Elfen Lied 1. Chapter One : Sarah

Somewhere in Eastern Germany, January 1945... 

The screeching sound of _Katioushas _batteries was perfectly audible from here...The Soviets had lauched some days ago the final assault against the Nazis, and despite the propaganda, everyone near the combat zones knew that nothing was going to stop the Red Army on it's way to Berlin. The general said to the commander of his armored detachement to proceed as fast as possible. They had been report of T-34s (supposedly destroyed in the hundreds by inexistant panzers) making raids in the area, not to mention Allied or Soviet aircraft. The half-dozen of tanks and halftracks were highly vulnerable, as the city they were coming from was probably classified as top-priority target by the Soviets, and the ennemy would soon be here.

The SS general had disembarked with his staff from a destroyer, at the military harbour, two hours ago. He had no trouble to lie to the population, that the Red Army would _never _bessiege this town, and the town would be defended to the death (that point was not exactly a good news for the civilians, who had not the slighest doubt that the High Command was quite sincere on this matter...) While, in fact, he was here for prepare for evacuations. Not the civilians, of course. This could lead them to think that the war was lost (While everyone in Germany that was not completly lunatic or braindead-unfortunately, that excluded a lot of the leadership-knew very well that this was over...) The concern of the authorities for foreign civilians was abyssmal, as the recent years had showed, it was however also quite low for it's own. But there was some paintings, scupltures in the old city that the Leader estimated vital to save, and to be carried off to Berlin as soon as possible. There were also some installations around the city, which the civilians pretended to ignore the existence with a quite remarkable selective memory, that needed to be...completely erased...before the Soviets liberated them.

The SS had gave orders to immediately transport or execute (with their state of health, "transport" by feet was a death sentence, of course) all the remaining POWs, political prisoners, deported persons, in the camps of the region., and destroy all installations : the standard procedure. The Soviets and the Allies had to be prevented for getting proofs...But they already knew ; the main idea behind those orders was to make sure that the doomed Nazis would take with them as many persons as possible. The general did not feel anything when giving _verbally _those orders (always better to be cautious...) ; those prisonners were nothing...And, after all...he was just following orders for his hierarchic superior...

However, a facility in particular, according to the said hierarchic superior, needed to be dealt in a different manner. At first, it seemed to be another of those special projects that he cautioned often, quite ridiculous….But this one…was very serious, and very real. The only side problem was to find a way to use it on the battlefield. The general had a twin task; see the real state of the project, and then proceed to its evacuation deeper in German territory.

The facility was only some kilometres away from the town, and was in fact an old fortress from Prussian times, officially used as an shell storage (The few civilians that were in the area were of course _never _hearing the screams that were sometimes occuring) It have been used early in the war for…interrogation…of captured Allied or Soviet Intelligence operatives, but now, the facility was entirely reserved for one single prisoner…Prisoner was not a good word, actually. Neither slave…She was for them much more a thing than a living being…

The general was eagerly waited by the various officers and scientists at the facility, since they each hoped to be evacuated with the project. They had prepared a demonstration for him, to showcase the interest of their research. One major quickly briefed the general about the circumstances in which she had been discovered. She had killed two Nazis guards in a most savage manner before being put back in control. The normal sentence would have been execution after torture, but something was strange about the way she had killed them…so strange that this was enough for further inquiries. It's at that time that they noticed that there was truly…special…things about this Czech, and that she had been sent here…

"She is begging us to kill her each day", said with a clearly sadist grin an SS officer…"Trust us, General, she is paying for her existence…Her life is as close as Hell as it could be. It's why we don't understand why she don't like it…She should feel really at home, with that…"

That sick joke was typically SS…It was why the General found it actually funny…

"Good…very good…I really hate her kind. We are doing her a favour by giving her a chance to be useful for the Reich. She should be grateful of giving a sense to her existence"

They had arrived to the converted caves that were used for the research. It was heavily guarded, as the test subject, despite her apparent passivity, was extremely dangerous. She was kept on sedatives when not needed. And yet, she had managed to kill several guards...The major pointed to the general a viewport, allowing to see without danger that...thing.

What the general saw was a naked thirteen-fourteen years old girl, covered in numerous place by caked blood, chained to the wall by her arms, raised at the level of her head. She seemed inconscious for the time being, her head being slumped on her chest. The general had a brother who was a minister, and had saw a lot of religious pictures in museums...This sight…triggered really strange associations within his mind. But the general was not a pious man-no one genuinely believing could accept to do such things-and he found the said association more funny than anything else (he really had a diseased mind)...Anyway, the most startling point was what emerging from her short and shaggy hair (the reddish color of the said hair was a bit…unusual, but nothing more) that had slowly grow back since she had been bring here from concentration camp ; two little ivory-white cones on her temporal bones…

"It's…peculiar, I must say, he said after a while. How this is possible ? She looks like a…"

"We don't know, general...It was latent in her; she was without those crests when she was arrested or while she was in the concentration camp. Those crests quickly grew after her transfer, in a matter of days rather than weeks or months. We interrogated her with insistence (Euphemism for "We tortured her") about this…and she is not very cooperative, I must say."

"You should have insisted more, said the general, in a quite detached tone. Maybe you are a bit too…sensible…for those kinds of jobs (The general knew that some soldiers had sometimes strange ideas in Occupied Europe, like thinking that the civilians of those countries were like the ones of Germany, and that maybe it was wrong to torture and murder them…)"

"I assure you, general", protested the major, "that I have not that kind of weakness. I have been in France charged of the "technical assistance" of a unit of the Milice, and I have seen a lot of…aggressive interviews... We have tried everything. She will not talk. But, anyway, we don't really need her cooperation. It's quite probable that she does not know about it too..."

"The origin of this is not really important. What is really mattering is her…capacities. I mean the capacities that you have reported. Do you have at least a basic idea on how it's possible?"

"Again, completely unknown. A vivisection would be useful, or even an autopsy, but we have unfortunately one specimen. As far we know, she is unfortunately unique, for the time being. She is quite lucky, in a sense…it's only because of that this worthless thing is still alive"

"Yes…Before anything else, you know that there is some doubts in the command chain about some of the things you are reporting. Even _him _wonders if you are not…exaggerating a little"

"About the abilities, we are not, General. They are nothing less than spectacular...and deadly. She…is able to deflect most weapon projectiles without arm. Heavy duty stuff like sniper rounds are harming her, however, but only very slightly (in fact, it caused incredible pain to the test subject, but she survived)…A live demonstration will show you this perfectly"

The demonstration was simple. A sniping rifle was brought, the barrel a mere five meters from the midsection of the test subject. She did not move, or reacted. When the round was fired, the test subject let out a cry of pain, as blood began to flow for her mouth-the bullet had done her the same effect than a very strong punch in the stomach. She then tried to say something, although she knew that this would never work ; they never stopped to torture her.

"Please. Stop it. I'm…no longer able to stand it"...(Of course, no one listened to Sarah…)

((Sarah, why are you still trying? They will never do anything for you. They will use you until your body broke. You know that there is only one way to end this…AWAKEN...))

That inner voice had the same devastating effect on her than the other times…Added despair...Because Sarah knew that this voice was saying was true.. Altought there was in fact _two _ways to end this. The first one was rather obvious...She had tried three time since she was there to kill herself, to end this Hell. But she could only try to use conventional means to do so, not the...since the other would never allow it….And thus, it had failed-and only got her even more harsher treatment. The second way...it was what the other voice was suggesting.

She finally opened her eyes, and saw that there was a new officer outside her cell. Those were the worst time, when the scientists tried to impress Nazis officials with a demonstration of her abilities…She knew what would be next. Resistance to pain, to trauma, to anything...This was going to be a long day…or a long night, as she had lost the track of time long ago.

((You…we…want to do it. You have done it several time ago. It's easy. Those guards mock you, humiliate you, but you can kill them as you wish. The only problem is that they knew it, and that they are cautious. Even if you awaken completely, you may have trouble to escape))

"And she is only an inferior subhuman...", said a scientist with excitation. "Think what one of _us _could do with those awesome capacities ! If we can replicate them in time, our final victory in this war is assured…And no one will be ever able to challenge our domination ! "

The SS general considered Sarah. Could this be really possible, that someone of her kind (saying that this was ironic was an understatement, with the role that her people had in his ideology…) could be the key of their victory? For _this _war, it was a bit dubious. But for the future….Sarah was hearing what they were saying. And it was making her sick. Those guys genuinely believed that they had a right of life or death on any Human in Europe. That thing in her…they were trying to duplicate it…They were saying that she was a monster, an abomination….She had not chosen to be like this…But them…they wanted to be like that…

((And they are calling _you _a monster. It's really ironic, coming from their part. They did not deserve any pity…As soon as you are no longer useful to them, they will kill you…))

"And we will be able to duplicate it, I assure you", said a man entering the room. (The general hide his contempt for the Japanese. Why the Reich had allied with such people ? But they could prove useful...Especially for providing a fall back point for the Nazi leadership. Some long-rang submarines could still reach Japan, with a lot of luck and skill. His hierarchic superior was really considering the possibility of a strategic retreat of him and some advisors. Since the general was bound to be one of the advisors, he really pushed for this solution…)

"Ah, general, this man had worked within Unit 731. He is truly a specialist of...applied biology (Euphemism for ''biologic warfare'') A real genius in his field…He says that he have obtained some results in the isolation of the cause of this, first step for replication..."

