Fic: Thicker Than Water Chapter 2: In Search of Nathan, Part 2 (Blood+, T)
Title: Thicker than Water: In Search of Nathan Part 2
Author: xwingace/
xwingace
Summary: Saya sleeps, but life goes on for Kai and Saya's nieces. Including cleaning up the mess that was left behind. A mess which seems to mostly be caused by a rogue Chevalier.
Fandom: Blood+
Character(s): Kai, Nathan Mahler, Diva's daughters.
Rating: T.
Word Count: ~7500 in this part of the chapter.
Disclaimer: Not mine. I'm just having fun. No harm or profit is intended.
Spoilers: All of the series.
Feedback: Yes, please. Comments are more than welcome.
Note: Posting WIP, slightly against my better judgment.Part two took almost half a year to write. I've been stuck on part three ever since. So I've decided, to hell with it, I'll post. Maybe it'll help with inspiration for part three. And apparently Chapter 2 is too long for LJ posting limits, so I've had to split it into two parts. That's when you get titles like the above...
Chapter 1
Chapter 2 Part 1
In Search of Nathan Part 2
"We've got trouble coming up, Major," Kai warned. He pointed away from the house they'd just cleaned out. "At least three Chiropterans in that direction, probably more, and I think they're moving." Quite possibly the scent of blood from the house they were in attracted them. Kai had a little trouble ignoring it, himself.
It had all started out well enough. Kai guided the Americans to two nests of rats, and they were duly exterminated. He could stay well back, since the soldiers didn't really seem to appreciate him being at the forefront of the exercise anyway. Even the first full-fledged Chiropteran they came across, all by itself, was handled well enough without Kai stepping in, though he regretted the enormous amounts of ammunition being expended just to make sure one 'Mouse' stayed dead. It still hadn't finished crystallizing, but more trouble was already on the way.
"Damn," the Major said, then pulled out his radio to call the commanders of his other squads.
"Danvers, Rodriguez, what's your status?"
"Pretty busy here, sir," Danvers replied over the radio. "We'll handle it, but we won't be able to back anyone up anytime soon." He was hard to understand over the background chatter of gunfire.
"Same here, " Rodriguez came in. "We're holding off two Mice. We'll hold out. The Red Shield guy warned us so we could set up cover."
Kai whistled. That was as many Chiropterans than they'd come across in their own sector, all in one day, and all at the same time. Well, at least the American command hadn't been exaggerating about the troubles in their sector.
"I'm calling in our helos," Major O'Hare replied to both of them, and proceeded to do so. Then he turned to the lieutenant nominally in command of the squad. "Looks like we'll be on our own for a while. What can we set up for cover?"
Kai joined in the deliberations, although the only input that was accepted was on where the Chiropterans would be attracted to, so that the squad's positions could take this into account. O'Hare assigned Kai's team positions in the defense without so much as a by-your-leave. The Major ordered Kai to stay with him, and that was that.
The discussion didn't take long. It couldn't, because it had barely started when the blasts of gunfire from a forward position announced that the Chiropterans had been spotted. Kai was pulled behind cover by O'Hare. He didn't stay there long, however, because very quickly the roars of the Chiropterans became audible even over the cacophony of shots. Even worse, soon after that the unmistakable smell of human blood assaulted his senses. The Chiropterans had gotten to one of the soldiers.
He was useless back here, under cover. He wasn't qualified with an automatic rifle, so all he had was his trusty pistol. Which was fine, but even he couldn't fire that at this distance and have a hope of hitting what he wanted to hit. He'd have to get in closer.
Kai was away from his cover in the blink of an eye, effortlessly evading O'Hare's hand grabbing for him and ignoring the curses the Major sent after him. The position under assault wasn't far away, and the point from where Kai could usefully shoot was even closer. He emptied an entire clip into the closest Chiropteran. Unfortunately the creature wouldn't do him the favor of turning around and opening its mouth, so it took all of those bullets to dent the skull. If it even had. The Chiropteran might still be alive, but at least it was out of it for now.
One of the soldiers being assaulted was still alive. Kai grabbed the back of his flak vest and pulled him away, shoving the soldier in the direction of his previous cover. He himself switched clips and finished the job on the recovering Chiropteran. He was going to run out of ammunition soon if this kept up.
"Get down!" another soldier behind Kai shouted, and he obligingly ducked behind what little cover remained between the crystallizing Chiropteran and the dead body of a soldier. Bullets flew over his head to thud into a second Chiropteran, coming to check out the scent of blood right here. Not that those bullets did much good. Instead, they drew the Chiropteran's attention to fresher blood, and it shifted its path. Right into crossfire that decapitated it.
Kai heard the soldier who had presumably fired the killing shots whoop. At the same time, the soldier Kai had rescued came forward with two colleagues to collect the body of their comrade. One tapped Kai on the shoulder. "You okay?"
"I'm fine," Kai answered, but he was on his feet again and scanning around for the other Chiropteran. There had to be at least one more. But it was hard to tell where he should be found now, with the blood confusing Kai's senses. He shook his head to clear it. It didn't really help.
"You sure? You don't look too good."
"I am perfectly okay," Kai reiterated distractedly. He was straining his ears in the hope of hearing where the remaining Chiropteran had hidden himself, since his nose was now near useless and his eyes only had limited line of sight.
But then he did catch a scent underneath all the different types of blood, and the felt the hairs on the
back of his neck rise. This wasn't just a Chiropteran. And it wasn't Haji, either. Which meant it could be only one person.
Nathan.
So this was where he'd been hiding himself all these years, and causing this whole mess alongside it. Damn him.
Kai took off at speed, only just catching the exclamations of surprise from the soldiers behind him. He was probably going a bit too fast to be humanly possible, but at this point he didn't care. If he caught Nathan, everything would be over, and he could have peace again, together with Elisa and Irene.
He followed the scent, leaving the squad far behind. Somewhere in the back of his head the thought registered that if Nathan hadn't been near his squad, then there had to be another Chiropteran out there, but he didn't pay any attention to it. Nathan was the greater threat.
While Kai was tracking him, he could tell Nathan was moving. He needed more speed to catch up. He couldn't do that with the armor he had on restricting him. It was useless anyway. He tore it off, then grabbed onto the nearest windowsill and used it as a jump-off point to get to the roof of the building. He'd have better line of sight there.
Sure enough, as soon as he got up on the roof, he spotted Nathan, in Chiropteran form, dragging a soldier along. By the uniform, it was another one of the Americans, probably from the second squad. By the amount of blood on the uniform, the American was no longer alive. Another Chiropteran, shreds of uniform still on its back, was heading away from the two of them.
Throwing all caution into the wind, Kai spread his wings and flew at Nathan, barreling into him and carrying him along until both of them smashed into a building. The crash took them through a brick wall onto the second floor. While they tumbled to a halt, Kai was already clawing at Nathan's chest and neck, leaving bloody streaks that healed instantly.
Nathan didn't hesitate, either. As soon as the both of them had stopped rolling and he had some sort of solid ground to push off against, he threw Kai off and jumped to his feet. A kick and a throw set Kai sliding further away. Nathan took advantage of the time this gained him to shift back into human shape and spit a few questions. "Who the hell are you? One of Saya's?"
Kai didn't bother to respond - it would have been difficult anyway, since he didn't have Nathan's ease in shifting between forms and speaking through fangs was a skill he hadn't quite acquired yet either. He could if he tried, but there was no need for words here. Just ending the one remaining threat to his girls. He simply got to his feet and charged again.
Nathan sidestepped and, once Kai was past, grabbed on to one wing. He wrenched Kai out of his path and sent him flying again. But somewhere during that move, he had to have gotten a sniff or a taste, because this time, when Kai landed, he said his name. "Kai?" He started laughing. "You decided to take that offer after all, did you? Maybe you realized that in thirty years, you'd be an old man without anything to offer Saya?"
"Shut up, you bastard," Kai said while he prepared for another charge, but it came out as little more than a growl. Kai was now regretting the fact that when he'd shed his armor and shortly afterwards his human shape, he'd also left his pistol behind. Hand-to-hand or claw-to-claw, Nathan had more experience and probably more strength than him. Still, it was all he had left, so that's what he was going to use. At least in here, Nathan didn't have the luxury of running. Kai rushed in again, this time anticipating Nathan's sidestep. He evaded the grab for his wings by dropping into a roll, aiming a kick at Nathan's stomach during the drop, and stabbing a claw into Nathan's shoulder when he came back up. Too bad. He'd aimed for the chest. "I didn't ask for this," he tried again, and this time it was a little clearer. He tried to strike Nathan's face with his remaining free hand, but Nathan blocked it easily and then threw Kai off again.
