A/N Hey all. Sorry I'm posting this so late. I have been really busy this week and today was really rough. Anyways, here it is and please make my day by leaving me a review! BTW, this is the chapter that explains Mary Frances' life at The Center and a little before too.

Chapter 23- The Center

As the tall man made his way through the airport, he grabbed the strap of his cello case as he effortlessly pressed his way through the crowd of people. He was surrounded by humans from all races, shapes, and sizes. He didn't regard them, though as he was on his way somewhere. He remembered many years ago, he had been nearly blinded by his raging blood lust when he was in an airport in New York.

It had taken him a year to tunnel out from under the Met, but he was still weak since he refused to kill any living thing to curb the raging hunger. He had taken from a few animals and even a couple of homeless humans sleeping on a park bench, but only what he needed to regenerate.

The bit of cash he was lucky enough to find and the kindness of a manager of a storefront clothing shop. She had taken pity on him and gave him a hefty discount on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Thankfully, his shoes were still intact, but worn pretty badly. He carried Saya's katana under his torn, burnt, and stained jacket he had wrapped it in.

Later that week, he found a Red Shield agent that helped them get the apartment they'd been staying in before the night at the Met. He had been given just enough blood to heal him; the man did not have more than one unit in stock.

Hagi informed him that he had to return to Okinawa immediately. The man warned him that he should go to another operative on the other side of the city to receive at least one more transfusion, but Hagi had to get back to Saya. He just had to be sure she was alright and give her some indication he was still alive so she would rest more easily in the knowledge she was protected.

He walked into the airport not caring how he'd get the katana or his daggers through the stringent airport security. It was a certainty he would be stopped and possibly questioned at the very least for the weapons. If that happened, he'd probably be branded as some kind of terrorist and jailed, but he was determined to get back.

The lack of proper feeding had made him irrational and he realized this the moment he stepped past the entrance and toward the throng of people that were in the lobby, waiting in line to purchase tickets. A red haze clouded his vision as he could hear the numerous throbbing heartbeats pounding in his ear in different rates, sounding like a massive roar in his head.

His blue eyes shut tightly as he dropped back against the wall. To the average person, he looked like some travel-weary tourist resting against the wall. How little they knew of the danger they were all in.

The smell assaulted his nostrils with every breath- blood. His hunger gnawed at his body as his fangs worried his tongue and the back of his lips. He wondered briefly what he was thinking in coming here. His hands began to convulse as he used all his energy to restrain himself from grabbing the nearest human and draining it completely. A cold sweat broke out in large drops over his brow. He had to get out of here, but he could not find the energy to restrain himself and move at the same time.

He suddenly felt a hand grab the crook of his elbow. He groaned as he had to use all his strength not to turn and savagely rip the throat of this person out and take his fill of the life force it contained.

They were moving, but he knew not how or to where until he allowed his eyes to open a crack and took in that they had not only stopped, but they were in a room surrounded by white tiles and a number of sinks lining the wall.

No longer able to restrain the blood lust, he lunged toward the sound of a click, where his rescuer stood locking the door. The flesh of the man's neck seemed familiar. The taste of his blood was like Saya's but different. It burned his throat as he gave a low growl of hunger, but it felt like it was from a time long ago. Memories of elegant balls and glittering jewels filled his mind. A beautiful woman that had Saya's round face and the same shape of the eyes danced with him. Her face seemed to be eternally joyful as waist-length curls of dark red hair fell in waves around her body. Her blue eyes glowed the way he remembered Diva's.

Nathan gasped in pleasure. It wasn't as good as when a queen fed from him, but it still had the same effect on his body- especially since it was the very handsome Hagi that was feeding from him. He smirked wickedly at the reflection in the mirror. His dark hair was almost completely freed from that ribbon as his face was turned into Nathan's strong neck muscles.

