A/N I am in awe, flabbergasted, thrilled, and amazed beyond belief! My humble tale has 70 reviews! Thank you all for your continued support and feedback. You are truly my inspiration!
Chapter 41- The Truth is Exposed
Things never seem to go right for those that work their hardest to make things perfect. For Jack, this was not the exception but the rule. He sat in the chair in his empty hotel room looking dejected. His jaw clenched as he turned the small, round object over in his fingers. The lights were mostly out, except for the small one in the bathroom that gave off enough of a glow to glint off the silver of the small circle in his fingers.
The deep red of the stone looked nearly black in this light. It was the reason he had chosen the garnet. It was not a traditional stone for this particular ring, but it suited the woman he wanted- the woman that had rejected him.
He sighed heavily. No, she hadn't exactly rejected him. When he presented the ring and suggested forever, she responded with a shocked expression before flopping onto the couch. After she took turns looking at him and then the ring, she finally was able to conjure a comment, "I can't believe… you really… you just proposed to me."
It was at that moment that he was certain of her answer. She was going to say yes… so why did she not?
Her answer was so strange. It took her a moment to finally say something, but it shattered his world. "I am just not ready for this next step, Jack. You still don't really know me and I can't completely trust you."
So here he sat in this empty hotel room on the last day he was spending in Japan. He had planned to bring back this fireball of a woman and make her his wife, but all he got was a bunch of vague answers and more heartache.
He sighed as he ran a hand through his hair and leaned forward, looking at the ring. This glittering object he had expected would adorn her finger for as long as they should live, but now…
Sitting up with a determined look, he decided he would not go down without a fight. There were two places she could be headed and judging from the fiery look in her eyes, she was looking for a fight.
He smiled as he recalled that he was invited to the Myagusuku's place tomorrow for a picnic on the beach in honor of a man named Goldschmidt's birthday. He had previously planned on heading back to the states in the morning, but he could postpone for one more day. He wanted to settle this with Mary Frances and get a few answers before he left. This family picnic was a good excuse to stick around and get a few answers.
The young man rose from the bed and pulled on his leather trench coat. It brought a small smile to his face when he thought about how much the little minx loved him in it. The sleeves covered the marks on his wrists that would fade in about a week. How he loved when she tied him up.
Besides, it seemed as if she could not control herself when she saw him in this coat. She told him that he looked like some kind of bad-ass super hero in it- especially with the bleached out hair spiked haphazardly.
As he left the room, he thought of this confrontation he was about to have. More than anything, he wanted to speak with Hagi. The man was hiding something and it was certain it had to do with why Saya seemed to hate Mary Frances. He had to find the truth.
~0~
The young woman was already having a rough day and now evening without the added stress of her boyfriend's proposal. How she wished she could say yes, but it just wouldn't be fair to him. He had no idea who she really was. Even though they had helped to make the weapons she carried, they had no idea what they were for. All she had told them was that her half-brother was into catching fugitives from all over the world and she wanted to help.
They had no idea of the nightmarish beasts that she fought… even the beast that she was.
When she came through the apartment door, she knew he was there. That red haze in her vision never lied. Now that she had been around different individuals with the same abilities as her, she now could distinguish individuals by the subtle differences in how she was affected.
For some strange reason, his made her feel irritable.
She tossed her keys on the side table as she looked to see the chevalier in a dining room chair by the table, facing the door. He looked like his usual self, but there was something more. He was angry… and so was she.
"I clearly laid out the rules for you," his deep voice resonated through the room in a no-nonsense way, "yet I find you at Omoro, drinking alcohol."
"It was a rough night," she responded, "and Kai says it's okay with him." She hung her coat up and added as she returned to the living room in a long sleeve, black t-shirt with the words IRON MAIDEN printed in a bold block across the front, "Besides, you said they are house rules. That means they only apply when in this house."
"Wrong," he retorted. "Those rules apply while you are living in this apartment." Before she could spit out the words that he knew she was aching to say in response, he added, "Before you can say another word about leaving here, you should know that Kai has already informed me that Lewis and Lulu are using George's room tonight- so you cannot stay there. They are busy preparing for the party tomorrow night."