"There's no need for us to fight, you know," he said, almost as if he hadn't just tossed Kai into a heap of furniture. He started to say more, but was distracted by the sounds of gunfire from outside, and changed his mind. His shoulders dropped. "Are you with these pests?"
Kai paid no attention to Nathans words. He charged again and again, leaving Nathan no other option
than to evade or strike back. Kai's attacks failed to penetrate, but Nathan still didn't seem particularly interested in actually fighting back. He kept asking Kai to calm down. Of course, that wasn't going to happen any time soon.
Actually, it happened sooner than Kai was ready for. He was right in the middle of an attack when the gunfire was suddenly very close and bullets hit him. He roared out in pain and twisted around to see who was firing at him. American soldiers. As Kai was turning, more came into the room and started firing. Kai raised his arms to protect his face. He tried to shout at them to stop, but couldn't make any intelligible words come out.
Nathan took advantage of Kai's momentary distraction. He ducked underneath Kai's wings and ran toward the soldiers, who obligingly stood aside for him. Then they resumed firing. Nathan was out the door in seconds.
Kai stormed after him, but his way was blocked by ever more soldiers, all of them firing constantly, hoping to score a fatal hit. They had no such luck. Kai's wounds healed as soon as the bullets passed through.
Kai swatted the massed soldiers aside, clearing a path. The shots, heal though they might, hurt. He couldn't protect himself against them, and they were whittling away at his reserves of blood. Kai had to get out. At this rate, Nathan was going to get away. He was getting thirsty, too.
He managed to get outside, but all he found there was more massed firepower, backed up by a helicopter this time. Kai wasted valuable seconds looking around for a long gone Nathan. That meant he only saw the heavy caliber guns trained on him when they were already firing. No time to dodge. The impact obliterated his left shoulder and threw him against the building he'd just come out of.
The pain overruled everything else. He needed blood. Luckily, there were handy packets of it running around. They were pestering him with stings, too. Two birds with one stone.
He got to his feet. His left arm wasn't working right yet, so he lunged with his right at the closest source of blood-scent. It dodged. So could he. A short hop landed him on top of his prey. It tried to fight back with a gun still, but it was disarmed easily enough. He bit down, drinking in gloriously warm blood and taking a chunk of flesh for good measure. It didn't take long for the blood to stop flowing. No matter, there was more to be had elsewhere.
There were shouts from somewhere in the distance, and the bullets stopped flying in his direction so much. All the better. He lunged for another prey…
…only to find it roughly torn away from in front of him. Instead, he faced another chiropteran. Another chevalier, even, though he remained in the human form. Haji, his mind supplied. Why would Haji stop him from getting the blood he needed? That puzzle made him stop in his tracks for a fraction of a second. It was long enough for Haji to bring up his bandaged hand and stab the oversized syringe it held into Kai's chest.
Kai reflexively tried to block Haji's strike, but he was too slow. And as soon as Haji withdrew his hand, Kai could already feel his reactions become more sluggish. This wasn't good. He was surrounded by people shooting at him, and he was already short of blood. He had to get away. He brushed Haji aside and tried to continue feeding, but Haji stepped back in and pushed him away.
Then he felt more impacts. Instead of hurting, however, the places where they hit turned numb. When Kai turned to find the source of these shots (slowly, oh so slowly), he recognized the shooter as his team leader just before his vision went dark.
Oh shit.
-x-
Miyagusuku led the way into the basement tunnel. Mike caught up with him again at a bend further down the corridor. The acute angle of the tunnel wall there provided a little bit of cover, which was being used by several of his colleagues to make a stand against the raging chiropterans.
"… eight of us caught on the other side," one of those colleagues was reporting to Miyagusuku just as Mike arrived. The others were using rapid bursts of fire to drive the chiropterans back. The main reason they were relatively safe, however , was because the Mice were too busy with the soldiers on the other side. They had no cover at all, and so were easier prey.
The remains of one Mouse was at Mike's colleagues' feet, the bright tatters of a pizza deliveryman's uniform standing out among the red crystal. There were seven more in the corridor beyond. The only thing really saving his fellows was the fact that the big mass of Mice couldn't really maneuver all that well in the tight tunnel.
"Try the tranquilizers, sir?" Mike suggested.
Miyagusuku shook his head. "Save them," he said. "There's no way you're going to be able to hit all of those with enough of it to make a difference." He touched the transmit button on his radio. "Colonel, better get down here. It will get messy very quick." Then he turned back to Mike and his colleagues. "Try not to shoot me, if you can."
He stepped into the melee, too fast to be able to hear the corporal he'd been talking to earlier call him an idiot - only not in such polite terms. He was firing his pistol as soon as he'd rounded the corner. Mike could see the first three shots hit the back of the closest Mouse, which turned around only to receive a further two shots to the chest and one in the head. It dropped.
A second Mouse had also turned around. Miyagusuku shot it, but his final shot missed, and one of the Mouse's claws came down to tear out a sizeable chunk of his shoulder. The corporal turned away, but Mike forced himself to keep looking.
Miyagusuku dropped the gun, and caught the claw. Barehanded. At about the same time as he transformed.
"Holy shit," another corporal swore, and Mike felt like confirming the statement. Miyagusuku had been right. Had this happened at the barracks, they wouldn't have gotten out of there.
Like Miyagusuku said, it was nothing like the Hulk. It was actually quite a smooth and quick transition. Almost like looking at one of those speeded-up movies that showed a small sapling growing into a large tree in a matter of seconds. This didn't even take that long. Miyagusuku went from average, pale-skinned human to huge, grey-skinned Chiropteran in about the time it took to blink.
A pair of wings, like sails of leather, pushed up the oversized jacket he wore and spread out as far as they could in the confined space. Since when did Chiropterans have wings? Maybe it had something to do with the 'special kind' of Chiropteran Miyagusuku said he was.
Bigger or not, wings or not, it didn't make much of a difference to the efficiency of Miyagusuku's movement. He'd levered the Mouse that attacked him aside, then kicked it to the ground and placed one foot on it to keep it down.
Its screams drew the attention of the other five Mice, and it didn't take long for Miyagusuku to be surrounded by the things, their claws tearing at his flesh and wings in their attempts to keep him off them.
That was quite the gruesome sight. The claws from the Mice left deep gashes or sometimes even holes, but the wounds healed rapidly, even quicker than Mike had seen happen before on normal Mice. The same went for the bullet holes from the fire that some of Mike's fellow soldiers were still directing at the Mice. Those big wings couldn't stay out of the way of everything.
Well, he could at least try to do something about the shooting. "This is Saunders," he spoke into his radio, "the big one is a friendly. Hold your fire unless you know you can hit the smaller ones."
"Keep firing," another voice intruded on the channel, and the Colonel's voice was unmistakable. "He can take a few bullets."
Mike looked around to see the Colonel and Lewis standing behind him, having finally caught up. He opened his mouth to protest the order, but then remembered his own rank and thought better of it.
The Colonel still must have noticed, however, because he came closer to Mike to speak without the radio. "Those bullets hurt him less than those Mice tearing chunks out of his flesh. We can kill even one, we've helped him more than if we stop firing now."
Questions were coming over the radio channel, but the Colonel overruled them all by repeating his order. Still, at least some of the fire was directed away from Miyagusuku now.
To be honest, he looked like he needed all the help he could get. He was tearing into the Mice with efficient viciousness, but the reverse was equally true. Mike could recognize some martial arts forms in Miyagusuku's movements, even concealed as they were by his current shape, and that was certainly something he'd never seen or heard of a Chiropteran doing. His movements, however, were restricted by his size and the number of opponents further crowding the limited space. Still, one by one the Mice fell.
When only two were left, Mike noticed that Lewis was readying his tranquilizer gun. It looked like he was expecting trouble. Just in case, Mike lifted his, too. It seemed wrong to shoot Miyagusuku, though. The man had been fighting hard.
He still was, in fact. That instant, he kicked one of the Mice against the tunnel wall, then struck the other one in the chest with both claws. He pulled back, and a bloody mess came out with it. Without shaking the gore off, he then grabbed the Mouse's head and tore it away.
Mike winced. Lewis did, too, and now actually aimed his gun. Some people were still trapped. The soldiers on the other side of the melee had people with injuries with them, and the whole floor was covered with Chiropteran blood. They'd have to be carried out one by one. By now, there was only one Mouse left, and then there was nothing but these tranq guns keeping a very hungry and demonstrably very powerful Chiropteran from attacking everyone in the hallway.
Except the Chiropteran himself. So far, Miyagusuku had killed the Mice in pretty much the same way he'd disposed of the second-to-last one, with his hands. Now he took the last remaining Mouse in some sort of hold, pinning its arms to its body, and bit down on its neck.
