Konella

I yelled at Haji through our communication and fought off the angry hoard of chiropterans best I could while keeping contact. Haji tried getting more information, but I couldn't even concentrate any further without saving my own hide.
"Get out of my way!" I slashed through another chiropteran and tried making my way through when even more started showing up. Getting desperate and knowing this will hurt me later I shut my eyes and felt my body heating up to using my power. I looked at the group of deformed beasts' before me and watched as they each stopped coming at me and stared for a command to be given.

"Just…die!" Shouting out my will as their piercing cries echoed in the small room as some were gouging out one another while others killed themselves, I stumbled through the room to reach the metal door where Haji and the others were in.

[Haji, we have to get a move on…] desperately trying to reach him, the doors began to open and before getting hopeful I found an angry Saya charging past me with katana in hand. Unsure what was happening before seeing the shape of what used to be a man behind the others and figuring out it was George, I turned to find the girl grieving. But time was short as the news I heard over the radio in the control room when passing through the airducts took precedence.

"We have to leave, quickly." Gritting my teeth as I stood upright to keep my injuries from being seen, David and Haji seemed confused to my words before I faced Saya cutting down some stragglers. I took a deep breath and knew I needed to stop her since Haji wouldn't dare do what I'm about to do.

"Sorry Saya, don't hate me for this." Punching her in the stomach hard enough to knock her out, I took hold of her and handed her to Haji without giving him a chance to speak. "A carrier bomb is on the way here and we need to get the hell out! Let's move!"

David took lead and ran through the mass chaos while I covered for him and Haji until we reached the elevator. Getting inside and heading back to the first floor I was starting to feel the pain more and more running amok my body as scorch marks started to form. I held my breath most of the time to keep my mind off the pain while we ran out of the building. Though Haji and I could use our inhuman speed, leaving David would leave a bad taste in my mouth as well as damage our reputation of trust being built up. David's partner was just up ahead waiting with the van rearing to go.
"We gotta get goin David. There's a bomber plane headin this way!" David nodded grimly and got in the car with Haji and Saya while I staggered behind to catch my breath. It was unexpected to see Kai pulling in on his motorcycle waving at me to run to him before the bomber got here. Too weak to do that, I fell to my knees gasping for air as my throat felt as though on fire!

Shit, not now!

"Konella?!" Kai ran to me and easily picked me up to get to his bike while strapping a helmet onto me. Thinking he wanted nothing to do with me for how I've treated him thus far, this was a surprising side I was not prepared to receive. He didn't seem to care much as he straddled behind me and made sure I was secure against him as he leaned down. "I got you, just hang tight."
Kicking his stand and pulling on the throttle, we zoomed out of the place at high speed with the car behind us and heard the bomber whistling overhead. Having it being that close and listening to the sound of the bomb falling, it landed on the museum and a mushroom cloud overtook the scenery and lit up the night sky. The aftershock no joke as we struggled to keep upright, Kai was an excellent driver and managed to keep us upright and continued his high speed to get us away from such carnage.

It wasn't until Kai pulled over underneath a streetlamp that he seemed to notice my condition. Before speaking for myself he had already peeled out in another direction and started heading towards town.

"Hang on a little longer, I'll get you to a hospital!"
Trying to convince him otherwise was apparently a futile attempt. My throat still felt as though I swallowed flames, it was hard moving my body the way I wanted as I glanced at my blackened, bloodied hand.

Damn…no wonder the kid is in a hurry… Thinking kindly to Kai's action as he pulled into the hospital, he carried me in and brought me to a doctor. He was quick, knowing the way through the halls and avoiding the constant staff, he brought me into a room where a woman turned around with a surprised expression. It was the same woman from before who gives Saya blood transfusions. Interesting.

"Julia, I need help!" Kai shouted. Making his way to a bed as I watched her quickly rush towards me, I knew the moment our eyes met she thought I was an ordinary human. She didn't have the pleasure of being introduce to me and know who the hell I am.
"I'm going to need some anesthetic and start treating the wounds now." She acted quickly while Kai moved out of her way and left the room to allow her to work. Struggling to sit upright, I faced her as nonchalantly as I could muster without wincing. Repeatedly she chided at me to lay back down as she continued to get her remedies.

"I don't need anything," My voice harsh with as much coldness as not to give away the pain I was really in, it didn't seem to faze her a bit. Rather, she was furious.

"Nonsense," she scolded. "Those burns need antiseptic and bandaged right away. There's no time to lose here," tapping on a needle and ready for injection, I sighed and didn't know what else to say to stop her when I glanced at her desk and noticed the Red Shield insignia. This woman here truly did work for them, so I can be a bit harsh dealing with her then. Pushing her hand away as she struggled to prod my arm, I forced her to drop it and look at me.