"Yes…but it's still a bit early. Some months, or maybe even years, of work will be necessary, said the Japanese...(His name was…Kakuzawa, or something like that. Sarah was not sure)"

((See ? They see you as a tool. Not me…Altough, to be honest, it's mostly because you and I...are the same being, after all. But I want to keep us alive, and I can't do it without your cooperation...You can continue to try to kill yourself. But this would be foolish. First, this will not prevent them to use you…your body, I mean…And second point…this would make them…won, in a sense...And you will never avenge yourself, if you don't accept me...And…Sarah. You…are going to have a chance, an incredible one, very soon. Take it…)

Sarah lifted her eyes saw that they were preparing another little demonstration, with heavier projectiles...Sarah was really at end of her resistance. Her mind would break soon, and…No. She would not give them this pleasure. Their death camps had not been enough to kill her. She…was going to get out of this place, at any price. Including her…soul, in a certain sense…

A soldier came into the room at this moment, having an alarming new for the general...

"GENERAL ! AIR ALARM ! INCOMING ALLIED AIRCRAFT ! They are headed here !"

There was a lot of curses, as everyone knew here that those aircrafts could never be intercept ; there was not a single night interceptor avaiable in the area, and all the AA guns had been sent to the front to serve for AT duty. Sarah understood what the other had meant...But how ?

((No...I'm responsible for this...But...I...knew they were coming...I...and _you..._have many abilities...like the one of detecting short term danger. The said danger is minimal to you. Just prepare yourself for a little action...And…farewell, Sarah…Now, we are truly only one…))

The Nazis were not completely stupid, however. Knowing the danger that Sarah could pose, they sent one scientist to sedate her (this state was...abominable. She stayed fully conscious, but was unable to move. On the others hand, since she was chained day and night, it was not a big difference for her...) escorted by two soldiers, whose weapons were fitted with _dum-dum _bullets-soft-tip ammunition that was theorically banned, as it exploded on impact in little fragments. If Sarah made a move, they would _probably _have the time to fire on her, and since she had not recovered from the experience, she could not deflect all projectiles. And a single projectile would harm her terribly, preventing her to use her...abilities. She had experienced it a few time before. Horrible. To gain a little time, she used in a very sublte manner her faculties, for clipping the needle of the injection unit. The scientist cursed, thinking this was an accident, and is attention was away of Sarah for a moment. At that time, the first bomb fell on the facility, drawing the attention of everyone. Sarah suddenly raised her head, and...abandoned herself to that inner voice. The three person in the cell were took by surprise, and did not lasted long...They did not even have the time to raise the alarm...Very good.

The facility had been identified by London as a potential site for chemical/biological (it was not false) ressearch, and the Bomber Command had targeted it with a precision raid. It would also have the effect of softening up the defense against the Red Army. The raid proceeded very quickly. Two Mosquitoes dropped illuminations flares for marking the target to the twenty Lancaster heavy bombers that were following. The bombs almost leveled the fortress, destroying most heavy weapons and vehicules. Human casualties were light, however, as the sub-levels were making very good air-shelters. The only problem was that there was something in the said sub-level that was _much _more dangerous than any Allied air raid...

The general, when the bombing run was finished, realized that the damage to the installations was great, as several heavy bombs had pierced the floor and reached sub-levels...Really, it was the time to evacuate this project. The eletrical installation had been hit, and the lights were flickering. Thus, when he saw the heavy door to the cell out of her hinges, it was not in full light, not very clear or obvious, and it did not make him react in the way he should have...

He felt a light, gentle tap on the shoulder...He turned...and saw Sarah, free. He was so panicked that he never noticed that she was several meters behind him. The rest happened in what seemed for him slow-motion. He took his pistol for kill or disable her, raised it and-nothing else. What his subordinates saw was his head separated from his body in a gruesome way. And Sarah covered with his blood. Everyone in the room froze, knowing that they were dead. With what they had done to this girl, she would never have any mercy for them. One scientist attempted to do talk to her, saying that if she calmed now, nothing too harsh would happen to her. Sarah recalled how he had humiliated her during the last fifteen months, never hiding the total scorn he had for her. This charming individual had a strange accident with a scalpel in the next seconds-the tool that was resting on a table had ended into his left eye...Everyone into the underground levels met a similar fate during the next minutes. Sarah picked up into a stocking room a shirt to cover her a bit-it was quite...light...for clothing, but better than nothing-and proceeded to reach the courtyard. The tank detachement had been destroyed by the Lancasters and Mosquitoes, and the only survivors of the garrison, a dozen of SS guards commanded by a lieutenant, were assessing the damage. It was the middle of the night, but everything was quite visible thanks to the bombing markers dropped by the Allied aircrafts. The Nazis realized with sheer horror that Sarah was no longer under their control, and frantically shouted to stop moving, or they would shoot her. Sarah did not even bothered to look at them. They fired. No results. Dozens of bullets from submachinge guns were fired against her...and had more or less the same effect than an actual rain on her. Nothing at all.

Sarah smiled, and this simple action frightened to no end the SS guards. Especially when one of them violently jerked backward, stabbed by a metal fragment that had been laying on the ground...The force of the impact was such that he was pinned on the wall behind him. It took him a good minute to die…Saying that this was not exactly an encouraging sight for the others was an understatement. Still, after a moment of shock, they opened fire, trying to persuade themselves that they must have miss the target the first time, that this was a coincidence…(Sure. A bombing run that make metal pieces fly in the air ten minutes after it ended…) The second volley had the same results than the first. Sarah changed tactics this time, and killed another SS by making the remains of a wall collapse on him…A third one, in the optic that he missed because he was too far (like someone could be completely missed by ten sub-machines guns at a range below forty meters…) and came within five meters of Sarah, who took a few steps toward him. What followed completely killed the moral of the others, as most of them were covered in the blood of the fool. Sarah was of course without a scratch…she had allowed the guard to fire a full volley at point blank range, just to demoralize a little further more her enemies. Who were now realizing that she was playing cat and mouse with them. That kind of game was quite enjoyed by them-with, of course, them in the role of the cat. In the role of the mouse, strangely, it was not the same thing…

One of them, seeing this carnage, with the illumination flares let by the Bomber Command, especially while looking at those eerie bony growths on the sides of the head of Sarah, said something about demons and Hell, before falling on his knees. He suddenly recalled his background from a devout catholic family (conveniently forgotten during his "work" here and in others part of Occupied Europe) and began to pray to every saint he recalled to save him from this horrible death. Sickening hypocrisy and death bed conversion…Of course, it did not work. Since, after all, the Virgin Mary would have been, quite likely rather on the side of Sarah than his, granting that she had been actually able to intervene….Anyway, he was the next, and Sarah promptly ended his tirade, in a way that make the survivors turn white…

Sarah quickly finished the handful of remaining guards, keeping for her dessert the commanding officer. She was not in a hurry; she was now quite sure that nothing that the Nazis had in their arsenal could harm her. And she was already improving in deflection; at first, some bullets had been near misses, but now, she handled the projectiles much quicker, even when fired in large numbers. The officer emptied his handgun as she was walking slowly toward him. He was reloading when something made the handgun fly from his hand…

"I recognize you", she said after a little moment. "You were there during the experiences…I pleaded you (or maybe it was not him…Whatever. It was the idea that was important…) to either stop or kill me…What did you say? Something in the lines of "this is an order"? And this was when you or the others bothered to answer to me, which was not often the case…"

The man mumbled something…he was so terrorized that he was beyond speaking. Sarah understood only two things. The first one was rather amusing. He was proposing that he would let her go if she let him live…The second was that he offered to explain her some things about her. Again, not useful. That man knew nothing, moreover. And if she had kept him alive-for the moment-it was not for hearing things from him, but just…for talking.

She wanted to be sure that one of them understood what she felt…it would be soothing...He would not understand, and she would kill him anyway, but...This time, that man would listen to what she had to say. But he would never see her as an Human (Was she Human ? Sarah hoped that yes, in a sense. She would think to that later) Him and the others would always see her as either a kind of vermin just good enough to be worked out to the death in a factory or a sort of living weapon that could be used against their ennemies (Sarah felt that both reasons to not consider her Human were equally bad, as both were hurting her deeply….The difference was that that the living weapon part was true, judging by the events of the past half-hour...)

Sarah took an ammunition casing that was lying on the ground. She wondered how those soldiers could have _captured _her with ammo ? They probably had not think to that very deeply... The SS made a move for his sidearm, hoping that the attention of Sarah was drawed elsewhere...But she was quite aware of what he was doing...Grinning, Sarah pushed it away with her actual hands, just out of his reach….Before using...another thing...for snapping the wrist of the man...She did not let the screams of pain stop her...Doing that kind of things...it was wrong...she was sure of it, but why have pity for those monsters ? Did they ever showed even a _hint _of pity for her or her sister ? Why should she have pity now ? The only Human she had ever feelings for was her beloved little siste, and the Nazis had killed her mercilessly.

