Chapter 15- Battle Lines
Kai rubbed his aching hand as he moved away from the blonde haired man standing in front of him. He was about to speak again when he heard another familiar voice come from the massive hole in the wall that was once the door.
"Nathan."
Kai turned to look and barely caught the flash of something go by him, but he didn't need to see him to know who it was. The two kept disappearing only to reappear in one corner to connect an attack just to disappear again.
"Hold up!" Kai shouted, causing the fight to stop abruptly two feet in front of him. He was shocked at first, but then a bit angry. "I know the place is a wreck, but it's still my home. If you guys wanna rip each other apart- do it outside or something!"
Hagi glared at Nathan who just seemed to be checking his nails. The blonde gave a slight frown. "Uh," he complained, "I think broke my nail." Finally looking up, he informed them, "Anyway, I did not come here to fight."
Kai interrupted, "So how is it that you're alive anyway? I saw your corpse cut in half on the stage at the Met?"
He smirked and shifted his stance, noticing Hagi wasn't relaxing from his fighting stance. "You haven't figured it out yet?" he asked both of them. He mostly noticed that Hagi still held his position and did not give anything away by his facial expression- or lack thereof.
Kai, on the other hand, he expected might have smoke coming from his ears by now. But Kai was the one that answered first, "Your body was there, but not crystallized. So…" Kai thought a moment before he continued, "…that means that you were not really Diva's chevalier."
"Took you a while," Nathan grumbled. He then looked at Hagi and added, "I wonder why you hadn't figured that out."
Hagi simply answered, "I don't care why you live. I just want to know why you are here."
Nathan gave a frown, "Poor Hagi, you can never trust anyone." He then added, "I actually came to see you." He walked up to the chevalier and looked him in the eye, "I am simply shocked that you would have so easily given yourself to a mere human when you could have had Diva- your blood's desire."
Hagi returned the glare and informed him, "My heart did not desire Diva."
"But apparently, your dingaling desired someone else," he shot back. Nathan thought the crude remark would cause Hagi to either attack or look away in guilt, but he did not expect what he did next. He simply turned from Nathan and walked away, admitting or denying nothing.
A blue streak came between the retreating chevalier and the dumbfounded one. Nathan easily grasped the handle of the over sized axe and looked down at the last of the Schiff. "Ah, the little lab-created chiropteran killer," Nathan noticed.
"Lulu," The Schiff corrected. "Why are you here, Nathan?" She snapped the handle, releasing it from Nathan's grasp.
He smirked and answered, "I came to tell you that they still have Mary Frances and to try to keep them from taking Diva's precious daughters." At Kai's expression of mistrust, he commented, "By the way, do you know how Monique got all that juicy information about the facility and what they are up to?"
"Why would you help us?" Hagi asked as he moved closer.
"Because the princesses are Diva's family- her blood and my queen Saya's blood," he explained.
"Your queen Saya?" Kai asked as his eyes cut to Hagi.
Hagi simply waited for an explanation.
Nathan rolled his eyes, "Huh. I thought you read Joel's Diary, Kai- or did you already forget?" Kai's bewildered expression remained. "My Saya is the mummy that your Saya and Diva came from."
"You are her mother's chevalier," Hagi reiterated for Kai's sake.
"Yes," Nathan answered. He then came up behind Hagi and wrapped his arms around Hagi's neck, poking him in the cheek, and added, "That makes me the older brother now."
Hagi glared at Nathan as Kai corrected, "More like uncle."
"Oh, I don't think that would be comfortable for Hagi- calling me Uncle Nathan," he teased as he moved away from Hagi.
He then leaned against the wall and said, "You don't need to worry about my motives. I'm not Amshel and my only intentions are to please my queen. She wanted me to watch over her daughters. Since one is dead, but her offspring seem to be all over the place, I thought while the other was sleeping I'd keep an eye on them."
He then chuckled, "You are doing a terrible job of keeping this from breaking out into another fine mess like the one Amshel created. If you would get me to help, you could get Hagi's little mistake and Kanade back, too."
Kai looked as though he was about to say something along the lines of, "Hell no! Get the hell out of my pub!" and kick Nathan out.
Hagi spoke before he could say anything, "Lulu and I are going to Iceland directly. You may join us and tell us your plan."