The blonde chevalier let his sky blue eyes roll back as Hagi took a particularly strong pull, causing Nathan to groan in pleasure. He had to stop this soon or the starving chevalier would take his immortal life. He sighed as he gently pushed Hagi back from him, looking into his half-lidded eyes that were glowing blue.

Nathan chuckled as he watched the chevalier begin to understand what had happened. It was like watching a make-over show on television. Before his eyes, Hagi's dull hair became shiny, his emaciated face filled out, his skin went from grey to alabaster, and the hollows under his eyes were gone. Intelligence sparked in his eyes as they faded back to the usual blue-grey color.

Hagi watched as the blonde haired man began to clean up the blood from his neck and mumbled, "Not a drop on my shirt. Pretty good for someone that never feeds on… well anything." He turned to the dark haired man that stood almost a head taller than himself, "You know, if you fed more often, you'd be a lot stronger."

Instead of answering, Hagi began to walk toward the door. Nathan stopped him with, "Hmm, I came here when I could sense you were weak and possibly dying. After all this you think you can just walk away like nothing happened?"

Hagi turned and asked, "What is it you want from me?"

Nathan cocked an eyebrow. "Aren't you the least bit curious as to how I survived?"

Hagi turned to face the locked door and answered, "No. It is obvious that since you survived Saya's attack that you were not Diva's chevalier. I do not know who your queen is, but I do know that you had planned to kill Saya. That's all that matters to me."

He returned to the operative and waited for the Red Shield to send a plane ticket and some decent clothing. He would return to Okinawa once he was feeling stronger two years later. He requested that only Joel and those that worked at Red Shield Headquarters know he was alive.

Hagi had left after the altercation a bit wiser than he come. He also knew one thing, Nathan wasn't to be trusted.

As he made his way to the other side of the crowd, he remembered how he had almost completely wiped out an airport. Making a mental note to thank Julia for regular transfusions, he handed his ticket to the man at the gate.

~0~

He walked down the streets of LA, toward the place he had not tried yet, The Center. He thought that it might be possible someone had been there long enough to remember Mary Reyes when she was a prostitute. Maybe someone was close to her that could tell him who the father of Mary Frances was.

The brown brick building stood in front of a playground, but there were kids all around the front of the building. There were some on skateboards and roller blades, sharing with those that had neither. Two women sat on the steps holding bottles of water that dripped in condensation. As Hagi made his way past them, they whistled their appreciation.

Ignoring them, he moved past the doors to the entry hall where more women and children were headed outside. Two teens were sitting against the wall sharing their music.

"Can I help you?" a stern woman's voice asked. He turned to see a rather slim, dark skinned woman with nearly black eyes looking him up and down. Her face was stern as she waited for an answer. Her glasses rested on the end of her nose as she commented, "We don't want any trouble here."

Hagi answered her, "My name is Hagi. I am looking for someone that may have known Mary Reyes- the original owner of The Center."

The woman seemed to be biting the insides of her cheeks as she responded, "Uhm-hmm." When he didn't seem to show any reaction, she shifted her weight to the other foot and asked, "Is there a last name or is Hagi your street name?"

"It is my given name," he responded coldly. "I was adopted by the Goldschmidt family many years ago."

"Goldschmidt…" she responded vaguely and then seemed to momentarily be lost in thought. She then added, "As in- Joel Goldschmidt- the very wealthy and powerful family in France?" Hagi gave a small nod as she continued, "I worked on the New York stock exchange until I retired in 2027 when I came to work for Mary Reyes."

Hagi looked at his feet for a moment before he asked, "Did she ever give you any information about her daughter, Mary Frances?"

She looked at him as if he'd grown two heads. "Mary Frances?" she asked. "No, I was just an assistant financial adviser. I do know we were all shocked when she gave up The Center."

Hagi looked at her and waited for her to elaborate.

"When Ms. Reyes became ill, her daughter was sad that she was losing her mother, but she was excited to be taking over in her mom's place. She told us it had been her life's dream. About six months after her mom died, she befriended a young woman that her mother looked after. Poor thing was nothing but 13 years old and scared to pieces."