"Following orders is not so easy when the victim is not helpless, hmm ?" (Sarah said this in a conversation tone as she was seating herself next to the officer. He tried to rise...and screamed...his two legs had just been broke...How the heck that girl was doing _that _? )

"You….are…truly…a…demon…said the man, the pain driving him mad...(He had the marked impression that the fourteen years old girl in front of him was the Death incarnated)"

"I'm probably one, yes", merely said Sarah. "And you are convinced that it's because of my origins. This is not the case, but you are going to die persuaded of it. (She heavily insisted on the word _die…_) But…_you _and the ones of your kind created me…the…demon…that you saw now. I…kept that thing under control, within me. I would have killed myself, or managed to deal with…this (Sarah was not sure of this, at all, for the second hypothesis. That...thing...was very persistant...And persuasive. But it was beyond doubt that those men had completely killed her resistance…She made an evasive motion toward her bony crests) I'm born with them, you know? My mother always hated me because of them…she thought I was an abomination. She was probably right…She should have killed me at birth, for sure (Sarah actually believed that. It would have been an end to her torments). At the hospital, I was lucky for the only time in my life…Someone said that this was merely a little problem of malformation, easily corrected by surgery. They did that…They removed them, but they did nothing for the real problem…I…always felt it inside me….It's when you captured me…that this truly awakened, as I…as I gave up resisting to it. I accepted it...(Her eyes took a particulary eerie look...) And _they _began to grow again (Sarah was not making reference only to her crests or bony growths...) I...hate that thing, what it done of me...But...this is making me different from what I was...My...mind...my soul are torn appart...But I'm no longer helpless..."

The officer had a proof of that quite fast. A reinforcement of regular soldiers were coming from the town-where their officers could pretend to ignore what was happening in the fortress. They arrived in two trucks, and disembarked, astonished by the scene...A strange girl, half-naked, that looked at them...And then, the Death came to them. One by one, they were maimed, killed, by...by what ? Nothing was visible, but this acted like a kind of scythe...Only one or two of them had the reflexs to shoot in the general direction of Sarah. Clean misses...

The whole scene had not lasted more than one minute...Truly, a living and invincible weapon.

Sarah came back to talk to her captive audience. She would have to hurry...He would not last much longer, with this bloodlooss...And she was running out of limbs to break or disable...

"I impressed you, hey ? Those skills...you were finding them amusing when you were torturing me...(Sarah noticed a pistol that a sergent had dropped...Dropped. The word was not exact. He had never let the gun felt. His hand was still around it. The only little problem was that the said hand was no longer connected with the body. She picked up the weapon, discarded the remains in a very casual manner, and pointed it toward the SS) I could do experiences like you did on me...Checking how many bullets you could take and survive. Seeing how many bones I can break in your body before your death...(The man then felt a sharp pressure on his chest, that increased and then was gone...) It's not as fun now, hmm ?"

"Why...are you doing this...Why...are you born ? What...the hell are you ?"

If Sarah avoided to answer to the questions about her existence, answering about the motivations was another thing. She thinked about it during two long years of suffering...

"You really wonder why I'm doing this ? It obvious, fool...For vengeance...Not just for me...I had a little sister. She was…not like me. She was normal. Human. She was only six, when we got arrested, after a coward sold us...I pleaded for pity, like some of you did minutes ago, but for _her _life, not mine...It did not work. The officer on duty slapped me, a "subhuman", that have dared to speak with him…. and ordered that she had been "dealed with". You know, the stupid euphemism you use, thinking that no one will be the wiser ? "Special Treatement". And him too probably considered that he was just doing his job. For him, Myriam was...nothing more than an harmful animal, that was not desserving to live, even as a slave...Because she was too young for work in those factories…Just because of that. You judged her useless, just good enough to be gazed, shooted, drowned, whatever...She was not useless for me...I liked her...I loved her...She was so nice, so kind, with everyone...I would have done anything for make her happier...(An hard task, since their lives since the start of the Occupation had been an endless night, even when they were free...She had managed to shield Myriam for the death of their parents, however, which was something she could be proud of...) When you came for arrest the two of us, she cried, she was frightened (Sarah had in tears in her eyes thinking to that…), she pleaded me for help her, and I could do _nothing_... I tried to support her by talking to her before we were separated, and some sadist kicked me for making me shut-up...And you were laughing at us, all of you…She had done you _nothing, _short of being alive. While you...you and your kind tortured me, butchered my people, killed my little sister. For this, for her...you will pay...All of you will pay...I had sweared to her that a day, the war would end, and that we could have a normal life somewhere...She believed me-

"She was stupid to believe a vermin such as you, spitted the officer to Sarah. (He had hoped to touch a sensible string. He had. Sarah looked at him with infinite hate...And he screamed in terror as he began to felt a incredibly heavy pressure on his remaining valid arm...There was a sickening sound soon after...The officer wondered what else Sarah could do to him ?)"

"We...will...win this war...You will not get out of here…You are just another weapon for us...

Sarah genuinely laughed, and pointed to the SS the devastation brought from the sky by the Allies...Even her knew that the war was lost for the Nazis. She had been captured two weeks after the Soviet Union great victory at Stalingrad, which have been a ray of hope for everyone in Occupied Europe..But when she had heard the guards chatting about the Red Army scoring victory after victory, about the destruction of Germany from Allied bombers, the landings in Sicily, Normandy and Provence, the Liberation of Paris and Rome, the uprising at Warsaw, all things hinting that the nightmare would soon end...she no longer cared. Myriam would never see the light. All her short life had been in fear and darkness...Judging by her state, Sarah had maybe done something to be forsaken...But not her sister. She had desserved better.

"No…I'm free, this night…I don't know what I will do with this freedom, but no Human is able of capturing me now…It's _your _kind that will be destroyed...crushed...(Sarah had suddenly an idea while saying this...She clenched her fist in front of the officer…And as she was doing this, to attract his attention, he began to feel like there a weight of several tons on his chest...When he was autopsied, some days later, the medic was completly puzzled, and wondered if the officer had not been hit by a train or an heavy tank, for being so crushed)"

There was now only one living being in the whole fortress, but it was probable that another reinforcement would arrive soon. The survivor did not intented to wait their arrival...

Sarah then realized that the Japanese major and his assistants were not here...She wondered if he had said about the isolation of the virus was true ? She would know soon enough. The voice within her was saying that she would have all the time she wanted for do this.

Before doing anything else, she had little things to settle, at what had been her home...


	2. Chapter Two : Pour Trente Deniers

**Present Time, Japan, somewhere in Kamakura...**

"He is not coming...He says that he is not able to stand the sight", said Nana, coming back from the outside. "I think he is taking this quite badly...(A pause) You too, it seems..."

Nana was speaking to Yuka, who was siting on a chair in the kitchen, to calm herself a bit...She was taking deep breaths, trying to focus to the task at hand. She would have liked to have a minimal support from Kouta-even if just moral...And someone else _needed _it, badly. Yuka did not replied anything, but she swore to herself to have an vigorous explanation with her cousin as soon as this dreadful business would be over. Always away at the worst time,

"Well, said Yuka in a weak voice...let's return there, hmm ? The faster it will be over..."

"Sure ! And, please, please, if I can do anything to help...tell me...Maybe something to eat ? "

Yuka politely declined the offer. In addition to the fact that she was not exactly thinking about food at the moment (her stomach would never support it...) Nana's cooking was usually between an abomination and an culinary heresy. But, usually, she did not had trouble-unlike Kouta-to pretend that it was very good, to support the moral of Nana, who needed it badly.

The most...startling thing about Nana was neither her bony growths (this neutral word, like crest, was much more preferable than "horns") but the fact that she was looking so kind, so harmless, with her background. She was not just looking that way ; Yuka had never seen someone that was so well intentionned. Considering the incredibly violent background of Nana, this was nothing short than a miracle. Things that she found perfectly normal were completly monstruous for anyone else. Unlike Lucy, she never had been free before being sent to the island, and thus had an quite limited perception of what was normal life. Kurama and the like had probably thought that, after all, it was better for her. ...(If she had never knew freedom, she could hardly have illusion about it, and accept her fate. Of course, this train of thought was completly monstruous, since the said fate was probably worse than Hell...) Her desire to help was showcased by the goodwill she had to answer their various questions about what had happened recently (for instance, the latest little incident at the docks, that had resulted in 34 deaths, or the "disparition" of Kakuzawa after they had left Nyu with him...)

In the recent days, Kouta had finally began to ask much more specific questions (that should have been asked a long time ago, by the way), to Nana, about her, about Lucy, about the place they were coming, about what they were, what they done to them, what they could do...Unfortunately, Nana, like Lucy, was not knowing exactly what was going on in the ressearch labs. She could only told about what she seen herself...and altought it was very painful to hear (and still...it was nothing comparing to _living _it during years...) it was not much useful to know what the heck was going on this island. That said, from the little she had heard, Yuka was not sure, not at all, that what Kurama had said to Nana-that they were searching a kind of vaccine-was the truth. Those "experiences" were hardly science at all.

Anyway, Yuka was understanding more and more the puzzle., even if she was sure that Kouta was hiding some things to her, especially concerning Lucy/Nyu. (For instance, she had understood why Lucy was somewhat hostile toward her...Kouta. It was an very ackward, but livable situation. On the other hand, she was still completly at lost about how and when Lucy had met Kouta when they were younger-there was definitely something fishy about that...)

