A/N Just a reminder: this story is rated M for a reason. This chapter contains a lot of violence and blood mixed with guts. Pretty gross, but it's a war. Rest assured, there will be lemons later for all those who enjoy them, but there is a bit of suggestive stuff in this chapter, but just a very little.

BTW, just a shout out to the creator of the Claim a Musician forum on My Anime List. She's just what I invisioned Mary Frances looking like- except I had to darken her hair. Thanks so very much!

Chapter 16- Blood Rain

Mary Frances smirked, giving Kanade the willies. It was an eerie feeling, seeing a face so similar to her uncle smirk in that way. She almost looked like she could be his evil twin- in female form. Like him, she was tall and lean, but her hips had more of a curve as well as her chest. She was not nearly as endowed as Dr. Julia, not many were, but she was still bigger than Kanade or Hibiki. Knowing the girl was not keen on hearing how much she looked like her father, Kanade covered it with, "You're so tall."

The familiar looking face sputtered a laugh before she scolded, "You can do better than that! I know what you were thinking. It's the same thing everyone that has met him thinks- I look like him."

"Your eyes are brown and a bit wider than his, your face is rounder…" Kanade began nervously as the younger one glared down at her.

The girl grabbed her chest and interrupted, "…and I have breasts. Yeah, I know. You think I haven't heard it all before? I was surrounded by his fan club in this dump for the past five months and now I get to be around his wanna-be-groupie."

Kanade narrowed her eyes and frowned as she looked up, facing the too familiar face, "I may be in love with him, but my mind does not go there with him."

The girl smirked and she moved back to sit down on her cot. "Oh yeah?" At Kanade's serious expression, she laughed, "Everyone's mind goes there eventually. Don't think you're fooling me."

Kanade simply moved to the cell bars. She needed a breath of fresh air. Taking a breath, she wondered if she really could share a cell with this vulgar person another minute. She rolled her eyes as she heard her companion's voice, "I think you need to end your feelings for him right now, Kanade."

The sympathy in Mary Frances' voice surprised her, causing her to turn. The girl continued as she looked at the wall, "I have caught a glimpse as to what's in his mind one time and hated myself for it ever since. I was hoping to find some memory of my mother- maybe me as a baby. All I found was his mission and a woman that looks a lot like you, but her name is Saya."

"I know," Kanade answered sadly. She looked through the bars and sighed. As much as her heart-break hurt, she realized it was nothing compared to what Mary Frances was feeling. It surrounded the girl like an aura of pain and bitterness. It must have been horrible to look into the soul of your own father to find that he cared nothing of you or your mother- even worse that he never even thought of them.

As quickly as the emotion surrounded the girl, it left and the wall came back up. She opted to stare at the wall and wait for the guards to begin their game.

Kanade looked back at her briefly before turning her gaze away once again. Knowing that Mary Frances had stopped prying into her thoughts, she wondered, "Who are you, Mary Frances, and why do you hurt so much?"

~0~

It would be a week before they could get everything in place for the raid. The soldiers were going over the plan with Nathan and David as Hagi and Lulu fought off the onslaught of chiropterans made from the princess' blood. Once in a while, they had to take extra time to fight the brown ones that were more difficult to destroy. They were made from Mary Frances' blood.

Hagi was flanked by two of them, both brown. In a flash, he reappeared, nearly before three daggers landed in the face of the one to his left, blinding it. He was behind the one to his right. With a loud thud, one now had a massive headache from the cello case he had slung through the air. He then impaled it with his claw, drawing one hand forward, he snapped it back to impale the other one in a similar fashion before it connected the attack.

He snapped his arm forward as if throwing a baseball, flinging the huge monster into a line of grayish weaker ones, knocking them over. He pulled out a blade he'd been carrying lately from the sheath attached to his belt. With a swift movement, he sliced the head off the monster under him.

Jumping to his feet, he made quick work of the other unconscious ones.

Lulu was tearing through a line of gray ones easily with a few axe swings. She jumped up and landed on the shoulder of one to see the numbers that were still coming. With a quick jump, she turned a mid-air flip and sliced the monster she was just standing on in half, vertically. She turned to her comrade and informed, "Hagi," she sliced through one and came to his side amid the roar of chiropterans in rage and in pain, "there are hundreds more coming, some are flyers."