She glared at him, but it seemed he was not finished. Her expression turned to one of surprise when he said, "It is also noted that you have broken another of the house rules while I was away. That amount of aerosol did not disguise what had happened in the kitchen. That rule was broken in this apartment."
Looking him up and down with contempt, she tried to form a plan in her mind for getting back at him, but all she could do was admit and accept defeat. The glint in her eye told him that she was not about to bow out gracefully and this was going to get dirty.
"So what?" she asked with a shrug. "So I broke the rules. What are you going to do about it?" The girl boldly sashayed up the chevalier and poked her finger in his face, "The fact is, you have no right to do anything to me. You weren't there for me as a kid, and you aren't there for me now."
The truth was like a slap in the face. He had no right. All this time, he had not known about her was truly awful, but the real tragedy was now that he did know about her, he was still no better. He kept leaving to take care of Saya and back in the US, all he did was use excuse after excuse to escape her.
But his guilt needed to end somewhere or this girl was going to keep walking all over him. His fist clenched as he thought about what Kai had told him. "There are children out there that never seem to go against their parents, and there are those that seemed to buck up at every turn. Sometimes you have to beat some sense into them."
He shook his head. The chevalier looked at the girl, knowing he could never do that to her. In the time he was raised, women were the fairer sex and never should be struck by a man.
This dilemma seemed to plague him more and more every day. What was he to do with this girl?
The chevalier sensed the presence on the other side of the door before the boy could even knock. Before his daughter could respond to the knock that was about to come, he was in front of the door.
A surprised Jack looked in on the scene of his girlfriend looking very crossly at the man that was her half-brother. Before Hagi could even open his mouth, Mary Frances called out, "Jack! What are you doing here?"
The young man looked at her with hardness in his eyes and responded, "I am tired of this game you keep playing with me. I want to marry you, but you turn me down saying that I don't know you. Then you tell me that you aren't ready to tell me about you. I want to know how the hell I'm supposed to win with you!"
"Fuck, Jack," she murmured as she ran her hands through her hair. Her shocked expression came up when she heard her father's voice.
"If you are asking for her hand, you must speak with me first," Hagi demanded.
The young man looked in confusion from the half-brother to the girl and back. "Why should I ask you? You aren't her dad."
Hagi's jaw tensed as he seemed to be mulling over the situation. The boy needed to know that the girl he was with was underage and also a chiropteran. He then revealed, "I am her father not her brother."
The young man looked up with widened eyes before he sputtered a laugh. The man couldn't be more than 22! He was trying to regain his composure when Mary Frances sped past Jack and shouted at the ebony haired man's face, "What the hell is wrong with you? We can't go around telling everyone about all this!"
"If he truly cares for you and you for him, he deserves to know," Hagi responded coolly.
"You must be stupid or something! Dr. J says we have to be careful. That's why they made me stay here with you instead of living like usual back in the US! Hibiki trusted Raoul and look what happened there!" she demanded.
"He is proposing marriage to you," Hagi threw back. "I think he means to make your relationship permanent. Does that not deserve the truth?"
She pulled her lips back and hissed, knowing that he made his point.
Jack watched the verbal tennis match with curiosity. He had no idea what they were really talking about and his mind was still reeling at the idea of this man being her father. Rather than say something, he decided to stay silent and wait for them to inform him of something.
"What if you tell him… or I tell him… and he changes his mind about me," she suggested. When he tried to protest, she sent him a glare that demanded silence and then turned to her father, awaiting his response. When he did not respond right away, she added, "He could tell people about us."
"He and the others at the shop have worked on your weapons without question. They also know more about you than you think… and yet they have not shared any of this with anyone outside the shop," Hagi informed her. The chevalier was never careless enough to just speak without getting all the facts. He had observed everyone that worked in the shop carefully. All of them never even spoke of this girl outside the doors of where they worked. While Hagi was not willing to share the whole truth with all of them, he felt this one would be trustworthy enough. Beside that fact, he also needed to get him to back off of this relationship and telling him what he knew about her- especially her age, should be enough.
Mary Frances narrowed her eyes and thought over what the chevalier said. Knowing Jack this was only the beginning- he was not one to give up easily so it was a certainty that she would have to share her story with him sometime. She just thought she's have more time.
Hagi added, "If you truly love someone, you trust them with your whole heart."