Those questions were not the ones that were tormenting her the most, however...What was occupying her mind was rather the implications of some of the things she had learned...

Yuka had heard many times before those events about the island and the complex on it, that Nana called in her innocence her "former home"...It was mere kilometers away from Kamakura...and before a month ago, Yuka had never questionned herself much about this place. It was just a medical facility. Why someone should have been curious about it ? It was not secret, not hidden. This was merely a quarantine/ressearch place, officially, they were ressearching about several viruses and bacterias like avarian influenza, brucellose...

Actually, it was the _perfect _cover. This was enough to justify tight security, for not risking contamination with the Home Islands, which would result in huge economic losses and public panic. On the other hand, it was not something that could raise much attention...If it had been listed as ressearching on Ebola or on Anthrax, someone could have think that this was for keeping away intruders...) Everything was (in apparence...) perfectly legal and official...

Moreover, the facility was seen by everyone in the area as a top-level employer, with very good pay and work security. (This part was really ironic, however. Sure, when you worked there, you were a low risk of being kicked out at the next restructuration of human ressources. The only problem was that there was a signficative risk of being brutally decapited, or other similar things, shot by security force, or having an "accident" if you were not longer able to cope with the ressearchs...) This part was _really _disturbing. Sure, some persons _could _have worked here, and not know about the ressearchs. But...Yuka did not believed it, at all It was known that this facility was very strict about it's personnel recruitment...The ones they hired...were probably the ones they knew that could be trust to shut up, that would accept the tale about the protection of Humanity against the "things" like Lucy and Nana without much questions, or, like that SAT trooper mentionned one or two time by Nana, with clear tendencies to violence, sadism and cruelty. But there must also have been ordinary, normal people working there...Clerks, technicians, secretaries...And they must have knew.

She was feeling dizzy when she thought about it...During all those years...those abominable things were happening ? And, from what she undestand, they were _still _happening.

What was making her almost sick was when she thought to the number of time that she had heard about someone known by her that had lost a relative newborn child, especially a girl, in not top clear circumstances. Oh, it was not a staggering number or troubling stories ; she had found it sad, and nothing more. All in all, it was something like three, four cases. Not startling at all first hand. But she had no doubts that this number was however _much _higher here than in other areas of Japan. Did those poor girls were real cases of newborns death ? Or did they were rather born like Lucy and Nana, and either killed at birth or sent to that hellish island for experiences ? And this was the number of cases that _she _knew. How many others there was ?

One case in particular was tormenting her. Miyuki. The more she was thinking about it, the more it looked really strange to her..The recents events could explain a lot of it...

Miyuki was a friend of Yuka, who had been quite enthousiast about the idea of having a little sister or brother, her first sibling...and probably her last one too, since she was twelve at that time, and her parents had got her in their mid-twenties. In fact, Yuka was almost sure that Miyuki was talking about it more or less like a normal person. It was just that with Miyuki (more precisely, with the Miyuki she knew _before _those events ) anything took rather impressive proportions...Miyuki was a cheerful, somewhat...expansive...girl, and she talked a _lot, _about anything. Since Yuka had always been rather introspective, she was usually the perfect "victim" for Miyuki numerous chats, as she was actually listened to what Miyuki was saying, but did not replied much.. Still, Miyuki had always been quite kind with her ; for instance, she had promised to Yuka to be the first one of their class that would see her sister/brother...Yuka would always recall how delighted Miyuki was when, at the school, she had learned that her mother was at the hospital...But she never received the call from Miyuki...At first she had thought that Miyuki had forgotten about her, and then realized that something was wrong, as Miyuki was not coming back to class. The official story, in the necrology column of the newspaper, was that Miyuki's little sister had died at the hospital, from complications, few hours after her birth. That when Miyuki had come back, she was dispirited, looking very depresive, was not really surprising. That she was not exactly wanting to talk about her sister was completly undestandable too. But the way she had screamed "She is dead"...when Yuka had asked her what had happened...was this normal ? (Was there a normal way to deal with such issues ? Probably not...Kouta's reaction to the death of his sister was a showcase of that. Between anger or denial...) This kind of story was already tragic in itself. It was much worse when considering the conscequences. Miyuki's father had gone away some months after the death of her sister. First hand, it was very understandable ; childloss is always a terrible strain for parents. But Miyuki had really good reasons to be indigned by his conduct ; according to her, he was saying that he was not the father of this child. Sure, it was maybe a way for him to better deal with the death of his daughter (the death...or something else ?) but saying this was quite unfair for Miyuki's mother was an understatement. That said, it did not really changed his feelings for Miyuki herself ; from what Yuka had understood, her parents had fought each other bitterly in court for keeping her. The mother had won, and this apparently did not overjoyed her daughter, which semmed to seriously _hate _both her parents now. For the father, with what he had done to her mother, it was very understandable. For her mother...well, Miyuki was not talking much about her. She had barely mentionned something about the fact that her mother was feeling very guilty, and taking medication to try to live with it. A year after that tragedy, Miyuki had pleaded Yuka to come at her home, if she had the time. Miyuki knew perfectly well that Yuka would not say "no", while others would have probably hesitated to come, since Miyuki's change of behaviour was already quite visible, even if she tried to hide it. But everyone knew that her cheerfulness was no longer real. Miyuki was probably feeling extremely lonely, since it was well known that Yuka was _hardly _someone that could cheer up anybody, even before the tragedy that had stroke her family. Things had of course not improved since those events...

Miyuki had probably thought thatYuka could understand her sligtly, and maybe help her to cope with this death.. Granted, losing a cousin is not the same thing as losing a sister, but...

Yuka, who was always a loner, but not by choise, had eagerly accepted the invitation, even if she knew deep down the reasons for it, and had a bad feeling about it. And she was right : this evening with Miyuki and her mother had been rather frightening, to say the least.

Yuka, like most people, had always found modern horror movies much more...amusing...than actually frightening. On the other hand, she had been genuinely surprised and actually scared by classical things like _Psycho, _in which the horror was not coming necause of cheap (or fancy, for that matter...) CG effects, but from things deep within human mind. Actual madness and despair are much more impressive than body parts flying on a screen...

It's exacly this way that this evening had really, really shaken her. Miyuki's mother was not babbling, delirious, or screaming insanities, the sign of madness in the sais cheap horror movies. Retrospectively, Yuka would have preferred this kind of madness to what happened. Miyuki's mother was very polite with her, and looked to be quite happy-which seemed very out of place for Yuka (heck, she had lost her child eight months ago...) Either she was playing a role, or the stuff she was taking for medication was really having nasty side effects. It was probably a mix of the two things. Whatever, Yuka had really pity for Miyuki, as it was quite clear that her mother was not exactly going to help her to cope with this tragedy, It was also very obvious that there was a _lot _of tension between Miyuki and her mother, even if they tried to hide it in front of their guest. Yuka had, of course, not even dared to talk about Miyuki's sister, well aware that this was likely to be a very touchy subject. (Both of them had probably heard enough condoleances, sincere and not sincere, for the rest of their lives...)

It's when the mother said something to Miyuki about nice flowers that she bought "for her" (the dead sister. For her tomb, probably) that the things ignited. Yuka realized afterward that Miyuki's mother had probably waited that her daughter was with someone to announce her that, in the hopes that she would calm down a bit in public. If this was the actual plan, it's truly backfired in a spectacular way. Miyuki said nothing for one minute, before litteraly exploding of anger against her mother. What Yuka, who was extremelly ill at ease, recalled from the events was that Miyuki was accusing her mother to try to forger her little sister, and after collapsing in tears, started to scream that her mother was happy of the course of events, relieved, even. And, among others things, this quite puzzling and disturbing sentence...

"You always hated her ! Stop to play that role,you don't care at all for her ! I HATE you !"

Miyuki was probably making reference to her sister...If she was dead, it was not making sense. If she was not dead and, let's say heavily disabled, or affected with any disease that would too much a charge for her parents, and they had sent her in a specialized institution...this sentence could make more sense. Miyuki's parents could have prefered to pretend to have a death daughter than living with a disabled one. Those (awful) things happens after all. What really did not make sense was one another sentence shouted by Miyuki shortly after "You took their money". This completly destroyed the thesis about an..."normal" disability. Actual institutions for disabled require payments, of course not the reverse...And...Yuka was sure that Miyuki had not completly invented that. Miyuki had said, some days earlier to Yuka, in a very scornful voice that her mother and father were trying to buy her affection with expensive gifts, but that she was really not playing their game.

Sure, taking more care of the surviving child is a perfectly normal reaction after the death of another child. Except the little killing detail ; Miyuki's parents had always been on a somewhat strict budget...The huge fees for their divorce lawyers should have bled both of them white, genuine generous intentions toward their surviving daughter or not. Where all that money was coming from ? Retrospectively, it looked a lot like if the parents of Miyuki were really ashamed of this money, and tried to get rid of it as fast as possible, in a way that could help them to forgot how they had managed to get it...by using it to try to please Miyuki. This was the kind of things that were really, really a bad sign about the origin of the money...

Another comment of Miyuki on that matter was even more puzzling than the rest ; she had mumbled something in French, about the _trente deniers. _Yuka¸ who did not have the fascination that Miyuki had for foreign litterature, did not understood at all what this stuff about money pieces was supposed to mean.It was certainly not a compliment for her mother.

