia showed them of Diva's chevaliers, Solomon was quite handsome.

"I feel better now that I know I'm not alone," Kaylee sighed. "I heard them say something about securing Renee."

"You mean Renee from France?" Kendra asked.

"No, I think it was Renee from Vancouver… my half-sister," she corrected. She then added, "They were talking in English. I'm sure if they were looking in Paris, they'd at least have a French accent."

Both women gave a long sigh and sat thoughtfully. Kendra's voice sounded so small when she spoke, "I wonder what they want?"

Kaylee responded, "Amy called me yesterday and told me that there were some men from a new pharmaceutical company that wanted to run some tests on them. You know Amy, she refused in a very big way."

Kendra chuckled dryly, "I can only imagine…"

"She spat on them and slammed the door in their faces."

No laughter came, but Kendra finally responded, "That sounds like Amy alright." After a shared moment of silence in the darkness, the two bounced as the van hit a bump. "I wonder where they're taking us."

"I don't know," Kaylee responded as her green eyes tried to see the van around her, but it was just too dark.

Julia had explained the powers their fathers had, but they only inherited the power to create weaker chiropterans with their blood. It also gave them an extraordinarily long life span… not to mention, their youthful appearances. Some of them did have small gifts they inherited.

Kaylee was able to hear things that no human could hear. She was known to eavesdrop on conversations that occurred on the other side of a building. She relayed the information she picked up from the front of the van.

"He says they're on their way to pick up the next target. They have secured Renee, Adriana, Carol, Sky, and Louise and they are headed to the airport. They have drugged them to keep them compliant," Kaylee explained. Her green eyes turned to her friend's in horror, "They plan to drug us, too."

The van came to an abrupt stop and the doors slammed in the front. "Where are we?" Kendra asked in an airy voice. No answer came and the women were left to each other.

As time passed, the women became more panicked, but the fear was held at bay by the fact that at least they had each other.

Kendra murmured, "I wish Jendra was here. She's the one that can connect with that chevalier."

"Oh, you mean the one that contacted us first- the really quiet one," Kaylee responded animatedly. "Gosh he was handsome, but so creepy."

"I thought so, too, but Jendra says he's just really lonely. She can sense a bit from him- like that he's in love with his queen."

"You mean Diva's sister? The one that killed her?" Kaylee asked.

Suddenly, the doors opened, temporarily blinding the women inside from the bright daylight that came from the open door. Someone was throw inside, but she remained face down on the floor of the van as Kendra's eyes adjusted enough to see a tall, muscular blue eyed man holding a needle. Whoever was on the floor was obviously drugged.

The doors slammed shut and they helped the woman to sit on the upholstered seat. Kendra recognized the scent of her sister, Jendra. She threw her arms around her and cried, "Sissy! Oh god, not you too."

Kaylee came to her knee on the floor in front of Jendra and tried to stay calm. "Jendra, please, you're our only chance. Contact the chevalier. He can help us."

There was no response. A strip of light moved over the back of the van through the window. When the light flashed over Jendra, Kaylee could see she had been beaten and was no longer conscious. "Jeez!" she gasped as she huddled with the two women.

After a time, Kendra spoke, "I don't know who these guys are, but they know a lot about us."

"How do you know that?" Kaylee asked.

"They knew that Jendra can telepathically connect to the chevalier, that's why they drugged her. They will drug all of us before we get on whatever plane is waiting for us at the airport so we won't know where we are going." She then commented honestly, "There's very little hope."

"Don't say that," Kendra argued as she did what she could for her older sister. "There's plenty of hope. We just need to get Jendra to wake up."

The van came to a stop. The women listened in terror as footsteps moved around the van. When the door opened, two dirty looking men with nasty yellow grins jumped into the van and pinned the two conscious women to the van floor.

Kendra and Kaylee screamed for all they were worth, but they could feel the men above them laughing at their useless attempts to attract someone's attention. A man in a white lab coat appeared in the light of the open doors.

He spoke in a strange accent- it wasn't German, but it sounded similar. "Scream all you like, no one will hear you. We are in an abandoned parking lot that is completely unmonitored."

With that, he entered the van and Kaylee screamed as a needle was pressed into neck. Kendra watched as her friend's body became lax and her pretty mouth dropped open, drool dripping the van floor. Her blonde curls danced in the breeze that came into the van.

Kendra suddenly felt the sting of the needle in her neck. The liquid was cold and it made her go numb all over. Blackness was creeping up as the men exited the van. She heard one make a nasty comment about having 10 minutes alone in the back of the van. She prayed he didn't get what he wanted.

Her mind drifted back to Mardis Gras 2021.

Kendra sat in her sister's living room, watching the clock on the mantle ticking away as she let her unexpected guest in. She had decided to stay with her sister in Sulfur for a few days while they cleaned up after Mardis Gras in New Orleans. It was then that the mysterious cellist made his appearance.

Jendra entered the room in her blue cotton dress followed by a tall gentleman with a large case strapped to his left shoulder, a bandaged hand holding the strap. He was dressed in charcoal grey slacks and a coat that matched with tails that went to his knees. His white button down shirt was nearly the color of his skin. His steel blue eyes roamed the room through the jet black hair that fell about his face, most being pulled into a blue ribbon at the back of his head. He looked as if he came from some other time.

"This is my sister, Kendra," she introduced as the man stiffly gave a formal bow. Jendra then said, "This is Hagi, he says he has some important information we need to hear."

She nodded, not sure what to make of the man or his sudden appearance. "Okay," she spoke slowly, "what do you have to say, Hagi?"

The man spoke in a nearly monotone voice, "I am with an organization called the Red Shield. It has come to their attention that you possess unique qualities such as a lack of aging and an unnatural longevity. If you wish to learn more about what you are, you may contact Dr. Julia with the Red Shield." He held out a business card to Kendra as Jendra already had one. "If you need financial assistance for the plane tickets, contact Joel Goldschmidt. His number is on the bottom of the card."

Kendra looked at her sister quizzically. She nodded and responded, "Thank you for the information, Hagi. I am sure we'll be contacting them soon."

The man gave a quick nod and bowed before he exited the room, followed by Jendra.

As Kendra lost consciousness, she finally recalled the name of the chevalier. She murmured weakly, "Hagi, help us."