Hagi nodded grimly as he made short work of a few gray ones. It was devastating when they found that some of the brown ones could indeed fly. None of the gray ones could and it made them all wonder just how much stronger the red line was. "Keep fighting, Lulu!" he shouted over the roar of battle. "The meeting will be over soon and Nathan and the Red Shield will join us."

Lulu nodded as her mouth formed a thin line. She was getting weaker and knew that Hagi was taking on the brunt of the brown ones to give her a break. "He should be getting tired soon, too," she thought. She then added, "Hurry up, Nathan."

~0~

The meeting was coming to a close and Nathan was lounging as much as he could in the folding chair he was sitting in. He kept leaning back with his arms folded over his head with the chair standing on its back two legs. He suddenly disappeared, letting the chair fall to the ground with a loud metal clatter.

A few of the leaders in the meeting began to question, causing David to reassure, "He knows that Hagi and Lulu are being overwhelmed and has gone to join the battle. I suggest we do the same."

They all rose from their seats and headed for the entrance to the large mess tent- the place where they conducted their meetings. They all had to rally their units and give them instructions, but that had to wait- they were needed in battle right now.

A general came to David's side as he was loading his gun with a special bullet designed by the Red Shield. It was shaped like a screw and was designed, when fired, to spiral through the air and burrow deep. When it was deep inside, the heat of the chiropteran's body triggered the detonator, causing the bullet itself to explode. The chiropteran's organs would liquefy. The grey one's didn't regenerate very fast, so it gave them time to have Hagi, Lulu or now Nathan to come in and behead the creatures.

It took more than exploding bullets to take down the brown ones though. David had to aim completely straight and hit the heart of each of them just to buy them a few seconds. Another problem was that some of those brown ones had developed iron-like skin. Even Hagi had a lot of difficulty killing those.

The general asked David, "I've been wondering about something, Mr. David. Why is it that these assholes don't try to take the chevaliers to create these monsters?"

David looked at the general briefly before checking his arsenal again. "By now Dr. Smith has found out that a chevalier's blood does not have the capability of producing chiropterans. Julia says it's because they were human males that have been turned into chiropterans. She has discovered through her studies of the remaining blood samples of Diva's chevaliers that there are no chiropteran males. It is why they have to turn human males in order to mate. It's also why there are princesses and no princes. All the princesses have only daughters."

"The species has no males…" the general commented in surprise. "So how do the chevaliers stay male when they are turned? Their blood becomes that of his queen."

David's face remained passive as he answered, "Julia has yet to discover all there is to know about them. All we know is that the chevaliers will not be able to create more chiropterans unless they mate."

They were startled as a gust of errant wind blew past them. David wondered briefly about it, but then busied himself as they came to the battlefield.

~0~

Hagi fought with all he had. They were coming faster and now, the aerial ones had arrived. He was about to transform to battle them in the air, when it suddenly began to rain blood and entrails over them. Lulu shouted over the noise, "What is that?"

Hagi growled, "They have fed." This meant that a nearby village must have been decimated and the beasts had feasted on the victims. Wings sprouted from Hagi's back, causing a spray for blood to scatter from his jacket. Maybe they had taken a city instead from the look of the amount of blood.

Lulu shielded her eyes from the drenching blood rain that fell and watched the chevalier begin to battle the first wave in mid-air. A chiropteran in front of her gave a low growl. She sighed as she went back to her task.

She beheaded yet another of the grey monsters as five more were crowding in. Lulu looked to the sky briefly to find Hagi was surrounded by three of the aerial monsters. Her eyes widened as she wondered what was going to happen to her when a flash of blue came by her and sliced through the five as if they were one.

The creature stopped briefly to check on his now rescued damsel. It had an elongated head and arms like a preying mantis only longer. Those arms were thin, but strong and had razor sharp small barbs along the sides. Small claws ended the arms that caught their prey. The creature's legs were strong and designed to jump into the air.

"Nathan," Lulu breathed as she was completely awestruck. With a couple of swings with those long arms, he was slicing through the grey monsters as if they were made of melted butter. The small barbs on his arms acted like the serrated blade of a sword. His elongated head looked to the sky and he immediately lept into the air and reduced the aerial chiropterans to pieces and more blood rained down on Lulu and the chiropterans she was left to fight.