Anyway, the rest of the evening had been, for obvious reasons, rather dreadful, Miyuki's mother was trying desperatly to repair the situation, each time paid in reward by hate declarations from her daughter. Yuka was sure that she was genuinely really hurt by them, as she was actually crying. Miyuki, at the end, was no longer even listening to her mother ; she was chatting casually with Yuka, who would have gave everything to not be there, ignoring the supplications of her mother, who was begging Miyuki to at least look at her. Yuka, after that evening, realized that dome of the things that Miyuki had done to her mother were truly mental cruelty. For instance, she had in her room a brand-new laptop computer, the most expensive model, a thing she had wanted for years. But it was her mother that had finally given it to her...So, she had let it in his box, for months ; there was a lot of dust on it. It was just for show that she did not cared about their gifts ; the numerous parcels sent by her father were not even opened. Miyuki had always been rather kind-hearted, and certainly quite forgiving-what could have changed her to that point, to be so hateful of her parents ? Yuka had left for her home as as soon as possible, after saying to the sobbing mother, that she had really enjoyed the evening-this standard phrase was probably not very adequate to the situation. To her own mother enquiring about how Miyuki's was doing, she had evasively answered that it was sure that there was some little familial tensions because of the divorce...

Those tensions ended very badly : Miyuki's mother had an fatal accident some months later. An actual accident ? An suicide ? Or an "accident" because she risked to talk, as her mind was beginning to break ? The fact that the cause of death was not precised was certainly suspect...

Anyway, it was impossible to say now. Miyuki's father, who was now in Australia, came back as fast as possible in Japan, to pick up his daughter...and left the country even quicker, not even bothering to assist to the funerals of his wife. Yuka had seen him a couple of time before, and he did not seemed to be such a bad guy. Even if he hated his wife, he should have paid her the last respects. There was probably another reason for is rather quick leave. Like the fear that Miyuki would break and talk too much, whihc would result in another "accident". At this time, Yuka was no longer talking much with Miyuki, whose mood was steadily darkening (Honestly, she had really reasons to be into a dark mood. Death of a sister, split-up of her parents, depression and death of her mother...) and if she still knew how to contact her, their exchanges over the past years had been limited to some emails. What to think, coldly and rationaly, of all those events ? Of course, all of this could be "normal", and could be explained in a completly rational way. It was probably the case. But...whatever if Miyuki's little sister was like Lucy or not...what was the most horrible was to think that some parents had...given...(or sold, according to Miyuki. To be honest, it was probable that what was bought was not the actual daughter, but the silence of the parents) their daughters to that ressearch facility. Granted, they probably did not knew what was happening on this island (did they actually made inquiries on that matter, all that said ?) Granted, they did not had an actual choice on that matter. Granted, either theirs daughters had that life at the facility, or no life at all. Honestly, for the last part, Yuka was really unsure of what to think. Between having an existence like Lucy and Nana, and non-existence, what was the best ? Yuka was sure however that this was a wrong way to pose the problem ; those poor girls should never had been sent to that hellish place, period. And never treated in such an harsh way. Harsh...this was a total understatement. Despite what Nana had said about him, she had not a hint of pity for Kurama, who had tortured Nana (the fact that he was "kind" with her was not exactly an excusing circumstances, since it was making Nana ready to do anything for him, including going willingly to her own death...And, anyway, can you call someone "kind" because he his polite as he is making horrible things on you ?) and had let his own daughter suffers terribly. What Nana was telling them was so awful that is was basically unbelievable...but she was perfectly sincere. She was _cutting _details, not adding info to raise attention...

One of the latest sequence had happened after Yuka finished to gave to Nana a crash-course about writing and reading in Kanji and English (she was completly ignorant of those things, of course) that Nana had enjoyed very much, as, for her, it was a sign that Yuka was seeing her as a real person...Because, at the facility, the guards and the scientists were not even talking with her, even when she tried to chat a little with them (Daddy had said once to her that she should remain silent, as the guards and technicians were told that Dicloniuses were unable to have Human feelings, that they were mercyless killers...Thus, when she tried to talk with them, it was disturbing for the personnel. Nana had been saddened by this, but she had complied to that injonction, talking only when Daddy was coming to see her-when she was lucky, something like one time by week...) In a very good mood, Nana had then said to Yuka that she really enjoyed living here, as her life was a lot better than on the island...

Nana had then said something, on a tone that would have been appropriate for a girl of her age describing what she had done during the week-end, about one experience in particular.

Her "Daddy" had been nice with her, in the morning, and said that she was really a good girl...while she was installed on an vertical operation «table», no able to move, even slightly, one of her limbs...That he warned her that what woud follow would harm her a bit, but that this was necessary. That he had even told this day one of his assistants to not be so rough with her (It could have be seen as very ironic that a man that was about to...torture, this was the word...her for hours could say, very serious, to of his assistants to be _respectful _with Nana. But...this was not ironic. This was sick. This was not funny. This was horrible) And that he left the room, for let the experience to begin...This was this time something to check her resistance to hypothermy. They had filled the room with icy water, that make her heart almost stop as soon as it reached her ankles..._Ten hours in cold water up to her neck, completly immobile, in darkness _And this experience was actually _speakable _(in a sense. It was still an abomination) which was not the case of numerous others. Kouta had told them some things about what Lucy and Nana were able to do. Yuka had no doubts that some of this was true, but still, many part of the story seemed completly insane...And honestly, Yuka was not eager to know the exact truth. It was sure that Lucy and Nana were not...normal. But after hearing Nana mention some others experiences, Yuka had the marked feelings that the actual "monsters" were maybe not those girls-Lucy and Nana, but rathed, from what she had understood, _the others, _the Humans, the ones making those experiences...It was a little wonder that Lucy and Mariko were very agressive toward others, with the "lives" they had...(Altought, to be honest, Yuka was not aware of all the things Lucy had done...)

Nana had then said to the horrified Yuka, in a not too convinced voice, that this was not too bad, as she was thinking during this time to happier things, like the few times, when she was really nice, that Daddy let her free for an half-hour...That all this time, she was hearing technicians chating while monitoring her, not saying «her», but «it», which was really hurting her deeply...That when she was fainting because it was really too cold, they brutally put her back to her senses with injections, as it was necessary that she was conscious. That they only removed the water when her heart really stopped, and that the shocks they gave to restart it were really painful. And that Daddy had thanked her to not have cried too much during the process (to _cry _? The normal reaction of an alive and sentient being, Human or Diclonius, would have be to go mad...But those «scientists» needed somewhat stable guinea pigs...As Diclonius were really not like rats in a labo...When they were pushed to their limits, they killed everything in sight. So, their minds had to be kept in an at least functionning order...), saying that this was good for everyone (Not her included, of course) It was because some scientists had still some strange feelings, like thinking that it was maybe wrong to do such awful things to...to what was still poor girls, that had in many case comitted no other sin than being born. So, if one «Number» cried during the process, it was harder for the morale of everyone. When the scientists saw the Diclonius more or less accept theirs fates, the tiny hint of conscience remaining in their heads disapeared...Nana had even to be cooperative for her own destruction...And the worst thing was that she was actually playing the game. (As Nana was a smart, sensible girl...it was very probable that she was somewhat aware of the truth, but preferred to think the things in a more positive way, for remains sane...) And that, when Kurama had saw that she was shivering tremendously, he add handed her a blanket to warm her a bit, before ordering to chain her back in Cell Number Seven. For Nana, it had been a somewhat good day, after all... The final piece to this conversation was truly the killing touch. Nana had asked politely, in her most gentle voice, if she had said something wrong, as Yuka did not looked well-for obvious reasons, she had paled in a very visible way...

And Yuka had to listen to things like that, and not scream the truth, that Kurama was a madman, toying with Nana for get her cooperation (or maybe considering as a kind of doll, to compensate for Mariko), since Nana reacted with tears when someone talked badly of her "Daddy", who was indeed very kind with her...when compared to the others, that's it...But he had been the only person she ever trusted, before coming here Yuka really hoped that Nana would a day accept the truth, but for the time being, she had to let Nana live with the idea that her Daddy was a good man. It would be very, very tragic if Nana's mind collapsed now, after enduring so much ; if someone ever desserved to have a norma life, it was her...

Nana was maybe telling those things in a somewhat detached voice, like if it not mattered to her...but it was not the case. She was realizing now that the people at the facility had fooled her-they had told her that if she was nice, they would set her free a day...Deep down, she had always knew that this was a lie, but it a gave her a little hope, to hang yet one more day...And...she wanted to know, her too, what had happened...why she was born like that...what they were trying to do with her and the others Diclonius, during all those years.

But, all the questions they had would be answered, soon. As Lucy had come back...

Well, they would be answered, if Lucy survived, which was far from granted at this point.