The thing struggled at first, and struggled hard, but it couldn't break free and soon its efforts weakened. Then it stopped moving altogether, and color started leeching from it grey-brown skin. Still Miyagusuku didn't let go. Only when all color had gone from the Mouse, he disengaged and dropped the body. It shattered into tiny red crystals as soon as it hit the floor. The fight was over.
-x-
When Kai regained consciousness, he was in a hospital room, heavy-duty restraints crisscrossing over his arms, legs, and chest. He was also hooked up to two IV's of whole blood at the same time. Several empty blood bags were in a bin marked 'Incineration' next to his bed.
Haji stood in a corner of the room, looking at him disapprovingly. By the door, two troopers stood looking at him nervously, their tranquilizer guns aimed at his chest. Why all the precautions?
That was when his memory kicked in, and Kai slumped back into the pillows. Right. Everything he'd feared could go wrong, had gone wrong. No wonder his guards were twitchy.
Their twitchiness wasn't helped by Mao, who chose that moment to enter the room, slamming the door behind her.
"Just what the hell were you thinking!?" she shouted at Kai, and then went on without waiting for an answer. "You go off by yourself, leaving your squad to deal with two vicious Mice by themselves, and then you start killing soldiers yourself! Ever heard of discipline? I've got a whole brigade's worth of American officers out there screaming for your head, a diplomatic incident with the UN like you wouldn't believe, the press are two hundred deep around this hospital trying to find out about the flying Chiropteran. And there are six dead Americans that someone will want compensation for."
"I know." Kai hung his head, insofar that was possible while lying flat on his back. Then he kept his mouth shut. There wasn't really anything he could say apart from that. You couldn't just apologize for something like this.
Mao had rounded on the two soldiers at the door. "You two, out," she commanded them. When one of the soldiers opened his mouth to protest, she stifled it with a glare. "It's best you don't see what I'm about to do here."
The soldiers took the hint.
When they were gone, Mao turned her attention back to Kai. "You really are an idiot, you know that? All you had to do was stay in the rear and point out the Mice to the Americans. They'd have handled the rest, and everything would be fine now. But no, you had to go play the hero! Look where it got you!
"And you," she continued, twisting around to face Haji, "don't get any points for subtlety either. The least you could have done was slip away from the Americans, instead of bringing the whole company with you."
Haji, as usual, didn't dignify that with an answer. Kai thought Mao was being a bit unreasonable, there, too. The Americans were close by, and it wasn't as if a hulking great Chiropteran flying through the air was ever going to pass unnoticed. He'd been seen, and that meant the Americans would have shown up sooner or later anyway. Mao seemed to realize that, too, actually, as her righteous anger seemed to deflate, and she sank into the chair next to Kai's bed. She massaged her temples. "What a mess."
She was right, it was a mess. And it was all his fault. But, thinking back, Kai couldn't figure out a point at which he should have done anything differently. Holding back, as Mao seemed to have been suggesting, would still have resulted in dead bodies, just different ones. And once he'd noticed Nathan, he'd had to go after him, too, because allowing him to escape would mean he'd come after Elisa one day. Of course, Nathan had still managed to escape, but… "Go on, say it," Mao said to him, nudging Kai's train of thought out of its tracks.
He frowned. "Say what?"
"Say 'I told you so,' and get it over with," Mao said. "You weren't ready for this and you knew it, but I made you come anyway."
"This isn't something I wanted to be right about," Kai answered, turning his eyes away from Mao. "If there's anything I can do, tell me."
He heard the rush of hair over fabric as Mao shook her head. "You've done enough, believe me. You're through here. We'll get you back to Japan, so I can tell people you've been dealt with." She sighed. It sounded angry. "That's going to do so much good to the clean-up efforts, but it can't be helped. Rio is probably a lost cause anyway, with all the blood you spread around today.
"It was all going so well, too. You were making good progress with the cleanup, and we were getting some interesting results from the Mouse you captured. We'll at least still have that, but all the rest of your effort has gone down the drain."
"Interesting results?" Kai asked.
Mao nodded. "That Mouse you two captured a few days ago was non-responsive to everything based off Saya's or Diva's blood we tried on it. I got a preliminary analysis from some samples this afternoon, just before your mess broke out. It's completely different from any other Chiropteran we know of." She paused for dramatic effect, looking Kai in the eye. "That includes Irene and Elisa."
Kai was taken aback by that statement. It was very strange. There really wasn't any way for any Chiropterans to not be descended from Diva or Saya, nor, apart from himself, Elisa or Irene. Unless… well, they never had figured out when Nathan had joined Diva's clique. And Nathan had been here, in Brazil. It was worth the suggestion, anyway.
"Could it be Nathan?" he asked.
Mao's eyebrows rose. "What gives you that idea? We haven't heard anything from him in years. And he was one of Diva's Chevaliers, in any case."
"Nathan was here," Kai said. He wondered why Haji hadn't told anyone about that. Well, he didn't really know if Haji had even realized. Nathan and Haji hadn't gotten all that close together today, after all. Then again, Kai had sensed Nathan from far, far off.
"What did you say?" Mao's surprise was clear from her voice.
"I fought Nathan today," Kai repeated. "I sensed him when he was converting soldiers, that's why I went after him."
"That puts a new spin on things," Mao said. "I mean, we can't be sure that he's responsible for this. Even if he isn't, if he's converting people, that makes him a threat again. We'll have to catch him anyway."
"I'll help, if you'll let me, " Kai offered.
Mao considered that for a few seconds while playing with the clipboard that had lain next to Kai's bed. Then she shook her head. "I don’t think that's such a good idea. Not with what happened today."
Kai pulled at his restraints. They were stronger than he'd expected. Then he let himself fall back onto the cushion. "Yeah, I suppose," he acknowledged Mao's concern. "But how else are you going to capture a Chevalier that doesn't want to get captured?"
Mao didn't answer that. Instead, she just looked Kai over, as he was tied to the bed, and raised an eyebrow.
Kai sighed. "That's my point, actually. You needed Haji to get close enough to dose me with the sedative once I'd really lost it. Even if my team'd been there at first, I could have been far gone by the time they thought to aim."
Mao held out her hand to stop him. "And yet, here you are talking yourself up as just as dangerous, if not more so, than Nathan. Just shut up for now, and let me think it through." She leaned back in her chair again, frowning. "You need more control, clearly."
"I can learn that. I will learn to control myself," Kai assured her again.
Mao smiled and shook her head. "Easier said than done, Kai. As you've proven today. As you warned me for, today." She turned her head to look at Haji. "Maybe if Haji would come along to keep you safe?"
Haji didn't move under her gaze for several seconds. Then he slowly shook his head. "No." After a long pause, he continued. "I will teach you control. I will help contain other chiropterans, because Saya would want me to. I will not hunt Nathan."
Kai felt surprised. For Haji, that was quite the speech. He had to care quite a lot. Well, Nathan had saved his life. That'd influence anyone's opinion. He nodded. "I guess I can understand that. I'll just have to take those lessons to heart."
Haji also inclined his head, and that should have been the end of the matter. But Mao wasn't ready to give up that quickly. She spoke up with some indignation. "Why wouldn't you help? You're just as much part of Red Shield as the rest of us are."
Haji shook his head. "I never have been a member of Red Shield," he said. "I only help them because they want the same things. In this, we do not want the same thing." After a brief silence that was just long enough for Mao to open her mouth for a retort, he nodded a goodbye to Kai. "I will not discuss this further." With that, he left the room.
"Hey!" Mao called after him. She got up out of her chair, ready to call out to the Red Shield soldiers outside the room to stop Haji.
"Leave it," Kai called out to her. "He's got a point, you know," he continued when Mao turned on her heel to face him again. "Red Shield is an organization set up to fight Chiropterans. As a Chevalier, he -" Kai grimaced, then corrected himself, "we can't ever really be a part of it."
"Nonsense," Mao objected, sitting back down. At least she seemed to have abandoned her objective of having Haji confined. "You've been with Red Shield since you were sixteen. And Saya's been with Red Shield as long as it existed, as far as I've been told."
Kai shook his head. "The Red Shield that was created to support Saya against Diva isn't the Red Shield that exists now. That fight is over. The public organization that Red Shield has become has very little in common with what it was." He looked Mao in the eye. "What are you going to do when Saya wakes up, Mao? Announce her to all the world as a Chiropteran hunter? Put her to work again? Then what have we fought for?"
"She'll want to help," Mao said, with cold certainty. "If it's still necessary by then."
