Disclaimer: I own nothing except my three OCs, whose backgrounds are heavily influenced by Sylvia Engdahl's novel Enchantress from the Stars. Anything you recognize is from the Trinity Blood manga, by Kiyo Kyujyo, or the novels, by Sunao Yoshida.

Chapter 5

Father Abel Nightroad hummed happily to himself as he walked the streets of Rome. He'd just come back from a most unusual mission. The briefing had been the same as usual-"Vampire terrorizing small village, retrieve and/or dispose of it." But this time, rather than a single vampire there was a small coven. To his great surprise and delight, when he'd reached the town he found the murderer, a young man, sitting in the police station, restrained by silver chains. The townspeople and the coven had banded together to defeat him, the Terrans wielding silver while the Methuselah countered any attacks made with haste. To see both races working and living together gave him a warm feeling inside. If only such a thing had been possible in Istavan. "Perhaps I should check up on Sister Esther," he murmured to himself, taking a seat at a favorite café of his. The young red head was currently about one month through the five-month training program. From what he'd heard, her experience as Star was coming in hand, and she excelled. The wait staff recognized Abel from his many visits and he was soon brought a cup of milk tea with thirteen sugars. Sipping the muck that was really more sugar than tea, Abel's thoughts turned to a woman long gone. "In one city, Terrans and Methuselah are at war. In another, they work and live in peace. What would you think of this world, Lilith?"

"Excuse me," interrupted a female voice, "were you saying something to me?"

Abel turned, and nearly dropped his tea in shock. Sitting at the table behind him was a man who could have been Lilith's brother, with his blood red hair and copper skin, though his eyes were red and not golden. Next to this strange man was the woman who'd spoken. Her eyes matched the chestnut color of her long hair, worn in a style similar to Lilith's. Both of them were dressed all in white, their clothing strangely reminiscent of the styles once prevalent among the colonists of Mars. The woman apparently noticed his already pale skin becoming paler, because she spoke again, "Father, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Abel stammered. "What was it you said before?"

"Oh!" she smiled brightly, "I just wanted to know why you said my name. It's Lilith." That was the last straw for Abel. "You're Lilith?" he murmured before the world went dark. He failed to see the predatory smile on the woman's face.

"So here we are in the middle of Rome with an unconscious Crusnik priest," stated Matxin Stenre. "Whatever do we do now, oh great fount of knowledge?"

"We, being your common decent citizens, will assist the poor priest back to our hotel, where we will apologize for startling him and pick his brain for information." Syeira D'Arva replied to her longtime friend and brother. Her response garnered a strange look from Matxin, who then asked telepathically I suppose if you're already ignoring the 'don't use powers on Younglings' rule by knocking him unconscious, a major invasion of this guy's privacy isn't too bad. He managed to imbue his thought with a sarcastic edge. Syeira sent him a look of annoyance. I didn't really have to do much to knock him out. The shock was already great; I simply magnified it a bit. And when I said pick his brain, I didn't mean it literally. We'll just ask him a few questions when he wakes up. "Now," she continued aloud, "Help me lift him up."

By this point the silver haired priest's collapse had been noticed by other patrons of the café, as well as the wait staff. Many rushed over to help Abel, and some came simply to gawk. Matxin cleared them away with a charming smile and a few words of assurance as he easily lifted the slender man. Lacking Matxin's ease in dealing with people not under her command, Syeira stood off to the side. She followed Matxin the short way to their hotel in silence.

Matxin stood looking down upon the unconscious priest lying in his hotel bed. He highly disapproved of Syeira's methods in bringing him here. Powers were not to be used on Younglings, save in life or death situations. He couldn't help but wonder, as he did every time Syeira acted almost cruel in her efficiency if she would have acted the same way were Evrek still alive. Matxin didn't think so. She hadn't been like that when her husband was still alive. Then, she honestly enjoyed visiting new worlds and mingling with Younglings. Now it was as if each mission was an obstacle that needed to be overcome as quickly as possible.

A small sigh caught his attention, and he looked down at the man on the bed. They'd been practically stalking this Abel Nightroad since they arrived in Rome. Syeira had found his name and picture by hacking into the Vatican personnel files, and determined that his appearance and name were too much to be a coincidence. Matxin agreed with her, but didn't voice his thoughts. What they'd done to trap the priest using his coloring, her hair, and their clothes (slightly modified Society uniforms) to remind him of a tragic past was another example of Syeira's small cruelties. Matxin couldn't help but wonder if his fellow Senior Agent even realized the hurt her actions caused. It seemed that since her husband's death she'd built a wall around herself and no one save himself could reach her inside it. She needs more time aboard the main cruiser to socialize, he thought to himself, not solo missions. This mission might as well be a solo, since I'm going back to Zera. I should help Syeira, but Zera's just such a beautiful girl, inside and out…

"Thinking of your new girlfriend?" Syeira asked as she entered the room.

"Was I broadcasting?"

"No, you had a ridiculous smile on your face. Has Abel shown any signs of waking up?"

"He moved around a bit earlier, but he's sleeping pretty soundly now." Syeira nodded at this information and moved to sit at the edge of the bed. "Here's our story. We're travelers from the Empire. I wanted to come here despite our origins because Christianity interests me. I thought of becoming a nun, but didn't think the Church would accept someone from the Empire. I've fallen in love with the city and am thinking of staying, while you want to go back to your girlfriend. She didn't come with us because of her job. Okay?"

"Got it."

On the bed, Abel opened his eyes.

AN: If you didn't know, I'm rewriting (or at least re-editing) this story. This chapter is almost identical to the one it replaces, chapter 6, and there will be others like that, but I've also made some pretty big changes. So please go back and read the whole story and tell me what you think! Dear readers, I implore you!