	3. Chapter Three : Tatso

**Some days ago, Popular Republic of China, province of Kiangsu...**

Kiangsu was a rich province, among the ones with the fastest economic growth. There was a lot of constructions. One structure that did not draw much attention was a medium-sized villa near the coast. The fact that it was a place used by the PLA Intelligence division was however somewhat well known by the population-and, in the end, the results were the same that if the secrecy had been maintained ; no one wanted to look to closely at this place, for avoiding trouble...Three persons were waiting in one room of the luxurious villa : one was an ederly officer of the PLA, another one an high ranking official of the Party. The third one, who tried hard to look at ease, was a junior officer in the Intellige. Lieutenant Xu, an specialist of...non convential computer warfare, better known as hacking...Finally, two soldiers escorted in the room a Russian woman, in her early twenties, in a evening gown that was quite corresponding with her cover for going in China ; the daughter of an _apparatchik _seeking investment possibilities in Kiangsu. It was of course not the case at all...She was here for _her_ business...

"Lieutenant, Secretary (this was the only title the man from the Party ever received during the following conversation...) this lady is one of the best Russian operatives avaiable..."

"You can call me Tatso", said the Russian to the intention of Xu (this was probably her partner for the future operation). "I'm very glad to be...mmh, let's say "working", with you..."

"So...this is an...international operation, tried, for the sake of saying something, Xu (she had been left completly in the blue about the details of why she had been summoned here...Well, this was not exact. She knew very well why she was here...She had say something she should not have said, resulting to her affection to this mission...Short of the fact that it was a safe bet that this mission was likely to be quite risky, she don't knew a single about the operation...)

"With the pay I get from Moscow, I'm more or less freelance those days, sighed the Russian"

The Russian was then a...mercenary. Xu "optimism" about her job sunk to a new level..

"I still want to thank you, said the Colonel, for accepting to come here so quickly..."

"Well, I was the only one that was insane enough to accept to perform an unspecified mission before listening to any briefing...(She looked curiously at the man from the Party) And of course this fellow really had convincing arguments for persuade me of coming here...

Xu wondered, when she heard those words, why she had filled a request to have more interesting jobs...Sure, hunting pirated anime DVDs in Hong-Kong was maybe boring, but it was certainly less risky. She was not a coward, far from it, but she had more and more the impression that the mission was going to lead her to her death...She had also the feeling that some of the comments she had made to her superiors had lead her into this situation...

The officials were very straightfoward. The colonel showed them a photo of a ederly man, whose expression was...disturbing to the extreme. Clearly Japanese...clearly insane too. Some data about the origin of the picture was written on the back. This picture had been published in a local newspaper (the place was not specified), for some kind of press conference..."

"What we want is this man. Director Kakuzawa...For numerous warcrimes.against Chinese.

"It's a bit vague, I must say, replied very politely, but very firmly too, Tatso. Details ?"

The colonel answered by giving to them various reports-thankfully, written in English for Tatso-about one truly abominable things..Xu felt a surge of outrage when, after a few pages. she realized what this mission would be...Not against her superiors ; against her future target."

"Ah. Unit 731, said coldly Tatso..This Kakuzawa was part of it ? Soldier ? Medic ?"

"Medic...he was on the same level of Ishi about the experiences...Vivisection. Test of ammunition on prisonners. Innoculation of germs. And I'm not mentionning the unspeakable" This was not needed...the reports were filled about detailed descriptions of "experiences" made by Unit 731-very official reports made by Imperial Army officers. They had been collected after the war by the Soviet Union and China, for the trials of the handful of officiers captured...Only small fishes, unfortunately ; the real culprits had managed to get away...

"At this time", continued the Colonel, "he was major Kakuzawa, of the Japanese Imperial Army. He had a quite outstanding record of activities, in China and elsewhere. And apparently, quite a family story...Those familial matters are not very useful for the mission proper, but, trust me, they are somewhat enlightening. What we recovered about him is rather sketchy. _Apparently, _his family had some kind of regional power in the North before the Meiji Era...it's not very clear. They claimed to have been a sort of Shoguns, but this is doubtful. Documents we found state that it was rule by terror (while he was saying this, both Tatso and Xu wondered more or less the same thing : why the PLA had made an enquiry about this Kakuzawa's familiy ? This was strange. Did they knew something about Kakuzawa that they would not share with them ? Stupid question. Of course, yes...) Even for the standards of the time, the Kakuzawas we found the trace were...unspeakable racists, and also prone to radical measures. One Kakuzawa was in charge of a battalion sent from the Kanto to put down light unrest in Ainu villages . The repression was so violent that Tokyo blamed him ! "

Tatso and Xu shuddered. Colonial powers-Japanese-or Europeans, for that matter-were always prone to us extreme violence, when their rule was challenged...For being blamed, the repression ordered by this Kakuzawa most have been much worse than a "mere" warcrime...

"We found also reports from the Ancient Regime that stated about one Kakuzawa officer that served during the Sino-Japanese war. He was in charge of a garrison in the south of the Korean peninsula, in a small fishing town of about two thousand inhavitants...It's worthy to note that the place was _completly _abandoned. Not a single civilian left alive...We are completly lost at the reason he ordered that...Some official papers claim that it was because of the death of several Japanese soldiers. Saying that this is doubtful is an understatement. "Our" Kakuzawa had been first sighted in Jehol, as a "security advisor" from one Warlord. You guess what this means. At that, he used his power to extreme ends. He was boasting to have life and death rights on aynone in the area...and extensively proved it. At this state, we can really speak of...bloodlust. After Mandchuria was made a protectorate of Tokyo, he returned to the Japanese forces proper. He had made studies in biology, and it's why he managed to be hired by Ishi for his "work"...He was at Nankin during the Invasion, and was charged with the detention of captured Nationalists (A pause) It was of course for the dreadful "experiences" of the 731. Not a single prisonner of the Nankin under his supervision survived.

Tatso looked one more time at the photo, and frowned. Something was really not right...

"Err...there is one problem, here...The massacre of Nanking, Unit 731...this was before the War. If he had a command post at that time...he would be much, much older now..."

"Correct. This man is well over ninety years old. I admit that this photo is probably not much up to date-but it's the only one we have. Kakuzawa is quite discreet-which is not suprising with his past-The Japanese journalists must have been short of more...photogenic pictures, I guess. We don't even know when this picture had been took-just that it was used for illustrate an article some years ago...(Tatso noted, with concern, that the Colonel did not offered any precison about the subject of the said article, the place it have been published, and so on...)"

"You are probably right", continued Tatso, "but there is still something wrong with this picture...or, rather, with the man...I mean, err...how to say...He looks really...really..."

"If you mean that this man look...(Xu searched for the right word...Kakuzawa had visibly tried to look normal on this picture, but, even without knowing what he had done, she would have been very ill at ease near him...)...completly...evil, she added simply...you are right...

"You noticed it too ? said politely the old officer. "It's...worse when you see him in person...(The startled looks of Tatso and Xu showed to the Colonel that this was indeed a nice introduction to the next part of the briefing...) You see, Kakuzawa was in Harbin when some Resistance forces raided an Unit 731 lab, in January 1939...It was a mixed operation of the _maquisards_-both Nationalists and Communists partisans elements were involved..."

_This _was really surprising. During the War, the priority of the KMT was not always to throw back the Japanese to the sea. Killing his Communists rivals was the absolute priority for Chiang and his clique, despite the much more critical Japanese threat...This had been showcased during Operation Ichigo in 1944, when Chiang had kept his best armies deployed against Yenan despite the smashing offensive launched by the Japanese to wipe out the Allied airbases near Chengdu, which were used for bombers raids on the Home Islands. And what had stopped the Japanese was not Chiang and his armies-it was the fact that all this was made completly useless by the capture of the Mariannas by the Allies, who provied _much _safer bases...That said, the Communists were certainly quite interested at taking the control of resistance movements, despite the official United Front...No wonder that there was a _lot _of distrust between Nationalists and Communists partisans. Distrust that had been relentlessly-and cleverly-used by the Japanese. That said, at local level, Nationalists and Communists guerillas could have worked for the same objective...granting this was a serious one.

"The main base of operation of Unit 731 at Ping-Fang was much too heavily guarded for an actual attack on it...So, the target chosen was at Harbin itself, The lab was located into one _yamen_-you know, those administrative/judiciary/military complex from the Ancient Regime-in the middle of the city...Some days before, a group of partisans had been betrayed and captured, and their commander decided to make three strikes with one swing : save his men from an horrible death, make a show of force, and kill as many as possible of those "scientists"...The partisans did not know that Kakuzawa was there. They were hoping that Ishi himself was there this day...At first, everything proceeded very well. Ishi and Kakuzawa were hated by many Japanese officers-some of them had actual ethics, I guess-and I'm quite sure that some Army officers turned a blind eye toward the operation. The outer defenses of the complexe were stormed with light casualties from our side...The labs operated by Kakuzawa were the deepest...What he was doing there...I don't know...An handful of partisans reached the.labs proper-most of the others were busy freeing the prisonners, and stealing weapons from downed guards...Then, something happened in the labs...no one survived. The commander of the attack force blewed himself up-more exactly, he blewed the nearby armory-with anything that was there...And to impress him, it took a _lot..._After...that bastard of Kakuzawa had summoned reinforcement...he laughed as the partisans were being mowed down by machine-gun fire...Out of almost thirty attackers...less than five survived."

"Hey, said Tatso, in a genuinely concerned voice...You seem to take that quite personnal..."