"The girl followed Mary Frances like a shadow for about half a year before she just disappeared. The next day, Mary Frances sold The Center and became a truck driver. It's really odd, but I talked to Mr. Green who seems to still be in contact with the Mary Frances, but I don't know what happened to the girl. Unfortunately that does happen from time to time, they end up going back to their pimp or a john that promises them a better life. "

Hagi found this odd. If they were so close, wouldn't Green know what happened to the companion? Hagi gave a slight nod and asked, "Is there anyone that was around them?"

The woman looked at him seriously and asked, "What is your interest in either of them?"

"I am Mary Frances' father," he admitted.

The woman sat down on the bench behind her. "Her father," she muttered. "It isn't often that we have men come in here and claim they are the father of any of the kids here."

Hagi waited as she took a moment to understand that he was not here to hurt anyone, just find some answers.

After the woman recovered from the surprise, she directed him to a room at the end of the second hallway. He arrived to a partly opened door and the sound of someone humming a lullaby to the baby on her shoulder.

He rapped on the door frame, causing the woman's attention to turn to the door. She opened the door slightly wider and peered at him with nervous eyes. She had been through too many beatings at the hands of her pimp to trust any man, let alone one that was as tall and serious looking as this one.

Her hair was completely straight and nearly white from the bleach she used in it. Her skin was lightly tanned and her tight blue blouse hung seductively over her large breasts. She held the infant protectively as she warned, "If you're Monte, you need to leave. Mrs. Polk will throw you out. She's got her boy Aiden working in maintenance here."

Hagi responded, "I am not Monte. My name is Hagi and Mrs. Polk sent me to speak with you about Mary Frances Reyes and her companion."

She looked him up and down and asked, "You a cop?"

"No," he answered flatly. He felt no one else was in the hall and answered lowly, "I am her father."

Her eyes opened wide before she moved out of the door way and let him inside. The smell of fear ebbed in the room. It brought back a memory of Mary Frances shrinking from any embrace and wondered if it was a learned behavior. These women seemed to frightened of men.

She placed the baby in a bassinet and sighed, "You scared me. I thought Tyshira's pimp was coming to finish the job he'd done on her." She motioned to the chair and requested, "Please sit down. It may not be pretty, but it's kinda comfortable."

Hagi placed the cello case on the floor next to the chair and had a seat. It was a worn out green and had a spring poking from under it, causing his weight to favor one side. She was wrong- this chair was really not comfortable, but he did not show it.

She asked, "You want coffee?"

"No, thank you," he answered as he shifted a bit, causing the springs in the chair to squeak in protest.

Water?" she asked. When he didn't respond, she returned with a glass of water and lots of ice. As she handed it to him, she commented, "Summer's a real bitch here. I can't believe you're wearing a suit."

"I am accustomed to extreme temperatures," he responded in his usual monotone.

She nodded with a raised eyebrow, "Shit, I'm not. I think I'd melt in shorts and a t-shirt. It must be at least 100 out there."

He only nodded as he regarded the drink in his hand.

"You look like her," she suddenly said.

He nodded. It wasn't the first time he had heard this.

"Have you talked to her?" she asked.

He nodded again.

"Where did she go?" she asked.

He blinked and wondered, "Why doesn't she know?" He responded, "She became a truck driver."

"You mean like Mary Frances?" she asked, not noticing the look of confusion on her guest's face. "They were always really close- like sisters."

"Who are you referring to?" he asked, not wanting to believe what she meant.

She blinked in confusion, "The girl, of course." She then added as she began rummaging through a stack of papers in a large box by the television, "I always wondered why she'd leave Mr. Green. She seemed so fond of him- and him of her."

After a while, she called out, "Ah-ha!" as she held a photograph in her hands gently, as if it were made of something precious. When she came to him, he realized there was a copy of the photograph framed on the wall he hadn't noticed earlier.