Kai looked at Nathan and then Hagi and back again, his eyes growing wider each time. He grabbed Hagi's shoulder and hissed, "Are you nuts? He's on Diva's side. He almost got Saya killed and he'll kill you the first chance he gets."
Hagi's voice remained even as he informed Kai, "He can hear you, Kai. Diva is dead and we have been struggling with these chiropterans for more than a few years. I agree he's untrustworthy. He would be easier to look after in a battlefield fighting chiropterans than here where he can get into Julia's files."
Kai's eyes widened as he got the point. He then nodded and turned back to Nathan, who had his fingers in his ears, pretending that he couldn't hear them. Kai rolled his eyes and asked Hagi, "Are you sure he'll be any use in the battlefield?"
Nathan began to hum a pretty opera tune as he shifted his feet in a dance. Kai snorted as he tried to keep from bursting into laughter. He looked at Hagi, but did not notice the amused gleam in his eyes. He added, "I don't think he would know how to fight. He'll probably be the first one killed."
Hagi only responded in his usual monotone, "Nathan is a chevalier and has been for a very long time. What you see is only what he wants you to see."
Kai smirked and then added, "Like when Hibiki throws a hat on her head to hide either a crazy haircut or new streaks."
Hagi only nodded before he came to the elder chevalier's side. Nathan acted as if he had no idea they were done talking and asked, "Oh, is your meeting over so soon?"
Hagi didn't dignify that with a response. He only moved toward Lulu and continued to walk as she fell in behind him and Nathan followed her. He turned back and blew Kai a kiss.
Kai just did like Hagi would and ignored the flamboyant man. "There they go," he murmured to himself. "A confused and silent knight, a tiny warrior, and the biggest back-stabber in the world; off to save a princess and two queens." He sighed and added, "Good luck, Hagi and Lulu, you're gonna need it."
~0~
Mary Frances was lying on her bed, looking at the ceiling of her cell, bored to tears. She had tried to find a break in the wall, a hole in the floor, anything to lead to freedom. So far, she'd come up empty. There was no way out and she was running out of patience. Why the hell had they kept her anyway?
Her hair was tickling her neck and she was getting sick of it. Because of her chiropteran blood, her hair grew fast and it was now barely touching her shoulders. Because it was so short originally, it was uneven and messy-looking. She scrubbed her head in an effort to move the hair away from that spot that bugged her. "My kingdom for a pair of fucking scissors!" she shouted.
She heard the idiotic chuckles of her guards echo down the hall. She rose from her bed and went to the prison cell door. Her hand went through the bars and displayed a single digit pointing upward. A few choice words from the guards were her answer.
A sudden slam of the door alerted her and the guards that someone was coming. She managed to squeeze enough of her head between the bars to get a glimpse of the guards escorting a girl with long, jet black hair and liquid brown eyes into the holding area.
Mary Frances was stunned by what she saw and sensed, The girl was not putting up a fight, but she could sense her power. "This one is strong," she muttered to herself. "Why don't you fight?" she hissed, knowing the girl would not hear.
When Nathan did visit, which wasn't often, he'd reassure her that he had a plan to free her. Sometimes he would stick around to teach her a few things about herself. One of them was to communicate with other chiropterans with her mind.
It wasn't long before the girl was brought to a cell, 3 cells down from the one Mary Frances currently occupied. Mary Frances sighed as she thought, "I wish I didn't have to do this."
She began to concentrate and let the red haze cloud her vision. Her eyes began to glow a vivid red around the brown irises. She felt an immense power pooling under the surface of the girl's skin. It was stronger than that of the chevalier that confronted her that day and the one that visited recently, Nathan. She felt something about that power that meant more than just a princess or chevalier. "She's a queen?" she whispered to herself.
There were three queens she knew of that were alive. One was asleep and two of them were the daughters of the deceased queen, but she didn't know their names. Concentrating harder, she felt the thoughts of the queen and whispered into her mind, "Saya."
"Saya is my aunt," came the telepathic response. "How are you doing that? I thought only Hibiki and I could do that."
"Keep your mouth shut and I'll show you someday. What's your name?" Mary Frances asked.
"My name is Kanade. Are you Mary Frances Reyes? Are you really Uncle Hagi's daughter?"