"She probably would, at that," Kai nodded, frowning. "But only because she still feels guilty about releasing Diva. I know she just wants to live normally." He looked down, flexing his hands in their restraints. "I want to help her do that. I want to help Red Shield do that." He looked up at Mao again. "But first I have to protect my daughters. And to do that, I need to stop Nathan. And I'll do it with or without Red Shield."
-x-
For half an instant, Mike observed the carnage that Miyagusuku had wrought among the Mice. Then realization dawned that Miyagusuku hadn't exactly come off unscathed, either. And by his own admission, injuries made him hungry. Hunger made him lose control. And right now, he was surrounded by what must look like an entire platoon of meals on legs. Oh shit. Mike tightened his grip on his rifle.
Everyone now raised their weapons, but Miyagusuku didn't move. He stood there, shaking slightly. After a few seconds, he collapsed onto the floor. Somehow, on the way down, he went back to looking human.
Lewis was a Miyagusuku's side as soon as he hit the floor, rolling down his sleeves and putting on a face mask in a practiced movement as he dropped to his knees in the pool of chiropteran blood. "Kai!" he shouted, but got no reaction.
The rest of the assault team were helping their wounded past the pool of blood without getting any into open wounds. There had been two casualties, but those bodies would be incinerated later. One of them was among the now crystallizing bodies of the Mice. Mike could still see shreds of urban camouflage gear on that one. The other had been shot by his colleagues before the transformation could complete. Mike slowly approached Miyagusuku, the only one of the team who did so.
The man looked bad. What little color his skin had had, it was gone now, and portions of it were flaking off, into thin, hard - almost crystalline, in fact - pieces. He was still moving, though, just barely. "What's happening to him?" Mike asked.
Lewis was also looking at some of the flakes and frowning. "Even Red Shield doesn't have a lot of information about Chiropteran diseases," he said. "But this looks like what happened to the Schiff after drinking Haji's blood. Just a lot slower." He looked back at the carnage behind him. "Damn idiot kid. More guts than brains, always has been."
Lewis dragged one of Kai's arms over his shoulders, then stood up, gesturing to Mike to take the other arm. "Let's get him to hospital. Maybe we can still do something."
Mike took up his position. Miyagusuku barely weighed anything. From the feel of it, Lewis could easily have carried him alone. But at least this way, he had a chance to ask some more questions. "You know what's happening to him, then?"
Lewis shook his head. "Just guessing." He let go of Miyagusuku with one hand to lift the tranq gun that still hung from his side by its strap. "The sedative in these darts is made from a compound found in the blood of Chiropterans from a different strain than Kai's. He must have realized he was too far gone to stay safe and drained that Mouse to get the same effect." He shifted Kai's arm to a better position over his shoulders. "A queen's blood from a different strain is lethal, but we've never had this particular situation yet. I don't know what's going to happen." Those last word sounded worried.
"So what do we do?" Mike asked.
"I only know of one thing that ever helped a Chiropteran. I just hope it's enough." They were now passing the Colonel, and Lewis addressed him before the Colonel could say anything. "We need to get him to a hospital. He needs blood. Lots of it."
Miyagusuku was loaded into a separate ambulance from the other casualties of Mike's team. Lewis got in the back of the car with Miyagusuku, and then motioned for Mike to come as well.
After Mike got in the car, he made to secure the tranquilizer weapon, but Lewis motioned for him to keep it ready. Lewis himself was helping the ambulance crew hook up as many IV bags of blood as they could fit on the tree.
"Looks like your intelligence services are going to get even more than they asked for," Lewis said after he'd done everything he could. It didn't really seem to be helping much. Miyagusuku's skin had gone grey and crackly and it was flaking off wherever Lewis or the medics touched it. "I don't think we're going to fix this in the two days we'd agreed to let your doctors study him."
"Sir?"
The corner of Lewis' mouth twitched as he turned his head to look at Mike. "You don't think Red Shield would just be allowed to take control over American forces, do you?"
Mike shook his head. "Of course not, sir. I'd assumed there was some sort of emergency."
Lewis nodded. "There was. Capturing Nathan is enough of a priority for us, and especially for Kai here, that he agreed to let researchers here look him over, after the mission. Now they're not just getting a look at a fully healthy Chevalier, but also how he recovers from disease." He shifted forward again, to check on the man they were talking about. His condition didn't seem to be improving. Then again, it didn't look like it was getting worse, either. "And from the look of it, that's going to be a doozy."
Lewis took out his cell phone and started making calls. Some were in English, all of them informing various people of what had happened, not much more. For the final one, though, he switched to Japanese, and although Mike couldn't understand most of what was being said, the explanation was a lot longer. And again, near the end of the conversation, the word for 'daughter' fell, leading to Lewis frowning and making occasional noises of assent while whoever was on the other side held out a long argument. Lewis didn't put the phone down until the ambulance had reached the hospital.
Lewis went along with the medics who took Miyagusuku into the hospital, leaving Mike behind.
Over the next couple of days, Mike didn't see a lot of either Lewis or Miyagusuku. Access to the entire wing of the hospital the Chiropteran was in was severely restricted. The closest Mike came for nearly two weeks was as a guard on the door.
In that capacity, he also saw the contingent of doctors and researchers from all over the world, brought in either by Red Shield or the US government. It was fairly easy to tell those two kinds apart, even without their badges. The Red Shield ones, especially, did not look happy when they walked out the doors again.
After those two weeks, Mike finally caught Lewis coming out of the ward without anyone accompanying him. He nodded a greeting at Mike, and Mike acknowledged it. Then he asked, "how's he doing, sir?"
Lewis halted when Mike spoke. The turned around to face him, shaking his head. "He's not well, sergeant. He still hasn't regained consciousness."
"Can I see him, sir?"
Lewis frowned at him. "Why would you want to? You barely met him."
Mike lowered his head, then raised it again. "He still saved my life, sir."
Lewis considered it for a few moments. "Ah well, why not," he then said. "Just let me get something to eat, first. When will you be relieved?"
Mike told him when his guard shift would be over, and sure enough, Lewis came back with his relief. He led Mike down stairs into the basement of the wing where a single large room had been fortified. The windows had either been closed up with steel sheets, or, on the one side where they remained in place, had been barred with inch-thick bars, close enough together that it was barely possible to see through.
Inside the room, Miyagusuku lay tied to a bed, hooked up to several IV's and all sorts of other machinery. He wasn't moving, didn't even seem to be breathing. Yet he was still strapped to the bed. And it wasn't a standard issue hospital bed, either. This thing looked solid enough to carry an elephant.
"That's a hell of a lot of security for one unconscious guy," Mike said.
"It's what happens when he wakes up that we're worried about," a woman answered him. From the accent, she was probably as Japanese as Miyagusuku, if not more so. Mike turned around to see where she'd come from, and the first sight of her confirmed the guess about her origins.
She, in turn, studied him. "Who are you?" she finally asked.
"Let me introduce you," Lewis interrupted. "Sergeant Mike Saunders, this is Ms. Jahana Mao, one of Red Shield's directors. Sergeant Saunders was on Kai's chase team when we went in after Nathan. He asked to see how our friend was doing."
"I see." Director Jahana - that was her last name, if Mike understood correctly - nodded. "Thank you for your hard work, sergeant," she then said.
"Thank you, ma'am," Mike said, but Director Jahana had already turned away and was talking to Lewis in Japanese. It didn't sound good, even if he couldn't understand a word of what was said. Well, that wasn't entirely true. But all he could catch was most likely the Japanese equivalent to 'if this goes on any longer', in a tone that predicted only bad things.
Eventually, Director Jahana left again, after taking another long look through the glass at Miyagusuku.
"How is he really doing, sir?" Mike asked Lewis.
"Well, there is actually some reason for optimism, " Lewis said. "His blood cells are apparently finally showing some signs of recovery. But it's very, very slow."
"Don't think anyone would recover quickly from the kind of damage he'd taken, sir."
Lewis actually laughed. "You're not a doctor, sergeant. And you don't know Kai that well." He nodded at Kai lying in the bed. "The physical injuries, before he drank that blood, should have taken him a day to heal, tops. And that's with our sedatives slowing his system down. The blood he drank really messed up his healing.
"But, he is getting there, however slowly. Of course, that just brings with it its own problems."
"Sir?"
Lewis shot him a look. "You saw how strong he is, sergeant. And that was with his strength and temper under control. Now imagine that strength - let's say this whole process halved it just for argument's sake - but now powered by so much hunger he's not going to be reasonable anymore. That bed, this room… is not going to hold him when he wakes up."
He shook his head. "If you wanted to say goodbye, sergeant, or thank him, do it now. We're moving him as soon as the plane gets here."
Mike Summers never saw Kai Miyagusuku again.