"I was there", said in a low voice the colonel (Those memories were harder for him to cope with than his memories from the Civil War after 45 and the Korea War...) " I was a guide for the commando... I helped the...the handful of survivors from the attack force to flee in the streets of Harbin, with the handful of data they had grabbed, then to hide them in the Resistance underground until things calmed a bit. And finally, helped them to escape Harbin."

The ederly Chinese officer looked curiously at Tatso while saying that, hoping for a reaction, even slight. None. Hmm. Either she was a perfect comedian, or unaware of the situation, or...it was not what he thought. After all, at that raid at Harbin, he was himself only ten years old, and his own memories of the events were not very clear...Still, he was _sure_, even if for him all Russians looked more or less similar, that the green eyes of Tatso were quite alike-

"We lose his tracks after the operation", continued the Colonel after a while. "He was with the Japanese army on the front. He was probably at Halhin Gol-you may find something on that."

"I will certainly ask my friends at Moscow to look for that matter. But unless we had captured him after battle-which would had settled the matter-I'm sure the results will be quite light..."

"I agree with you...He left China after , for sure. We _think _he may have gone in Germany, for serve as a kind of advisor on chemical weapons programs. There had been some rumors about one Japanese scientist that was close to Himmler...it was maybe him, maybe not..."

"Not sure here...Himmler was a butcher, a monster, but also a complete fool when it was it was about scientific ressearch...He was for esoteric things, not chemical warfare...Anyway. Knowing the Nazis, it's a safe assumption to say that whatever were his ressearchs, they were not operationnal at this time. Trust me ; if they had found a way to wipe us out, they would have used it without the slighest hesitation, especially in 1945, when they were doomed..."

"Oh, said the colonel, if he had succeded...we would have heard about it, I'm sure of it...But...he prefered to kept a low profile. He somehow escaped the fall of the Third Reich, and returned to Japan...Kakuzawa had apparently high level connections with several officers of the _Kempatai. _It was a piece of cake for him to create himself a new identity, and disapear in the chaos after the war. And I'm not mentionning Unit 731 deals with the Americans. No, trust me...we would never had found him...if he had not continued his ressearchs..."

"Oh, so I have not only to kill a criminal, but a recidivist criminal ? I like that..."

The colonel ignored the sarcastic interruption, and continued his explanations...

"Kakuzawa is now the director of a certain facility...that is...somewhat intriguing to us. But could also very dangerous. Considering the past actions of Kakuzawa, it's a safe bet that it's much better to be safe than sorry. Your mission will concern this facility, of course, at least at first. If you find something interesting-and by that, you know very well what I mean-the problem he pose may resolve itself without those pesky international complications..."

Everyone in the room understood the euphemism. Abducting or killing Kakuzawa on Japan would have been very, very risky, with the current tensions between Japan and China. (And it was quite sure that Kakuzawa would never come in China or Russia...) However, a revelation about his operations would change the situation. Tokyo was maybe unaware of the extent of it...or Tokyo could be blackmailed with threats of communication to the press of the said operations led with a certain level of governemental complicity. Both hypothesis would anyway result in a quick arrestation of Kakuzawa, in a very legal way. Altough it was dubious that Tokyo would agree to the extradition toward China of a man that could say some devastating things, both about the dark past of the Imperial Army and current complicities...

No, Kakuzawa was likely to have an unfortunate accident in jail...which would settle the matter..Sure, it would not be as good as an due trial, but it was better than nothing.

"So, we need to do surveillance work/economic espionage ? (Xu was clearly sceptic when she was saying that, as she had receivind hints from her superior that it was a...complex mission)"

"Unfortunately, no, said the man from the Party. As the configuration of the objective is a bit...unusual. And it's only strenghtening our apprehensions about what is going there..."

The officer opened a porto-folio and spreaded on the table several photos of a true eagle nest, on an island. The quality of most of the pictures was rather blurry, most of them having been took by operatives at ground level (or rather sea level) from a distance of several kilometers. An handful of aerial pictures, of much higher quality, completed the display. Combined, those documents gave a quite detailed look of the place, which was looking quite military...

"Hey, this island is a real natural fortress, with those cliffs, said Tatso. Gettting here is going to be...interesting (Xu looked at her future partner in a concerned way. "Interesting" was not exactly the world she would have used...) to say the least...It's hard to be more secluded..."

"Indeed. One of the best defense site in whole Japan...it was extensively used during medieval times. In normal situation, this island would be very hard to reach by naval means...But the small beaches that were once used to bring materials had been blowed up after the construction of the current installations. Now, the only way to gain access to it is by air..."

"I would not be sure, said evasively Tatso...Those cliffs are almost impossible to scale, and certainly completly impossible to scale at night and in silence for a stealth assault... However...(she trailed off...) By sheer curiosity, what is the official function of this place ? "It's registered as an civilian biology lab, making ressearchs on virus attacking animals entering into human food chain...(It was obvious that the officer was not trusting this version, with some reasons...) There is something quite interesting with the fundings of this place-I will explain later...It's officially operating on the behalf of the Japanese governement, which leads us to think that there is some links between Kakuzawa and officials in Tokyo..."

"Biology lab, hmm ? Directed by a former Unit 731 scientist, in such a place. What a strange coincidence...You think they are ressearching biological or chemical weapons there ? "

"Well, if you have an hypothesis about what else could be going on, I would be glad to hear it, said dryly the man from the Party. But if we add to that the fact that they have their own security force, and a very sizable one, admit that this look more and more strange."

"Oh, security forces ! (Tatso took a very ironic tone...) Let me make a bold guess, judging by your tone ; the said security forces are a bit heavily armed for the work they are supposed to do ? It's not that it really matter for me, you know...More challenge means better pay..."

"It's more than that...It's not even military grade, according to what we know...Kakuzawa had at his orders what is basically a small army, with top notch training and equipment..."

"One question, before going further. The said little army...is this serious, or just a rag-tag of mercenaries ? Because, usually, mercenary value much more their own lives than their job."

This comment coming from the Russian was somewhat amusing, since she was a kind of mercenary herself-the concept "free-lance operative" was quite similar to the one of "mercenary". However, Tatso had some legitimate reasons to consider herself quite diffrent than a lowly gun-to-hire ; what her employers seeked was not her skill at firearms (or at close combat, or any form of combat...she was good at that, nothing more) but her mind...

"Honestly, I don't think they would put much a fight in regular conditions. On the other hand, a lot of them had nothing to lose, especially if they are indeed resserching bio-weapons..."

"I see...So, they will fight to the death-preferably _our _death rather than _their _death. Have you information on the composition of the said force ? Especially about the effectives..."

"Exact number is unknown. We suspect that they hide combat personnel as non-qualified technicians. For the composition, it's the usual assortment. Japanese and foreigners, including Americans and Europeans. They seem to have a preference for guys that can be blackmailed. Some individuals have pretty...dubious...background. For instance, some of the Japanese are from clearly criminal backgrounds, or, at the opposite, are former cops busted out for various causes (The Colonel did not add-Xu and Tatso would realize it soon enough-that there was also some former PLA officers) One of the handful of officers we have identified to this point is exactly in the second category. We advise you to _extreme _caution if you ever go next him."

The colonel showed to Xu and Tatso the picture of a man in the uniform of the Japanese version of the SWAT teams, took at Tokyo, according to the urban landscape. The sadistic grin he had made both of them thinks that the advice of the Colonel was to be listened...

"Hey, this fellow...I heard about him, said Tatso. His name is _Bandho, _or something like that, right ? He is rumoured to have...very personnal methods for "keeping order". Yeah...The rumor I heard was about the torture and summary execution of a prisonner, some years ago."

"Correct, miss (the man from the Party was somewhat impressed. The hiring of this Russian was both a bless and a bane. A bless, because she was visibly quite in touch with the situation in this part of the world. A bane, because it was going to be hard to control her...Well, nothing is perfect) It made quite a scandal in the headlines, despite the attemps of covering the story."

"Yeah", said with a (sarcastic ?) smile Tatso, "it's certainly a problem that you did not have."

Was she saying that the Chinese did not had sadists officers in their police forces-which was obviously not the case-or that they did not risked scandals because of a controlled press ? The answer was rather obvious...Neither the colonel or the man from the Party were much angered by the comment. For that mission, they don't needed mindless drones-they needed operatives able to think freely and creatively. They had countless officers that were a lot more reliable politically than Xu and Tatso...but would get manipulated and/or killed by Kakuzawa in a eyeblink. Finding what Kakuzawa was doing-and arresting or killing him-was the top priority. After...well, if one of them made problem, this would be very easy to deal with...

"...Very amusing, miss (it was obvious that the man of the Party was not finding this funny, at all...) But please, do not go off subject from now on...It's worthy to note that according to our data, this man is also a member of a fringe-group of war-crime negationists and extrem-right sympathizers...Exactly the kind of person that would go very well with Kakuzawa..."

"You mean he have fascist tendencies, asked Xu ? (She personally found that this guy had exactly the look for that...Fortunately, it was likely that he was going to have a brutal end...)

"Oh, more than tendencies, in my opinion. It's probably why he had been kicked out of the official SWAT teams of the capital...and sent into...provincial backwater...(Tatso noted that the Colonel did not _named _the place. Why ?) Tell me, please, why a relatively small Japanese town would get more Special Ops teams than a metropolis several time larger ? We are sure that several of those police teams are in fact detached to act for Kakuzawa in the region."