Mary Frances cringed as a strong mental image of Hagi came to her mind from Kanade's mind. She shook her head and responded, "So they tell me."
"He's coming to rescue us," Kanade reassured. "He'd never leave us here like this."
"Shit!" she complained while another mental picture of that man came to her mind. "Why are you so damn stuck on him? Why can't you get us out?"
"I don't believe in violence."
"No shit?" Mary Frances smirked. "Couldn't tell from the way you came in here."
"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit," she scolded.
"No one ever accused me of being a snob, so I'm not worried about being below my calling in life."
"Sad way to think about yourself."
"I've had a sad life." She then added after a moment, "So, all that power you have stored inside you is just going to lay idle while we rot in this hell-hole?"
Kanade snorted and answered, "I don't believe fighting ever solved anything."
Now it was Mary Frances' turn to snort, "Well, pretty princess, look around you. In case you haven't noticed, these people are starting a war. They plan on creating horrible monsters by using our blood. They believe in fighting whether you do or not."
"My Aunt Saya ended the war 30 years ago and she fought for more than a century just for the war to start back up," she observed.
Mary Frances was silent for a while, but then she commented, "In the country I came from, they believe that in order to be free you must continually fight for that freedom. I don't know why you think that sitting on your ass waiting for a knight in shining armor is a better idea than fighting to get out on your own. It's a nice idea to be a pacifist if there is peace around you, but look, there's war around you."
When no response came, Mary Frances added, "Look, I don't blame you. I'd love to just go back to LA, hug Daddy Green, climb into my truck and drive off into the sunset, but I've been kidnapped. Our blood is being used to create monsters that will kill everything they see. Think about it: what good is sitting by idly while the world around you is tearing itself apart. How will you feel when there are nothing but dead bodies around you and know it's your fault for not doing anything."
Kanade folded her arms over her chest and responded, "That will not happen. Hagi and the Red Shield will stop them before it comes to that."
Mary Frances growled as a mental image of Hagi came into her mind full force. She broke the kinetic connection with the queen as she just couldn't stand it anymore. "Urgh! I hate that! Why does she have to use him against me?"
She looked through the bars at the guards and then back to the wall before she murmured, "Lovesick… stupid… urgh!"
Hearing the rant, Kanade responded, "Stubborn illegitimate princess!"
Mary Frances groaned, "Oh yeah? At least I'm not in love with someone I can't have!" The last three words were shouted. Knowing she struck a nerve, she smirked and added insult to injury, "Just think, if you were to get what you want, I'd be your step-daughter."
"Shut up!" she answered with a growl.
The taller woman laughed and added, "…and you'd be my wicked step-mother! The evil queen! And I'd be…" her teasing laugh faltered and she did not finish the insult.
After a moment of flinching at the biting comments, Kanade wondered what had happened to the feisty girl that almost had her calling out curses. A girl that could insult so well wouldn't just stop mid-rant. Deciding to see if she could restart the war of words, she asked, "What happened? Did you suddenly lose your touch?"
"You're not worth bothering with," came the response.
She would've smirked, but she couldn't seem to get past the nagging feeling that the girl had been wounded emotionally. Kanade had a kind heart, but she had just been torn up and just couldn't help one last blow. "You are not much like your father. I wonder if you still look like him."
"Fuck you."
"Hagi never curses," she informed, knowing the other inmate couldn't stand the mere mention of that name.
"FUUUUUUUUCCCKKKKK!" she shouted into the building, causing it to echo around.
That seemed to be the end of the conversation. Both of them did not utter or share even another thought.
Kanade wanted to feel satisfied with herself, but she couldn't shake this feeling of sympathy for the girl. Even though she was rude and very mean, Kanade could feel the sadness and the bitterness that came from the girl. Try as she might, she couldn't break through the mental wall Mary Frances had put up.
"Something seems odd about her," Kanade thought. "She is just too angry and too sad. It almost seems as if she feels entirely alone." She then remembered that Mary Frances' mother had died almost two years ago, according to the Red Shield's research. That left Mary Frances alone at the age of 17.
"It must have been hard," Kanade thought aloud. When the person she was referring to did not respond, she explained, "When your mom died, you were all alone. It must have been hard."