--
XWA
This entry was crossposted from DreamWidth. The DreamWidth entry has
comments. You can comment on whichever entry you prefer.
Author: xwingace/
xwingace
Summary: Saya sleeps, but life goes on for Kai and Saya's nieces. Including cleaning up the mess that was left behind. A mess which seems to mostly be caused by a rogue Chevalier.
Fandom: Blood+
Character(s): Kai, Nathan Mahler, Diva's daughters.
Rating: T.
Word Count: ~7500 in this part of the chapter.
Disclaimer: Not mine. I'm just having fun. No harm or profit is intended.
Spoilers: All of the series.
Feedback: Yes, please. Comments are more than welcome.
Note: Posting WIP, slightly against my better judgment.Part two took almost half a year to write. I've been stuck on part three ever since. So I've decided, to hell with it, I'll post. Maybe it'll help with inspiration for part three. And apparently Chapter 2 is too long for LJ posting limits, so I've had to split it into two parts. That's when you get titles like the above...
Chapter 1
Chapter 2 Part 1
In Search of Nathan Part 2
"We've got trouble coming up, Major," Kai warned. He pointed away from the house they'd just cleaned out. "At least three Chiropterans in that direction, probably more, and I think they're moving." Quite possibly the scent of blood from the house they were in attracted them. Kai had a little trouble ignoring it, himself.
It had all started out well enough. Kai guided the Americans to two nests of rats, and they were duly exterminated. He could stay well back, since the soldiers didn't really seem to appreciate him being at the forefront of the exercise anyway. Even the first full-fledged Chiropteran they came across, all by itself, was handled well enough without Kai stepping in, though he regretted the enormous amounts of ammunition being expended just to make sure one 'Mouse' stayed dead. It still hadn't finished crystallizing, but more trouble was already on the way.
"Damn," the Major said, then pulled out his radio to call the commanders of his other squads.
"Danvers, Rodriguez, what's your status?"
"Pretty busy here, sir," Danvers replied over the radio. "We'll handle it, but we won't be able to back anyone up anytime soon." He was hard to understand over the background chatter of gunfire.
"Same here, " Rodriguez came in. "We're holding off two Mice. We'll hold out. The Red Shield guy warned us so we could set up cover."
Kai whistled. That was as many Chiropterans than they'd come across in their own sector, all in one day, and all at the same time. Well, at least the American command hadn't been exaggerating about the troubles in their sector.
"I'm calling in our helos," Major O'Hare replied to both of them, and proceeded to do so. Then he turned to the lieutenant nominally in command of the squad. "Looks like we'll be on our own for a while. What can we set up for cover?"
Kai joined in the deliberations, although the only input that was accepted was on where the Chiropterans would be attracted to, so that the squad's positions could take this into account. O'Hare assigned Kai's team positions in the defense without so much as a by-your-leave. The Major ordered Kai to stay with him, and that was that.
The discussion didn't take long. It couldn't, because it had barely started when the blasts of gunfire from a forward position announced that the Chiropterans had been spotted. Kai was pulled behind cover by O'Hare. He didn't stay there long, however, because very quickly the roars of the Chiropterans became audible even over the cacophony of shots. Even worse, soon after that the unmistakable smell of human blood assaulted his senses. The Chiropterans had gotten to one of the soldiers.
He was useless back here, under cover. He wasn't qualified with an automatic rifle, so all he had was his trusty pistol. Which was fine, but even he couldn't fire that at this distance and have a hope of hitting what he wanted to hit. He'd have to get in closer.
Kai was away from his cover in the blink of an eye, effortlessly evading O'Hare's hand grabbing for him and ignoring the curses the Major sent after him. The position under assault wasn't far away, and the point from where Kai could usefully shoot was even closer. He emptied an entire clip into the closest Chiropteran. Unfortunately the creature wouldn't do him the favor of turning around and opening its mouth, so it took all of those bullets to dent the skull. If it even had. The Chiropteran might still be alive, but at least it was out of it for now.
One of the soldiers being assaulted was still alive. Kai grabbed the back of his flak vest and pulled him away, shoving the soldier in the direction of his previous cover. He himself switched clips and finished the job on the recovering Chiropteran. He was going to run out of ammunition soon if this kept up.
"Get down!" another soldier behind Kai shouted, and he obligingly ducked behind what little cover remained between the crystallizing Chiropteran and the dead body of a soldier. Bullets flew over his head to thud into a second Chiropteran, coming to check out the scent of blood right here. Not that those bullets did much good. Instead, they drew the Chiropteran's attention to fresher blood, and it shifted its path. Right into crossfire that decapitated it.
Kai heard the soldier who had presumably fired the killing shots whoop. At the same time, the soldier Kai had rescued came forward with two colleagues to collect the body of their comrade. One tapped Kai on the shoulder. "You okay?"
"I'm fine," Kai answered, but he was on his feet again and scanning around for the other Chiropteran. There had to be at least one more. But it was hard to tell where he should be found now, with the blood confusing Kai's senses. He shook his head to clear it. It didn't really help.
"You sure? You don't look too good."
"I am perfectly okay," Kai reiterated distractedly. He was straining his ears in the hope of hearing where the remaining Chiropteran had hidden himself, since his nose was now near useless and his eyes only had limited line of sight.
But then he did catch a scent underneath all the different types of blood, and the felt the hairs on the
back of his neck rise. This wasn't just a Chiropteran. And it wasn't Haji, either. Which meant it could be only one person.
Nathan.
So this was where he'd been hiding himself all these years, and causing this whole mess alongside it. Damn him.
Kai took off at speed, only just catching the exclamations of surprise from the soldiers behind him. He was probably going a bit too fast to be humanly possible, but at this point he didn't care. If he caught Nathan, everything would be over, and he could have peace again, together with Elisa and Irene.
He followed the scent, leaving the squad far behind. Somewhere in the back of his head the thought registered that if Nathan hadn't been near his squad, then there had to be another Chiropteran out there, but he didn't pay any attention to it. Nathan was the greater threat.
While Kai was tracking him, he could tell Nathan was moving. He needed more speed to catch up. He couldn't do that with the armor he had on restricting him. It was useless anyway. He tore it off, then grabbed onto the nearest windowsill and used it as a jump-off point to get to the roof of the building. He'd have better line of sight there.
Sure enough, as soon as he got up on the roof, he spotted Nathan, in Chiropteran form, dragging a soldier along. By the uniform, it was another one of the Americans, probably from the second squad. By the amount of blood on the uniform, the American was no longer alive. Another Chiropteran, shreds of uniform still on its back, was heading away from the two of them.
Throwing all caution into the wind, Kai spread his wings and flew at Nathan, barreling into him and carrying him along until both of them smashed into a building. The crash took them through a brick wall onto the second floor. While they tumbled to a halt, Kai was already clawing at Nathan's chest and neck, leaving bloody streaks that healed instantly.
Nathan didn't hesitate, either. As soon as the both of them had stopped rolling and he had some sort of solid ground to push off against, he threw Kai off and jumped to his feet. A kick and a throw set Kai sliding further away. Nathan took advantage of the time this gained him to shift back into human shape and spit a few questions. "Who the hell are you? One of Saya's?"
Kai didn't bother to respond - it would have been difficult anyway, since he didn't have Nathan's ease in shifting between forms and speaking through fangs was a skill he hadn't quite acquired yet either. He could if he tried, but there was no need for words here. Just ending the one remaining threat to his girls. He simply got to his feet and charged again.
Nathan sidestepped and, once Kai was past, grabbed on to one wing. He wrenched Kai out of his path and sent him flying again. But somewhere during that move, he had to have gotten a sniff or a taste, because this time, when Kai landed, he said his name. "Kai?" He started laughing. "You decided to take that offer after all, did you? Maybe you realized that in thirty years, you'd be an old man without anything to offer Saya?"
"Shut up, you bastard," Kai said while he prepared for another charge, but it came out as little more than a growl. Kai was now regretting the fact that when he'd shed his armor and shortly afterwards his human shape, he'd also left his pistol behind. Hand-to-hand or claw-to-claw, Nathan had more experience and probably more strength than him. Still, it was all he had left, so that's what he was going to use. At least in here, Nathan didn't have the luxury of running. Kai rushed in again, this time anticipating Nathan's sidestep. He evaded the grab for his wings by dropping into a roll, aiming a kick at Nathan's stomach during the drop, and stabbing a claw into Nathan's shoulder when he came back up. Too bad. He'd aimed for the chest. "I didn't ask for this," he tried again, and this time it was a little clearer. He tried to strike Nathan's face with his remaining free hand, but Nathan blocked it easily and then threw Kai off again.