"A chevalier doesn't require any tending to. You work under the Red Shield, so you know of our healing capabilities." I mentioned. She stopped and looked at me strangely with one eyebrow raised and a questionable look. A gaze I truly wasn't anticipating.

"You can't be right," she spoke with such certainty that even I questioned her judgement. "Only a male can be a chevalier. No records say a woman can turn into one by the queen."

"Queen," I repeated the word and it felt wrong to me somehow. I looked at this woman and wanted her to give me answers. Seeing her analyze me as she stepped back, I faced her directly and wanted to know just how much information I could gather. "What do you mean by that," I asked her.
She looked at me for a moment before sighing and pushing the rim of her glasses up. "You say you're a chevalier, but every record we have till now shows that no matter the circumstances, only men have been transformed to become chevalier's to protect their queen." She handed me a towel to clean myself with without word and I accepted the gesture quietly. Cleaning the blood off me, I recalled a battle Haji mentioned and had to question it.

"…then you know of Rasputin? Wasn't that chevalier a female?" Recalling Haji's tale when we travelled, he did speak that the chevalier was that of a small child before Saya went into her sleep cycle.

"No. Rasputin transformed into a female child but was turned when he was male. There have been multiple studies backing this case up and we have no records of a successful woman being turned." This woman was adamant on her research and did not budge an inch about the possibility. Questioning everything I've come to think up with Haji, I sighed with bitter defeat and dropped my tough demeanor.

"Please…if there is something you know I would like to hear it." The towel in my hand was fully covered in blood and I disposed of it to the corner. I looked at the woman and she didn't seem apathetic towards me.

"And why is that?" Her scrutiny valid, she sat in her chair with arms crossed wanting an explanation. "And I do need to treat those burns. You are wasting time before you go into shock."

"…I wasn't lying when I stated I'm a chevalier. These wounds will clear up in time and I will be back to normal within the day. But I need to know something," I got up and pleaded silently with my eyes as I approached. "Does any of your research say that a chevalier can lose their memories as they are being transformed?"

"What do you mean by that?" Inquiring more detail, it was a matter of seconds that I sat down next to her and decided to try and delve into this myself.

"I have fragmented memories of my life before I was turned. Dreams are always on repeat whenever I sleep for a brief period of time… Always the same scenario as though I was living out my best life."

"Sounds like amnesia…how long have you had these experiences?" She asked while taking out a pen and paper to take notes. I had to think about it for a moment though. Time has passed so quickly that I looked at the calendar on her wall and estimated the years.

"…48, maybe 60 years…my memory isn't the greatest to be reliable on the passage of time."
She dropped her pen when staring at me and I somewhat understood the reaction. After some time had passed and the burns beginning to rescind, she found the process of my healing fascinating and asked to conduct small research by getting some samples. A quick cut of my hair and some of my charred skin that was flaking off, she also asked for blood and I dug my nail into my wrist so she could have access. Having enough for the time being, she pulled up a few files off her computer and looked at me with a grim look before continuing.

"There have been studies of hypnotism working to dig deep to one's core memory. But before I attempt anything of the sort I would like to conduct a couple tests with you."

"So be it."

"First, let me ask when you woke as a chevalier that you can recall."

"Winter…I think around Moscow Russia when Haji found me around 1944 or so?" Rubbing my chin thinking back, she tapped her finger catching something.

"Found?" She caught that slip up of mine and I bit my lip in frustration. "What do you mean by found?"

"…if I speak of this matter, you and you alone are to know of this. I will silence you myself if you dare to reveal it to the others." Threatening her deliberately as my dagger was at her throat, she understood it well and dared not to say anything. "Alright then. In truth Haji and I believe me to be only half chevalier."

"H-half?" Shock and awe in her voice and expression was something I thought I'd be expecting, but when I finally spoke of it, I felt off. Something about it all just felt amiss.

"Haji has a theory after he found me being buried in the snow in Moscow. Frankly I only remember waking up after getting warm and feeling extremely hungry."

"What happened between you two then?"

"I bit his arm and drank his blood. If I was a chiropteran I would have died since Haji shares Saya's connection through her blood. Since I didn't, and remain here even now, it is possible by obtaining Saya's blood I might remember everything of my past."

"That's…that's quite a theory to have. Since being around Saya have you felt anything since your encounter?"
That's where everything became awkward to say. She's with the Red Shield, but I needed another point of view on this and I had to say what was on my mind that not even Haji heard from me.
"It's…awkward…" unable to describe it clearly, I looked down at my hands that had begun to slowly heal and the burn marks start to fade. "I've traveled with Haji for so long hearing of her and wondering what kind of person she was. After meeting her I feel almost bittersweet about it."

"How so?"

"I was told she was a warrior with a great cause and purpose to her goal. That she is fighting with all that she has to end a war that she and her sister had begun years ago. Watching Haji suffer because she doesn't remember her purpose brings out an ugly feeling in me towards her."