Mary Frances ignored the attempts at reconciliation. She was too busy searching her cell for cracks again. When Kanade asked the same question again, Mary Frances decided to change the subject. "Where did you learn to speak English so well?"
Kanade furrowed her brow at the abrupt change and answered, "My dad was in England for a year before he came to the US to help my Aunt Saya in the war. He always stresses that Aunt Saya had a lot of trouble in the US and England because she knew barely enough English to get by. Either he or Hagi would have to help her out by translating. He told me and Hibiki, that's my sister, that we need to learn English if we ever hope to be able to travel to the US."
Mary Frances had found a small crack under the bed. She was busying herself with an idea, but she'd need her fellow prisoner's help. Rolling her eyes, she then took a breath. "This means I'll have to swallow what little pride I have left and try to convince her to help me," she muttered before she channeled her energies to create a mental connection. "Hey, I have an idea on how to get us out of here."
"I'm listening," Kanade responded in her mind. "Geez, you really need to teach me how to do that."
"Yeah, yeah, once we're out, your highness," Mary Frances rolled her eyes again.
Kanade shot back, "That's not funny. What is your plan, royal jester?"
"I need you to distract the guards. You'll need to be loud… really loud. I've found a crack and I think I can punch it hard enough to shatter the floor. I'll cover it with the bed and when the guards get into their stupid poker game tonight, we can start to tunnel our way out," Mary Frances informed her.
Kanade scowled and asked, "How does this help me? I'm in a different cell than you."
"That's the distraction- you're going to act like a girly-girl that misses her family. Wail like you really think you'll die without them. These guys get all stupid when the women in here get all emotional, they're guys. They'll put us in the same cell just to keep you quiet," Mary Frances explained. She then added a bit spitefully, "It's the best thing I got since you're not willing to fight."
"I still say that Hagi is coming for us," she retorted, knowing his daughter was rolling her eyes and cringing at the mere mention of his name. "But you're right. I won't fight and this is the best way out of here."
Mary Frances thought for a minute before she ran her fingers through her messy hair. Images of all those innocent people in the world came to her mind, people that meant no harm to anyone. "Kanade," she asked, knowing the images she was thinking of were being sent to her jail-mate as well, "if they succeed in using your blood. The world will be worse than those stories of Armageddon. The world will be overrun with monsters that will destroy all living things- people, animals, everything. Can you really live with yourself if we don't get out of here and you still refuse to fight?"
No answer came. Kanade had tears in her eyes as she thought of what her dad had told her about Aunt Saya. It occurred just after their 16th birthdays. Hagi had given them each a katana. They were similar all the way down to the deep ebony hilts and the channels running through the blades. Only one thing made them each different: hers had a red and blue rose etched beautifully into the hilt, while Hibiki's had two blue roses.
Hagi insisted that fighting was in their blood. Even if they never had to face a war, the two would have the desire to learn to use the weapons. Hibiki was already trying to use hers, but Kanade offered a fake smile and thanked her uncle, but went back to her room and stuck the sheathed katana in the back of her closet.
When she went back downstairs, Hagi was teaching Hibiki in the back yard, but Kai was sitting at the bar leaning over a hot cup of tea. A second cup was next to his, in front of the empty bar stool, inviting her to join him. He knew her so well.
"Saya fought every day of her life so that the world could be at peace," he explained. "She sacrificed so that no one else would have to fight again. If there ever is a new war, it is something she would not want you two involved in. She wants you both to live out your lives without ever lifting a sword in your hand."
She was startled from her thoughts as Mary Frances asked, "Well? What are you waiting for? Get to howling like a hungry baby, your highness!"
Kanade let out a high, keening wail, causing the guards to roll their eyes and come running. She huddled in the corner in the drab, pale blue gown they put her in. When they arrived, tears were squeezing from her eyes as she cried out even louder. It was then that she felt it more than heard it- a muffled boom.
Within the next few minutes, she was being escorted to Mary Frances' cell. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked upon the very tall young woman in the corner of the cell on the thin bed they called a cot. The waves of messy hair were starting to curl up at the ends. It came just to her jaw line in the front, but a little longer in the back, but it was the color that got to her- black.
She tucked an unruly strand behind her ear as she flipped the rest back and stood to her full height. Aside from her slightly rounder face and brown eyes, she looked nearly exactly like Hagi.