"There's no need for us to fight, you know," he said, almost as if he hadn't just tossed Kai into a heap of furniture. He started to say more, but was distracted by the sounds of gunfire from outside, and changed his mind. His shoulders dropped. "Are you with these pests?"
Kai paid no attention to Nathans words. He charged again and again, leaving Nathan no other option
than to evade or strike back. Kai's attacks failed to penetrate, but Nathan still didn't seem particularly interested in actually fighting back. He kept asking Kai to calm down. Of course, that wasn't going to happen any time soon.
Actually, it happened sooner than Kai was ready for. He was right in the middle of an attack when the gunfire was suddenly very close and bullets hit him. He roared out in pain and twisted around to see who was firing at him. American soldiers. As Kai was turning, more came into the room and started firing. Kai raised his arms to protect his face. He tried to shout at them to stop, but couldn't make any intelligible words come out.
Nathan took advantage of Kai's momentary distraction. He ducked underneath Kai's wings and ran toward the soldiers, who obligingly stood aside for him. Then they resumed firing. Nathan was out the door in seconds.
Kai stormed after him, but his way was blocked by ever more soldiers, all of them firing constantly, hoping to score a fatal hit. They had no such luck. Kai's wounds healed as soon as the bullets passed through.
Kai swatted the massed soldiers aside, clearing a path. The shots, heal though they might, hurt. He couldn't protect himself against them, and they were whittling away at his reserves of blood. Kai had to get out. At this rate, Nathan was going to get away. He was getting thirsty, too.
He managed to get outside, but all he found there was more massed firepower, backed up by a helicopter this time. Kai wasted valuable seconds looking around for a long gone Nathan. That meant he only saw the heavy caliber guns trained on him when they were already firing. No time to dodge. The impact obliterated his left shoulder and threw him against the building he'd just come out of.
The pain overruled everything else. He needed blood. Luckily, there were handy packets of it running around. They were pestering him with stings, too. Two birds with one stone.
He got to his feet. His left arm wasn't working right yet, so he lunged with his right at the closest source of blood-scent. It dodged. So could he. A short hop landed him on top of his prey. It tried to fight back with a gun still, but it was disarmed easily enough. He bit down, drinking in gloriously warm blood and taking a chunk of flesh for good measure. It didn't take long for the blood to stop flowing. No matter, there was more to be had elsewhere.
There were shouts from somewhere in the distance, and the bullets stopped flying in his direction so much. All the better. He lunged for another prey…
…only to find it roughly torn away from in front of him. Instead, he faced another chiropteran. Another chevalier, even, though he remained in the human form. Haji, his mind supplied. Why would Haji stop him from getting the blood he needed? That puzzle made him stop in his tracks for a fraction of a second. It was long enough for Haji to bring up his bandaged hand and stab the oversized syringe it held into Kai's chest.
Kai reflexively tried to block Haji's strike, but he was too slow. And as soon as Haji withdrew his hand, Kai could already feel his reactions become more sluggish. This wasn't good. He was surrounded by people shooting at him, and he was already short of blood. He had to get away. He brushed Haji aside and tried to continue feeding, but Haji stepped back in and pushed him away.
Then he felt more impacts. Instead of hurting, however, the places where they hit turned numb. When Kai turned to find the source of these shots (slowly, oh so slowly), he recognized the shooter as his team leader just before his vision went dark.
Oh shit.
-x-
Miyagusuku led the way into the basement tunnel. Mike caught up with him again at a bend further down the corridor. The acute angle of the tunnel wall there provided a little bit of cover, which was being used by several of his colleagues to make a stand against the raging chiropterans.
"… eight of us caught on the other side," one of those colleagues was reporting to Miyagusuku just as Mike arrived. The others were using rapid bursts of fire to drive the chiropterans back. The main reason they were relatively safe, however , was because the Mice were too busy with the soldiers on the other side. They had no cover at all, and so were easier prey.
The remains of one Mouse was at Mike's colleagues' feet, the bright tatters of a pizza deliveryman's uniform standing out among the red crystal. There were seven more in the corridor beyond. The only thing really saving his fellows was the fact that the big mass of Mice couldn't really maneuver all that well in the tight tunnel.
"Try the tranquilizers, sir?" Mike suggested.
Miyagusuku shook his head. "Save them," he said. "There's no way you're going to be able to hit all of those with enough of it to make a difference." He touched the transmit button on his radio. "Colonel, better get down here. It will get messy very quick." Then he turned back to Mike and his colleagues. "Try not to shoot me, if you can."
He stepped into the melee, too fast to be able to hear the corporal he'd been talking to earlier call him an idiot - only not in such polite terms. He was firing his pistol as soon as he'd rounded the corner. Mike could see the first three shots hit the back of the closest Mouse, which turned around only to receive a further two shots to the chest and one in the head. It dropped.
A second Mouse had also turned around. Miyagusuku shot it, but his final shot missed, and one of the Mouse's claws came down to tear out a sizeable chunk of his shoulder. The corporal turned away, but Mike forced himself to keep looking.
Miyagusuku dropped the gun, and caught the claw. Barehanded. At about the same time as he transformed.
"Holy shit," another corporal swore, and Mike felt like confirming the statement. Miyagusuku had been right. Had this happened at the barracks, they wouldn't have gotten out of there.
Like Miyagusuku said, it was nothing like the Hulk. It was actually quite a smooth and quick transition. Almost like looking at one of those speeded-up movies that showed a small sapling growing into a large tree in a matter of seconds. This didn't even take that long. Miyagusuku went from average, pale-skinned human to huge, grey-skinned Chiropteran in about the time it took to blink.
A pair of wings, like sails of leather, pushed up the oversized jacket he wore and spread out as far as they could in the confined space. Since when did Chiropterans have wings? Maybe it had something to do with the 'special kind' of Chiropteran Miyagusuku said he was.
Bigger or not, wings or not, it didn't make much of a difference to the efficiency of Miyagusuku's movement. He'd levered the Mouse that attacked him aside, then kicked it to the ground and placed one foot on it to keep it down.
Its screams drew the attention of the other five Mice, and it didn't take long for Miyagusuku to be surrounded by the things, their claws tearing at his flesh and wings in their attempts to keep him off them.
That was quite the gruesome sight. The claws from the Mice left deep gashes or sometimes even holes, but the wounds healed rapidly, even quicker than Mike had seen happen before on normal Mice. The same went for the bullet holes from the fire that some of Mike's fellow soldiers were still directing at the Mice. Those big wings couldn't stay out of the way of everything.
Well, he could at least try to do something about the shooting. "This is Saunders," he spoke into his radio, "the big one is a friendly. Hold your fire unless you know you can hit the smaller ones."
"Keep firing," another voice intruded on the channel, and the Colonel's voice was unmistakable. "He can take a few bullets."
Mike looked around to see the Colonel and Lewis standing behind him, having finally caught up. He opened his mouth to protest the order, but then remembered his own rank and thought better of it.
The Colonel still must have noticed, however, because he came closer to Mike to speak without the radio. "Those bullets hurt him less than those Mice tearing chunks out of his flesh. We can kill even one, we've helped him more than if we stop firing now."
Questions were coming over the radio channel, but the Colonel overruled them all by repeating his order. Still, at least some of the fire was directed away from Miyagusuku now.
To be honest, he looked like he needed all the help he could get. He was tearing into the Mice with efficient viciousness, but the reverse was equally true. Mike could recognize some martial arts forms in Miyagusuku's movements, even concealed as they were by his current shape, and that was certainly something he'd never seen or heard of a Chiropteran doing. His movements, however, were restricted by his size and the number of opponents further crowding the limited space. Still, one by one the Mice fell.
When only two were left, Mike noticed that Lewis was readying his tranquilizer gun. It looked like he was expecting trouble. Just in case, Mike lifted his, too. It seemed wrong to shoot Miyagusuku, though. The man had been fighting hard.
He still was, in fact. That instant, he kicked one of the Mice against the tunnel wall, then struck the other one in the chest with both claws. He pulled back, and a bloody mess came out with it. Without shaking the gore off, he then grabbed the Mouse's head and tore it away.
Mike winced. Lewis did, too, and now actually aimed his gun. Some people were still trapped. The soldiers on the other side of the melee had people with injuries with them, and the whole floor was covered with Chiropteran blood. They'd have to be carried out one by one. By now, there was only one Mouse left, and then there was nothing but these tranq guns keeping a very hungry and demonstrably very powerful Chiropteran from attacking everyone in the hallway.
Except the Chiropteran himself. So far, Miyagusuku had killed the Mice in pretty much the same way he'd disposed of the second-to-last one, with his hands. Now he took the last remaining Mouse in some sort of hold, pinning its arms to its body, and bit down on its neck.