The young woman didn't miss the look of pain in his eyes and, for a moment, felt sorry for him. She knew from the gossip the younger queens spilled with her that Hagi was still adamant about his innocence in the matter. Shaking her head, Mary Frances scolded herself internally, "This is not about him- it's about Jack and me."
Knowing that Mary Frances was unwilling to speak, Hagi started at the beginning- before Mary Frances and even before the war. "This is quite a long tale to tell. If you need anything while I tell you about what we are, let Mary Frances know, so that I may relay it to you in as short a manner as I can."
When Jack nodded and Mary Frances sent a scolding glare at her father, he began the story, "It started in 1830, when two men named Joel Goldschmidt I and Amshel Goldsmith, his cousin, found the mummified remains of a creature unlike anything ever seen before…"
As Hagi continued the tale of a war between two sisters that only appeared human, Jack had a look of disbelief on his face. The part where Hagi explained how he became immortal like his queen, Jack interrupted, "Wait… wait… you mean to tell me that they have the power to turn normal men like me into immortals- like vampires or something?"
"Yes," Hagi responded and then looked at Mary Frances, "but because she is a princess, her blood does not have the same powers as a queen." When the young man's eye came to the woman, he added, "It will be explained later in the story."
Hagi continued in the tale, explaining that it was vital for him to know all the details and so, Mary Frances now was hearing the tale in its entirety with all the details and emotions that Joel's Diary lacked.
When they arrived at the tragic tale of Vietnam, Mary Frances was leaning forward in her seat in anticipation. She had read it in the diary and also heard the tale told through hearsay, but to hear about this story from the source! If she was less controlled in her emotions, she might have actually cried.
After Saya cut off his arm and took off toward the soldiers, Hagi was left there to ponder what exactly his sin had been to cause her to do this to him. His face remained composed and stoic, looking almost as if he were bored in the retelling, but his words made it feel more than just a boring tale. "I had no choice. The Red Shield had Saya and I was to blame. They had explained to me why they drew my blood for the past year and yet I did nothing to stop them. They forced her awake and it was my own desire to see her awaken that caused the incident in Vietnam."
He then continued with his face turned down to the floor in front of him and his hands clenched together between his parted knees as if he was a man seeking penance for his sins. "The only place for me to seek solace and heal was in the jungles, away from the soldiers and the tents. In a clearing, I spotted a man- one of the doctors that was drawing my blood and experimenting on Saya. I would have killed him if it weren't for the woman I saw behind him. Even in her nearly lifeless state, I could hear her crying out to me that she needed him. That was the woman I visited in Vietnam."
"Hold up a minute, Hagi!" Mary Frances cried. "You mean to tell me that woman was alive in 1972!? How is that possible if she is not a queen or a princess?"
He sighed and responded, "I do not know. The doctor that cared for her felt that she may have been given some of the Delta 67 drug and it reacted with something they were working on. He explained to me that they had been using treatments made from Saya's blood to cure these young women of diseases they had from birth."
Mary Frances then added, "So that's why she didn't age at all."
Hagi nodded, "That is the theory." He turned to Jack and informed him, "What happened to that young woman will be explained later as well."
When the story came to the end of the war with Diva and the conception of the twins, the two hearing the tale could feel the sadness that must have been in Saya's heart at the time. Knowing what The Promise between Hagi and Saya entailed, they could feel it in Hagi, too.
"How is it that Saya is living if the death of Diva meant you had to complete the pact between you two?" Jack asked.
Mary Frances smirked and answered, "Kai explained this to me. He says you always tell people that it was him that convinced Saya to live on, but it really was you." She turned and explained to Jack, "Kai gave him a good right hook and…"
The look on Hagi's face caused her to turn to him and ask innocently, "What? It's my favorite part of the story."
She then continued, "Anyway, it got him to admit to her that he has been madly in love with her since he was brought to the Zoo. That's what convinced her to live on- he loved her and was willing to face her anger to beg for her life."
Jack looked at the chevalier and scoffed, "Why do you act like that's something to be embarrassed about? Any man that is worth anything knows that he is nothing without a woman by his side." He turned and smiled at the woman he chose.