"How fascinating," she jotted down everything I was saying quickly with a spare pen she had and turned to her computer.

"Also," she stopped and looked at me and I wondered if I could put it simply. "More so since our encounter I have had some new fragments come up recently. More vivid illusions if you will. It happened with her young brother Riku in Omoro and somewhat with her brother Kai. When I am alone to my thoughts, I feel someone standing at my side whispering my name but cannot see a face."

"I see," she quickly wrote this down and contemplated my words and what I was experiencing rationally.

"Can you describe any of them to me? Perhaps when we induce the hypnotism at a later time I can ask specific phrases that would help."
It was hard to think right away, but I took a breath in and tried to recall the one that came to me the most. As I waited for the images to come through, a vague scene started to play out in fractals.

"Snow…everything is covered in a white blanket of snow. Something is playing in the background, but I can't tell what the song is. There are shadows standing around me, holding up what seem like glasses to celebrate something special. Each time I go to speak with them, no words come out, merely static." It hurt to think about and I jumped a little when I thought about what happened to me at the beach. "Recently someone keeps whispering my name gently into my ear. My heart pounds fiercely each time I try to hear it. And it has become more profound when I am on my own or drifting off thinking to myself lately."

I opened my eyes and saw her face contort in confusion trying to put things together.

"If this helps, Haji found me in a wedding gown when buried in the snow…I may have been getting married to someone, but I know nothing of what happened to me. And there's also a boy—around Riku's age maybe?—running around and smiling towards me. It hurts seeing it. Much more than being impaled by objects." Staring at my hands, I wanted to grab hold of something but just couldn't understand what it was I needed to grab onto. "I'm sorry for how confusing this all sounds…but I have had these images for many years and only recently have they been new since my meeting with Saya."

She tapped the pen on her lips, thinking deeply all that was said and absorbing it all in. Before facing me she seemed to think of something.

"…this is really deep," she tapped the pen on her desk and gave it some more thought. "You say it was in winter when Haji found you. Roughly 60 years ago now since traveling with Haji?"

"Yes."

"And considering you don't know what happened prior…" trailing off as she bounced the pen off her lip, she wrote something down quickly before turning to her desk and sifting through some large folders. "Perhaps I should show you something," handing me a rather large folder and wondering what it was she wanted to show me, I contemplated what I would see in it and looked at her blankly.

"What's in it?"

"You say you feel no attachment to Saya…perhaps there is another you would feel that to." She gestured to the folder, and I opened it slowly to find one name on the front of the paper labeled: DIVA.

"What is this," my heart was pounding in my chest that my fingers were trembling to turn the page. Taking the corner and flipping it over I could see a picture of another girl exactly like Saya in it. Short of breath and catching myself, I touched the picture gently and felt warm seeing it.

"I've never met her, yet somehow I feel as though I've known her for a long time." What a strange sensation from staring at a photo of someone who looks exactly like Saya but making me feel extremely different. "I've heard of Diva from Haji many times…I know she's Saya's little sister…but why," my eyes filled with tears, and I held my arms tightly while looking down at the picture. "Why do I feel so alone looking at this picture? I don't find any comfort seeing this…I just feel lonely, maybe even hurt?"
Julia grabbed the folder and tossed it aside and brought me into a hug. I was so confused to what I was feeling that I accepted this brief kindness and held onto her.

"You may not have memories of it…but your feelings towards your Queen speak true." She said this and had me look at her in the eyes. "To us, Diva is the enemy to the red shield and everyone on this planet. Having you affiliated with her may cause some issues."

"I don't know what to do about it," I answered. "Sure, I feel like I want to hold onto Diva and cradle her as my child, but there's something more to this that I don't get." I pushed her gently away and saw that my burns had cleared up now and my skin anew. "The man who whispers my name each time I close my eyes is someone I find more important than any 'Queen' you speak of. My heart beats harder for that unknown man I hear each time I sleep. Whether Diva is this Queen that I'm supposed to follow or not I don't know. I've been with Haji for years not knowing anything of a Queen and anything else related to servitude of one. When I see her, I don't know what would happen, but I'm not looking for Diva or Saya at this point." I felt myself getting worked up and calmed down again. "I only want to know of my past…to know of the man who wanted to marry me. I have questions myself that are left unanswered. This Diva everyone is after…" I looked at the photo again from the distance and felt that attachment again; "I don't know what relation we had…but I only want to know of what happened to me that left me dying in the snow."
She nodded a few times and had one more question for me before I left.

"Do you have any particular weaknesses that are different compared to Haji? I don't know much about the rejuvenation time or much anything else, so if there is something different between you two, I would like to know."
I narrowed my eyes as I got up and fixated my clothes before walking towards the door. Julia tried stopping me, and as I placed my hand on the doorknob, I could only think of something miniscule to give her.

"I'm not so fond of cold weather."