The thing struggled at first, and struggled hard, but it couldn't break free and soon its efforts weakened. Then it stopped moving altogether, and color started leeching from it grey-brown skin. Still Miyagusuku didn't let go. Only when all color had gone from the Mouse, he disengaged and dropped the body. It shattered into tiny red crystals as soon as it hit the floor. The fight was over.
-x-
When Kai regained consciousness, he was in a hospital room, heavy-duty restraints crisscrossing over his arms, legs, and chest. He was also hooked up to two IV's of whole blood at the same time. Several empty blood bags were in a bin marked 'Incineration' next to his bed.
Haji stood in a corner of the room, looking at him disapprovingly. By the door, two troopers stood looking at him nervously, their tranquilizer guns aimed at his chest. Why all the precautions?
That was when his memory kicked in, and Kai slumped back into the pillows. Right. Everything he'd feared could go wrong, had gone wrong. No wonder his guards were twitchy.
Their twitchiness wasn't helped by Mao, who chose that moment to enter the room, slamming the door behind her.
"Just what the hell were you thinking!?" she shouted at Kai, and then went on without waiting for an answer. "You go off by yourself, leaving your squad to deal with two vicious Mice by themselves, and then you start killing soldiers yourself! Ever heard of discipline? I've got a whole brigade's worth of American officers out there screaming for your head, a diplomatic incident with the UN like you wouldn't believe, the press are two hundred deep around this hospital trying to find out about the flying Chiropteran. And there are six dead Americans that someone will want compensation for."
"I know." Kai hung his head, insofar that was possible while lying flat on his back. Then he kept his mouth shut. There wasn't really anything he could say apart from that. You couldn't just apologize for something like this.
Mao had rounded on the two soldiers at the door. "You two, out," she commanded them. When one of the soldiers opened his mouth to protest, she stifled it with a glare. "It's best you don't see what I'm about to do here."
The soldiers took the hint.
When they were gone, Mao turned her attention back to Kai. "You really are an idiot, you know that? All you had to do was stay in the rear and point out the Mice to the Americans. They'd have handled the rest, and everything would be fine now. But no, you had to go play the hero! Look where it got you!
"And you," she continued, twisting around to face Haji, "don't get any points for subtlety either. The least you could have done was slip away from the Americans, instead of bringing the whole company with you."
Haji, as usual, didn't dignify that with an answer. Kai thought Mao was being a bit unreasonable, there, too. The Americans were close by, and it wasn't as if a hulking great Chiropteran flying through the air was ever going to pass unnoticed. He'd been seen, and that meant the Americans would have shown up sooner or later anyway. Mao seemed to realize that, too, actually, as her righteous anger seemed to deflate, and she sank into the chair next to Kai's bed. She massaged her temples. "What a mess."
She was right, it was a mess. And it was all his fault. But, thinking back, Kai couldn't figure out a point at which he should have done anything differently. Holding back, as Mao seemed to have been suggesting, would still have resulted in dead bodies, just different ones. And once he'd noticed Nathan, he'd had to go after him, too, because allowing him to escape would mean he'd come after Elisa one day. Of course, Nathan had still managed to escape, but… "Go on, say it," Mao said to him, nudging Kai's train of thought out of its tracks.
He frowned. "Say what?"
"Say 'I told you so,' and get it over with," Mao said. "You weren't ready for this and you knew it, but I made you come anyway."
"This isn't something I wanted to be right about," Kai answered, turning his eyes away from Mao. "If there's anything I can do, tell me."
He heard the rush of hair over fabric as Mao shook her head. "You've done enough, believe me. You're through here. We'll get you back to Japan, so I can tell people you've been dealt with." She sighed. It sounded angry. "That's going to do so much good to the clean-up efforts, but it can't be helped. Rio is probably a lost cause anyway, with all the blood you spread around today.
"It was all going so well, too. You were making good progress with the cleanup, and we were getting some interesting results from the Mouse you captured. We'll at least still have that, but all the rest of your effort has gone down the drain."
"Interesting results?" Kai asked.
Mao nodded. "That Mouse you two captured a few days ago was non-responsive to everything based off Saya's or Diva's blood we tried on it. I got a preliminary analysis from some samples this afternoon, just before your mess broke out. It's completely different from any other Chiropteran we know of." She paused for dramatic effect, looking Kai in the eye. "That includes Irene and Elisa."
Kai was taken aback by that statement. It was very strange. There really wasn't any way for any Chiropterans to not be descended from Diva or Saya, nor, apart from himself, Elisa or Irene. Unless… well, they never had figured out when Nathan had joined Diva's clique. And Nathan had been here, in Brazil. It was worth the suggestion, anyway.
"Could it be Nathan?" he asked.
Mao's eyebrows rose. "What gives you that idea? We haven't heard anything from him in years. And he was one of Diva's Chevaliers, in any case."
"Nathan was here," Kai said. He wondered why Haji hadn't told anyone about that. Well, he didn't really know if Haji had even realized. Nathan and Haji hadn't gotten all that close together today, after all. Then again, Kai had sensed Nathan from far, far off.
"What did you say?" Mao's surprise was clear from her voice.
"I fought Nathan today," Kai repeated. "I sensed him when he was converting soldiers, that's why I went after him."
"That puts a new spin on things," Mao said. "I mean, we can't be sure that he's responsible for this. Even if he isn't, if he's converting people, that makes him a threat again. We'll have to catch him anyway."
"I'll help, if you'll let me, " Kai offered.
Mao considered that for a few seconds while playing with the clipboard that had lain next to Kai's bed. Then she shook her head. "I don’t think that's such a good idea. Not with what happened today."
Kai pulled at his restraints. They were stronger than he'd expected. Then he let himself fall back onto the cushion. "Yeah, I suppose," he acknowledged Mao's concern. "But how else are you going to capture a Chevalier that doesn't want to get captured?"
Mao didn't answer that. Instead, she just looked Kai over, as he was tied to the bed, and raised an eyebrow.
Kai sighed. "That's my point, actually. You needed Haji to get close enough to dose me with the sedative once I'd really lost it. Even if my team'd been there at first, I could have been far gone by the time they thought to aim."
Mao held out her hand to stop him. "And yet, here you are talking yourself up as just as dangerous, if not more so, than Nathan. Just shut up for now, and let me think it through." She leaned back in her chair again, frowning. "You need more control, clearly."
"I can learn that. I will learn to control myself," Kai assured her again.
Mao smiled and shook her head. "Easier said than done, Kai. As you've proven today. As you warned me for, today." She turned her head to look at Haji. "Maybe if Haji would come along to keep you safe?"
Haji didn't move under her gaze for several seconds. Then he slowly shook his head. "No." After a long pause, he continued. "I will teach you control. I will help contain other chiropterans, because Saya would want me to. I will not hunt Nathan."
Kai felt surprised. For Haji, that was quite the speech. He had to care quite a lot. Well, Nathan had saved his life. That'd influence anyone's opinion. He nodded. "I guess I can understand that. I'll just have to take those lessons to heart."
Haji also inclined his head, and that should have been the end of the matter. But Mao wasn't ready to give up that quickly. She spoke up with some indignation. "Why wouldn't you help? You're just as much part of Red Shield as the rest of us are."
Haji shook his head. "I never have been a member of Red Shield," he said. "I only help them because they want the same things. In this, we do not want the same thing." After a brief silence that was just long enough for Mao to open her mouth for a retort, he nodded a goodbye to Kai. "I will not discuss this further." With that, he left the room.
"Hey!" Mao called after him. She got up out of her chair, ready to call out to the Red Shield soldiers outside the room to stop Haji.
"Leave it," Kai called out to her. "He's got a point, you know," he continued when Mao turned on her heel to face him again. "Red Shield is an organization set up to fight Chiropterans. As a Chevalier, he -" Kai grimaced, then corrected himself, "we can't ever really be a part of it."
"Nonsense," Mao objected, sitting back down. At least she seemed to have abandoned her objective of having Haji confined. "You've been with Red Shield since you were sixteen. And Saya's been with Red Shield as long as it existed, as far as I've been told."
Kai shook his head. "The Red Shield that was created to support Saya against Diva isn't the Red Shield that exists now. That fight is over. The public organization that Red Shield has become has very little in common with what it was." He looked Mao in the eye. "What are you going to do when Saya wakes up, Mao? Announce her to all the world as a Chiropteran hunter? Put her to work again? Then what have we fought for?"
"She'll want to help," Mao said, with cold certainty. "If it's still necessary by then."