Another surprise came in a gust of wind and blue streak. From Lulu's vantage, it looked to be a blue figure with a blade of silver slicing arcs of blood through the air as it mowed down a few lines of chiropterans grey and brown. The figure finally skidded top a stop, spraying a wake of blood from the ground that was soaked in about an inch already.

Blood now spattered her face and her clothes, but her brilliant blue eyes were glowing and aqua in color. Her face looked like Saya's when she was in battle- determined and angry. As more chiropterans closed in, Hibiki smiled menacingly, "I've always wanted to try this." Her thumb found the part of her blade that loaded the katana with her blood. She watched with a sickening satisfaction as her own blood filled the channels and grooves of the sword.

With a loud battle cry, she launched herself into the air and ran on feet that barely touched the ground. Her target was one of the brown chiropterans. She had never battled these before and was eager to try her metal, perhaps a bit too eager. She had not thought the creature would be smart enough to dodge the attack. Her sword only nicked the armor skin and her blood had not penetrated. She stumbled from the effort and came down in a large puddle of blood. The spray from her splash coated the nearby chiropterans that closed in on her.

"Hibiki!" Lulu shouted as she made her way through her own battle.

Hagi had felt his niece was on the battlefield and knew she was in trouble- she had never actually battled before. It was true that they sparred before, but she never fought in a real battle.

He slammed his claw through the chiropteran that was attacking him and allowed his wings to droop, causing him and his impaled victim to speed toward the ground. He pulled the victim behind him in a full dive toward the ground. Just as he was about close enough to count each blade of grass below him, he spread his wings, catching an air current and using the momentum to slam his prey into the ground with a loud boom. The result was a crater about 15 feet in diameter and a smashed-to-bits monster.

Hagi soared toward Hibiki only to find Nathan had slain all the chiropterans around her and reached out his arm to help the queen to her feet. By then, they heard the tell-tale booms of the artillery shells and grenades the Red Shield used to blow the monsters to bits with.

They were all tired and the battle front had moved to where the Red Shield was fighting. Hagi landed and looked off into the distance to where the facility was. More chiropterans were pouring from it. When will this war end?

Hibiki groaned as she tried to shake off some of the blood that had flattened her short hair against her head and coated her all the way to her feet.

They began to walk together back to camp as Nathan took off toward the next battle. Hagi and Lulu had been fighting all morning, noon, and almost into evening. They needed a break and Hibiki needed to regroup from her first failed attempt.

"You did good for your first try," Lulu encouraged the blood soaked queen.

Hibiki gave a small smile and replied, "Thanks, but I think I wasn't much help." Grabbing her own sore shoulder, she noticed a piece of intestine there and added, "And now I'm completely gross! Please tell me there's a place to completely submerge myself."

Lulu giggled and informed, "There's a shower at back at base. I'll show it to you." She then noticed she how sticky it was and that it was squishing in her shoes, too. "Ew! I'm pretty gross too… and to think that we eat this stuff to survive."

Hibiki smiled again and commented, "I guess that means we were just in the biggest food fight ever."

At this, Lulu began to laugh really hard and Hibiki couldn't help but join in with laughter, even after her own failure. Hagi placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and added, "With time and practice, you will become better."

She looked up into his blue eyes and smiled at him for the first time in a long time. "Thanks, Uncle Hagi," she responded. She still was upset with him for betraying Saya and then trying to lie about it, but she was grateful for all he had done for her and Kanade.

"You're welcome," replied as they made their way to the showers.

~0~

Later that night, Hibiki contacted Kai and informed him where she was and what had happened. He insisted on her return home and even forced her to give Hagi the ultimate decision.

"No, Kai," Hagi responded in his flat monotone.

"What the hell, Hagi?" Kai shouted into the phone. "You know she has no business there. She's never fought! When she gets herself killed… How am I supposed to explain that to Saya?"

"Kai," Hagi reasoned in a calming manner, "if she were to be sent back to you, how long do you think you could hold her there? You know that no matter what anyone says, Hibiki will find a way to get back to Iceland."