"Unfortunately," Hagi continued, "the happy moment was short lived. I was buried under the Met when Amshel returned and I took the sword from Saya to kill him. I sacrificed my life for hers and the others to get out safely." His eyes once again found the floor and he added, "But I did not die. My desire to return to Saya willed me to continue on, digging and scratching my way free until I found the surface. I came back to a world where Saya was asleep and there were many chiropterans that needed to be killed."
"During these times, Dr. Julia was the one that found the eldest of the princesses- the result of Amshel and a human woman. Others followed, many others until I found what I thought were the youngest ones- both located in Louisiana. One of those trips to the US caused me to accidentally run across Mary Frances."
He turned to Jack and added, "She should be the one to tell you, but I suppose she is reluctant. You should know that she is not Mary Frances, but an orphaned girl that is only 15 years old."
At this, Mary Frances' eyes began to glow in those ethereal rings of red and blue, causing Jack to gasp. "Holy shit!" he exclaimed as the princess came across the room in a flash and had the chevalier by the throat.
"How DARE you!" she growled as her fingers clenched the alabaster column of his neck.
Hagi responded coolly, "He deserves to know."
When Mary Frances removed her hands, Jack admitted with his head turned down, "I already knew." He continued on as the two surprised expressions turned to him. "I know it was wrong, but there was something about her that… drew me to her. I wanted her and only her since I first laid eyes on her. She had waist-length, black, curly hair and never a smile on her face." His eyes shined as he looked up at the young woman and added, "I knew she had no name then, but I want to know everything there is to know about her- including that name."
She shook her head and responded in a voice just above a whisper, "Jack… I… I… it's too much." Tears welled in her eyes as she added, "When you hear my story, you'll say that it's too much… pain…"
He came to her and grabbed her hands in his, pleading with her silently to look at him. When her tear-filled eyes met his, he asked, "Please, let me be the judge of what I can and can't handle. I only want to know you, beautiful woman. Give me that chance."
She nodded, but before she could say anything, Hagi spoke up, "I will allow you both some privacy to speak over this, but I must insist on having a word with you, Jack."
Jack nodded as Mary Frances shook her head angrily. "You have no say in…"
The young man interrupted, "Actually, he has every right. Even if he's a bit late, he's still your dad."
"B-b-but…" she tried as the two men came to their feet and left the apartment.
Jack turned and said, "I'll be back in a bit for that explanation, but I insist on doing this the right way."
As the door shut, the two men could hear a loud growl of protest as the young woman stormed off to her room.
~0~
The night was cool, causing Jack to shove his hands deep in his pockets as the two walked silently along the beach. The water moved in and out in a rhythm as old as time itself while the darkness of night hovered around them, just beyond the reach of hands, it would seem.
"I know that she is only 15, but I am in love with her," he admitted. "I would do anything to have her."
Hagi's eyes remained on the night that stretched before them while he spoke, "Will you be willing to court her for the next 3 years, keeping your hands to yourself? I know that she is not a virtuous woman, but she is my daughter and I would rather her attend school than being an underage wife."
He nodded, "I can't say that it will be easy, but I will keep my hands to myself. When does she turn 16?"
"That, I do not know," Hagi responded.
He nodded and then spoke, "Will you allow me to marry her when she turns 18?"
Hagi stopped and turned to him, "I believe it would be best to wait until she is 18 and then we shall see if you two still feel as you do now."
"I want to be her protector- like you are for Saya," he informed the chevalier.
The dark-haired man's eyes widened slightly and he responded, "That should be done, if you decide, when she is 18." He continued to walk on with the young man trailing after him. "Dr. Julia is still working on a serum that will make her human."
Jack shook his head and responded, "No way in hell she'll want that. I know her. I may not know her name, but I know her. She has been through a lot because she's different, but she would not want to be an ordinary human- ever. It's just not in her."
The chevalier nodded and they walked in silence for a time. The moon was shining dimly through the thickening clouds. Thankfully, the smell of rain was not in the air, meaning the rain would hold off until early morning and hopefully burn off before the party.
Jack finally spoke out, "So why did you sleep with her mother?"
Hagi responded in his usual manner, "I have never betrayed Saya."
"Then how is it that you have a daughter?" he asked in confusion.
Hagi sighed and looked up at the clouds, "I do not know."