"She probably would, at that," Kai nodded, frowning. "But only because she still feels guilty about releasing Diva. I know she just wants to live normally." He looked down, flexing his hands in their restraints. "I want to help her do that. I want to help Red Shield do that." He looked up at Mao again. "But first I have to protect my daughters. And to do that, I need to stop Nathan. And I'll do it with or without Red Shield."
-x-
For half an instant, Mike observed the carnage that Miyagusuku had wrought among the Mice. Then realization dawned that Miyagusuku hadn't exactly come off unscathed, either. And by his own admission, injuries made him hungry. Hunger made him lose control. And right now, he was surrounded by what must look like an entire platoon of meals on legs. Oh shit. Mike tightened his grip on his rifle.
Everyone now raised their weapons, but Miyagusuku didn't move. He stood there, shaking slightly. After a few seconds, he collapsed onto the floor. Somehow, on the way down, he went back to looking human.
Lewis was a Miyagusuku's side as soon as he hit the floor, rolling down his sleeves and putting on a face mask in a practiced movement as he dropped to his knees in the pool of chiropteran blood. "Kai!" he shouted, but got no reaction.
The rest of the assault team were helping their wounded past the pool of blood without getting any into open wounds. There had been two casualties, but those bodies would be incinerated later. One of them was among the now crystallizing bodies of the Mice. Mike could still see shreds of urban camouflage gear on that one. The other had been shot by his colleagues before the transformation could complete. Mike slowly approached Miyagusuku, the only one of the team who did so.
The man looked bad. What little color his skin had had, it was gone now, and portions of it were flaking off, into thin, hard - almost crystalline, in fact - pieces. He was still moving, though, just barely. "What's happening to him?" Mike asked.
Lewis was also looking at some of the flakes and frowning. "Even Red Shield doesn't have a lot of information about Chiropteran diseases," he said. "But this looks like what happened to the Schiff after drinking Haji's blood. Just a lot slower." He looked back at the carnage behind him. "Damn idiot kid. More guts than brains, always has been."
Lewis dragged one of Kai's arms over his shoulders, then stood up, gesturing to Mike to take the other arm. "Let's get him to hospital. Maybe we can still do something."
Mike took up his position. Miyagusuku barely weighed anything. From the feel of it, Lewis could easily have carried him alone. But at least this way, he had a chance to ask some more questions. "You know what's happening to him, then?"
Lewis shook his head. "Just guessing." He let go of Miyagusuku with one hand to lift the tranq gun that still hung from his side by its strap. "The sedative in these darts is made from a compound found in the blood of Chiropterans from a different strain than Kai's. He must have realized he was too far gone to stay safe and drained that Mouse to get the same effect." He shifted Kai's arm to a better position over his shoulders. "A queen's blood from a different strain is lethal, but we've never had this particular situation yet. I don't know what's going to happen." Those last word sounded worried.
"So what do we do?" Mike asked.
"I only know of one thing that ever helped a Chiropteran. I just hope it's enough." They were now passing the Colonel, and Lewis addressed him before the Colonel could say anything. "We need to get him to a hospital. He needs blood. Lots of it."
Miyagusuku was loaded into a separate ambulance from the other casualties of Mike's team. Lewis got in the back of the car with Miyagusuku, and then motioned for Mike to come as well.
After Mike got in the car, he made to secure the tranquilizer weapon, but Lewis motioned for him to keep it ready. Lewis himself was helping the ambulance crew hook up as many IV bags of blood as they could fit on the tree.
"Looks like your intelligence services are going to get even more than they asked for," Lewis said after he'd done everything he could. It didn't really seem to be helping much. Miyagusuku's skin had gone grey and crackly and it was flaking off wherever Lewis or the medics touched it. "I don't think we're going to fix this in the two days we'd agreed to let your doctors study him."
"Sir?"
The corner of Lewis' mouth twitched as he turned his head to look at Mike. "You don't think Red Shield would just be allowed to take control over American forces, do you?"
Mike shook his head. "Of course not, sir. I'd assumed there was some sort of emergency."
Lewis nodded. "There was. Capturing Nathan is enough of a priority for us, and especially for Kai here, that he agreed to let researchers here look him over, after the mission. Now they're not just getting a look at a fully healthy Chevalier, but also how he recovers from disease." He shifted forward again, to check on the man they were talking about. His condition didn't seem to be improving. Then again, it didn't look like it was getting worse, either. "And from the look of it, that's going to be a doozy."
Lewis took out his cell phone and started making calls. Some were in English, all of them informing various people of what had happened, not much more. For the final one, though, he switched to Japanese, and although Mike couldn't understand most of what was being said, the explanation was a lot longer. And again, near the end of the conversation, the word for 'daughter' fell, leading to Lewis frowning and making occasional noises of assent while whoever was on the other side held out a long argument. Lewis didn't put the phone down until the ambulance had reached the hospital.
Lewis went along with the medics who took Miyagusuku into the hospital, leaving Mike behind.
Over the next couple of days, Mike didn't see a lot of either Lewis or Miyagusuku. Access to the entire wing of the hospital the Chiropteran was in was severely restricted. The closest Mike came for nearly two weeks was as a guard on the door.
In that capacity, he also saw the contingent of doctors and researchers from all over the world, brought in either by Red Shield or the US government. It was fairly easy to tell those two kinds apart, even without their badges. The Red Shield ones, especially, did not look happy when they walked out the doors again.
After those two weeks, Mike finally caught Lewis coming out of the ward without anyone accompanying him. He nodded a greeting at Mike, and Mike acknowledged it. Then he asked, "how's he doing, sir?"
Lewis halted when Mike spoke. The turned around to face him, shaking his head. "He's not well, sergeant. He still hasn't regained consciousness."
"Can I see him, sir?"
Lewis frowned at him. "Why would you want to? You barely met him."
Mike lowered his head, then raised it again. "He still saved my life, sir."
Lewis considered it for a few moments. "Ah well, why not," he then said. "Just let me get something to eat, first. When will you be relieved?"
Mike told him when his guard shift would be over, and sure enough, Lewis came back with his relief. He led Mike down stairs into the basement of the wing where a single large room had been fortified. The windows had either been closed up with steel sheets, or, on the one side where they remained in place, had been barred with inch-thick bars, close enough together that it was barely possible to see through.
Inside the room, Miyagusuku lay tied to a bed, hooked up to several IV's and all sorts of other machinery. He wasn't moving, didn't even seem to be breathing. Yet he was still strapped to the bed. And it wasn't a standard issue hospital bed, either. This thing looked solid enough to carry an elephant.
"That's a hell of a lot of security for one unconscious guy," Mike said.
"It's what happens when he wakes up that we're worried about," a woman answered him. From the accent, she was probably as Japanese as Miyagusuku, if not more so. Mike turned around to see where she'd come from, and the first sight of her confirmed the guess about her origins.
She, in turn, studied him. "Who are you?" she finally asked.
"Let me introduce you," Lewis interrupted. "Sergeant Mike Saunders, this is Ms. Jahana Mao, one of Red Shield's directors. Sergeant Saunders was on Kai's chase team when we went in after Nathan. He asked to see how our friend was doing."
"I see." Director Jahana - that was her last name, if Mike understood correctly - nodded. "Thank you for your hard work, sergeant," she then said.
"Thank you, ma'am," Mike said, but Director Jahana had already turned away and was talking to Lewis in Japanese. It didn't sound good, even if he couldn't understand a word of what was said. Well, that wasn't entirely true. But all he could catch was most likely the Japanese equivalent to 'if this goes on any longer', in a tone that predicted only bad things.
Eventually, Director Jahana left again, after taking another long look through the glass at Miyagusuku.
"How is he really doing, sir?" Mike asked Lewis.
"Well, there is actually some reason for optimism, " Lewis said. "His blood cells are apparently finally showing some signs of recovery. But it's very, very slow."
"Don't think anyone would recover quickly from the kind of damage he'd taken, sir."
Lewis actually laughed. "You're not a doctor, sergeant. And you don't know Kai that well." He nodded at Kai lying in the bed. "The physical injuries, before he drank that blood, should have taken him a day to heal, tops. And that's with our sedatives slowing his system down. The blood he drank really messed up his healing.
"But, he is getting there, however slowly. Of course, that just brings with it its own problems."
"Sir?"
Lewis shot him a look. "You saw how strong he is, sergeant. And that was with his strength and temper under control. Now imagine that strength - let's say this whole process halved it just for argument's sake - but now powered by so much hunger he's not going to be reasonable anymore. That bed, this room… is not going to hold him when he wakes up."
He shook his head. "If you wanted to say goodbye, sergeant, or thank him, do it now. We're moving him as soon as the plane gets here."
Mike Summers never saw Kai Miyagusuku again.
--
XWA
This entry was crossposted from DreamWidth. The DreamWidth entry has
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