Hibiki rolled her eyes and gave an exasperated sigh as she heard Kai rant even louder into the phone, "If you don't send her back on the first plane out of there, I'M COMING TO GET HER!"

A loud disconnection was heard as Hagi handed the phone back to the young blue-eyed queen. "Stupid Kai," she muttered, "he still thinks he can help somehow."

Hagi gave her a serious look and said, "Your father is only trying to help. He's worried about you."

She took a breath and closed her eyes as she leaned against a support pole inside the mess tent. The drab green all around her made her eyes and hair streaks seem to stand out more than usual. Glancing back at Hagi, she asked, "When is he going to realize that I am 29 years old? I can take care of myself." She folded her arms over her chest, looking dejected.

Hagi just continued to look at her in his quiet way, making her think she had made her point. He finally spoke in a quiet, soothing tone, "First of all, you may be 29 years old, but comparing that to the number of years that you have yet to live, you are but a child. Kai knows that you are still young."

She glared at him and grumbled, "I thought you understood."

He turned his gaze toward the entry way and watched as the soldiers came in from the battle. The soldiers were eating and talking in excited tones about the fighting and the explosions. He finally said, "I only side with whatever is best for Saya- you and Kanade to a lesser extent. You know that." Regarding the way the soldiers were popping off at one another and playfully hitting each other he added, "Perhaps you might try to act more mature than your recent behavior. If you act like a child, he will treat you like one."

He eyes narrowed and as her fists clenched. She growled, "How dare you! I came to here to rescue Kanade! I…"

Hagi calmly responded, "You dropped out of school, have a blatant disregard for your father's rules, wear clothes he does not find respectable, dye your hair without consent or regard for the knowledge that you won't find a job because of it, and you are about to throw a tantrum like a child."

She grasped his collar, pulling him down to her level and glared into his eyes, "I came to save Kanade and to help in the fight."

Hagi simply plucked her hands from his collar with little resistance. Her recent loss in battle had made her weak and she needed a transfusion as well as a good meal. "You had no permission to come here and you lack the proper experience. My position is to protect you, not to make you happy."

Hibiki stormed out of the tent in a red-faced rage. She knew he was right, but she didn't want to agree to it at all. She looked across the field that was absorbing the blood of the fallen enemy. It looked like a sea of red in front of the distant mountains. One of those mountains drew her attention. It was where her sister was, she could feel it.

"Screw it!" she growled and began to take off. She was startled when a striking face came into her path. She had to skid to a stop mere millimeters from the man. She gave a startled gasp.

"Go back to the camp," a beautiful French accent commanded her.

"But they don't want me here," she responded as she tried to suck back the frustrated tears that threatened. "I can't fight, I can't save my sister… I can't even sneak out of camp without getting caught." Tears leaked past her hands as they tried to dash them all away.

"I will help you, but you must go back," the man told her. "If you are captured by that damn facility, we would be screwed!"

She finally looked up at the man. He had black hair slicked down to his head. From the look of his clothes, she guessed he had just come from the battlefield and the reason his hair was slicked down was from the blood. He was about the same height as Kai and he had the most genuine smile she had ever seen. "Come on," he comforted as he placed a hand on her shoulder and led her back to camp.

After a quiet moment, Hibiki informed him, "My name is Hibiki. What's yours?"

He gave one of his dazzling smiles as he wiped a hand over his forehead. "My name is Raoul Carter. I have been working with the Red Shield Intelligence division for the past 3 years. I asked if I could join the fight, hoping to see something other than a computer lab."

"So, are you enjoying the sights so far?" she joked, motioning to his shirt.

He stopped and looked into her brilliant blue eyes. He had never seen eyes so blue. Keeping the dazzling smile on his face, he responded, "I am now."

She was startled at the sweet flirtation, but there was a wild reaction inside her that drew her to him like a moth to a flame. She smiled and looked away shyly to hide the blush that spread over her face. "Thank you." "What is wrong with me?" she asked herself. "I'm acting like some stupid kid with a stupid crush."

They began to walk again. As they neared the camp, she looked up and noticed he took her hand in his and kissed it before departing. He called after her, "I hope to see you again soon, Hibiki."

She wandered back to the tent she and Lulu would be sharing and responded in a very low voice, "I hope so."