At this close proximity, he could examine the features of the two girls. The one on the right wore a sweet, genuine smile, but the other held a shy, damaged expression as her smile seemed to be non-existent.

The one on the right had red, short hair that matched her eyebrows. Her brown eyes danced in happiness and ambition. Her face was more angular and her nose was more stubby and button-like. This was the real Mary Frances Reyes. The two did not look all that different from far off and they were the same height.

The sad girl on the left stole his attention. Her skin was so light that it almost glowed in the sunlight and her raven hair fell in waves down her shoulders and ended in a wide curl at her slender waist. One ebony strand even fell to the left side of her slender, long nose in a small curl. Her brown eyes were a bit wider that his own and looked into the camera in an almost angry, defiant look- the way he looked the first day he came to the Zoo. That face! It was the same face he had been following. This was his daughter.

Hagi looked up at her and demanded, "Who is she? Tell me everything you know about her."

It alarmed the woman. She wasn't sure what had bothered her, but she could sense this man rarely showed any kind of emotion and the passionate outburst seemed out of place.

She explained, "I don't know much. We found her on the steps of The Center September 2033. She told us she had no parents and kept crying that she didn't want to go back. We think she was talking about her pimp. From the look of her, she'd been treated pretty bad."

Noticing his nod, she continued, "Ms. Reyes took her into her room and cared for her, but the girl never let anyone touch her anyway. The girl would go into hysterics if she was touched- he must have beat her. Ms. Reyes told us what she had found out about the girl everyone called 'Girlie'- Mr. Green gave her that name. She explained that Girlie came from somewhere other than the US because she was afraid of being deported. It's why we think she's a victim of human trafficking. They had taken her from her home when she was only 12 years old."

She winced as she remembered she was talking to the girl's father. She asked carefully, "Are you sure you want to hear this?"

He gave her a serious look as he took in the horror story of the pretty girl in the photograph that was obviously his daughter. The question is, where did she come from?

She continued slowly, "We know she was hooking… er… prostituting to survive. She must have been abused in so many ways. We think she killed her pimp to get away- when we found her, she was covered in blood."

She looked down at the ground, "I don't want to tell you the rest…" She couldn't look up and see the cold look on his face. If this was her father, the last part of this story would surely kill him.

He demanded in a monotone voice, "I asked for everything you know."

She gave a shaky sigh and kept her eyes on the floor. She winced as a tear fell and her eyes closed tight, "She was on the steps… she was crying on the steps that night. Lightening kept flashing as we could hear her sobs through the rain. Ms. Reyes ran and threw open the doors to find this poor, beautiful creature curled into a ball on the steps. She was only wearing a torn, over-sized t-shirt. She cried… she screamed… blood…" she whimpered. She then took a breath, "She was pregnant. The baby was still-born… I'm… I'm sorry."

The woman cried for a time as Hagi sat in the chair in complete shock. Not only was the girl lying about who she was, where she was from, her age, and even her name- she was really this girl that had been through hell. He had been in denial over being a father, but now he had to wrap his mind around the fact that his daughter had been a prostitute and almost had a baby.

It was too much. He rose to leave quickly, causing her tear-stained face to turn to him. "Can you tell me what happened to her? Is she okay and what is her real name?"

Hagi didn't look back as he shouldered the cello case and placed the full glass of water on the table. He responded, "She is alive. I thank you for all you have told me, but I have no more information that I can give." His hand moved to place the photograph by the glass of water.

"No." Her comment stilled his hand. She commanded through her drying tears, "You keep it. Show her that we remember her and we miss her just as much as we miss Mary Frances."

Hagi nodded and kept his serious expression. He bowed quickly and left the room and The Center.

He had to get to the shop and to Calvin Green. It was obvious the man knew all this time who he was really looking after. The man had answers and Hagi needed to know what those answers were.