"For what kind of actions ? Supressions of potential witnesses ? Securing of test subjects ?"

"Exactly. It seems that a word of Kakuzawa in this whole district is took like an order. The police had issued on several times, over the last years, orders to hunt and capture several persons...with, of course, very limited respect for the legality. The last one we found traces of was about a foreign person. We think she is European, French or British, with her name-_Lucy._ Kakuzawa apparently ordered her to be captured, around a month ago. (The officer searched the porto-folio for another document...a photo of a young female, around eighteen) One of our agents in the area sent us this-it was the document used for the searches. She had been labelled as an "extremly dangerous murderer"...Very signficatively, they did not add ANY detail about what she is supposed to have done. Which make the whole murderer affair looks like a pretext to arrest her. And, anyway, the order was coming _from Kakuzawa. _If she had done something and was wanted, the order would have not been issued by him...We don't know of course why. Prisonner ? Test subject ? Someone that know too much about him ? "

"Indeed", said with distraction Tatso, her attention drawn by the picture, like Xu. This girl, she looked...agressive, to say the least...But it was not like Kakuzawa. The eyes she had...The hate, the despair, the sadness that was in them was incredible. What they had done to her ?

"Err, said Tatso, shivering. Her eyes...she look to have been in hell and returned from it..."

"If she is coming from the island and Kakuzawa is still doing things in the line of his medical ressearchs with Unit 731, I think that "Hell" is probably a good concept for describing what is occuring in this lab, replied simply the colonel (who also had been troubled by this picture). Of course, if you manage to found her, you should ask her about what is going on, but..."

"But", added Xu, "since she is actively searched by Kakuzawa since a month, it's safe to say that she is either captured, death, or very well-hidden...And it's seems that she is keeping silent to this point...even if we manage to find her, I doubt that she will say much to us..."

"Exactly. You can't base your plan on that...Just keep an eye for her ; you may get lucky. Another thing that worth to check for is the fact that this picture had been somewhat modified by computer-an almost perfect job. There was an earlier release of the picture that probably had some information in it-it was promptly withdrawed...Try to find it...But, your main job remain to get on the island, and get a broad idea of the ressearchs that are occuring here. (A pause). Both of you are very, very qualified for covert ops, but...well, not as much for the handling of potentially hazardous material. Otherwise said...don't go for the eventual heavily protected areas that are likely to be the site of the ressearchs proper. If you cause an accidental outbreak, you are going to do the job of Kakuzawa, which is exactly what we are trying to avoid. And, of course, do not take back any dubious material, even as sample..."

"It would be pretty stupid, anyway", said Tatso, "since an actual viral lab is likely to be a very secure place, with one heavy door for only access...Even a braindead ennemy would find it very easy to seal us there if we don't block the mecanism ( which was likely to be impossible) Don't worrry...we will not come back with a nice little vial as a souvenir..."

"So...we need just to make a glancing probe ? " replied Xu. "I mean...we grab documents, data, take pictures, make maybe one or two prisonners in the personnel, and get out as fast as possible ? This does not look so bad, after all..." .(She said that because of all the things she had heard about this operation, especially about the fact that is was basically suicide...)

"The key word is that it's does not _look _so bad. If they hired me for this job, it's likely because there is something else. I mean, " continued Tatso while looking at both the Chinese officials in the eyes, "something other than the fact that if I'm on this mission and it's turn bad, you are not going to be the only ones to took the blame...Russia will have to take a part of the repercussions of this failure" (And, of course, blaming China or Russia at the UN was something possible. Blaming China AND Russia was certainly going to be much, much harder. Altought it was unlikely that the Japanese would protest much officially, since it would raise attention toward the said facility, it was better to not take chances about that)

"As you may guess, I will not say anything concerning the political implications", replied the man from the Party. "But, as the colonel will explain to you, it's certain that even this, to take your words, glancing probe-is going to be quite hard to implement. We are not sure of the motivation to fight of the security force...but they are certainly in a good position to do so..."

"As you have seen, this place is naturally a fortress. Add to this the fact that the buldings themselves are heavily reinforced, with most of the levels underground...Infiltrating it is going to be hard, to say the least. It's only possible to reach the island by helicopter, and photographic recon shows that they seems to have a radar system (the officer pointed a dome near the top of the facility) However, it's probably just military surplus-any modern craft with ECM would be able to evade it. Even flying low would be enough...The problem is that the configuration of the island prevents to land elsewhere than just in front of the main building."

"...which is exactly the place where most of the security force will be" (Tatso looked closer at the pictures, hoping for find a suitable landing site for something like paradroping. There was some very narrow space that could be used with luck and skill...but in broad daylight, were they would be both very visible and vulnerable...Attacking at night was completly impossible) "As we are not in _Starwars,_ I guess there is not a weak point in the whole structure ?"

" Of course not...There are several entrances, but they are all very well guarded...Altought, for some reason, from what we have seen, they are _relatively _lightly guarded. Most of the effectives seems to be affected to the underground levels...Maybe they are merely kept in reserve, in case of an attack (The colonel proved his point by pinpointing small specks on the documents ; armed guards. Only an handful of them were on station outside the building...)"

"Yeah. Only fools would fight on open ground, especially on a place so devoid of cover..."

"Most of the resistance will likely being in the facility proper...Which make an assault-type mission almost impossible. We tried to track some supplies they bought, by whatever means avaiable...and, trust me, this is _staggering..._In addition of enough small weapons to hold a siege, they have heavy material in great quantity...We have report that they bought at least two TOW launchers with missiles..Not mentionning anti-armor weaponry, military grade machine-guns, sniper rifles...They have also bought from Russian sources various portable anti-aircraft and anti-tank missile systems...and, to be honest, they also got by black-market some limited ammunition from us (the said limited ammunition was in fact several AT guns, with huge supplies of shells...) All of this will make very short work of any attack force..."

"Oh ? By the way, do not worry...If the Russian gear was the one coming from Vladivostok...this problem had been dealed with some time ago (Tatso was maybe freelance, but she was still working-at very reduced prices-for Mother Russia when it was needed..."

For her part, Xu was not impressed much by this expense of heavy gear...Only a fool would have attacked this place head-on (She really hoped that the non-caring attitude of her partner was just to impress her superiors...if this was not the case, they would end very dead very fast)

"So", continued Tatso, "...all that said, how do you want me to proceed ? You showed us how it was impossible to enter the place...but you are paying me to infiltrate, not fail..."

"Well, the best way we have figured is to either get recruited into the personnel of the island...

"You must have tried that already, no ? I mean, it's not a bit obvious for trying to infiltrate spies ?" (Xu asked that while knowing more or less what kind of answer she would have...)

"We...actually tried to infiltrate the facility this way. One of our agents managed to get recruited as a guard...It's obvious now that the false ID we gave him was not convincing"

"And then you found his mutilated corpse on the shores the next day, or something like that ? Take no offense, but I think I will not rely on one of your false ID...", said Tatso...

"Well, with was left of him, the word ''mutilation'' is a bit an euphemism...It was like he had felt into a industrial grinder, or something like that...Official explanation given by the police in it's report : _suicide. _Another proof of how the things are working in the area..."

"At least, you are honest with us", replied dryly Xu. "Do you have other suggestions ?"

"Not really...You may try the traditionnal methods of finding guards in permission and make them drink to gain information...to use one of the _liaison _helicopter to gain access to the island...(The colonel made an evasive gesture...) I'm sure you will find opportunities...(Tatso said nothing. She had already her plan...) So...do you accept to perform this operation ? "

Xu had not really the choice to accept (that said, despite her aprehensions, she was fully willing to accept) but Tatso had a certain possibilty...She feigned hesitation for a minute, before nodding her agreement. Hunting war criminals was fully in her taste, after all..

"Hmm...I accept, of course (One more smile) But only because I want to know the little detail that you wanted to hide from me until I accepted...just for curiosity. Where is the objective ?"

The Colonel and the man from the Party looked at each other quite nervously...

"Very well...The objective, more precisely, is in the vicinity of the city of Kamakura..."

Tatso did not react to the sentence, altought she knew the implications, but Xu was clearly startled. _KAMAKURA ? _This already hard mission had just turned to a complete nightmare.

"As you may know, Kamakura", continued the official, is a somewhat...provincial...town that is also best known for her shrines (here followed some mumbo-jumbo that was clearly intended for tourists...Tatso would have laughed if the situation had not been so serious. Since those efforts for hide them the killing fact about this facility were pretty amusing...)

"It's also a city that is within kilometers of the main base of both the American Seventh Fleet and the Maritime Self-Defense Forces...Yokosuka.", said in falsely absent voice Tatso. "What a wonderful new. This means that this area is likely to heavily watched by surveillance craft.."

This explained why China had agents near Kamakura, a place that was quite un-strategic...They were there for gathering information on the fleets. The movements of the 7th were quite interesting for Bejiing, since this was this force that was covering Taiwan...

But the presence of the American fleet changed a lot of things. Asking if the Americans knew about the island facility was really a dumb question. Asking if they knew that bio-weapons were maybe developped there was another matter. If Kakuzawa had friends at Yokosuka and called for back-up during the raid...this was going to be a really hopless mission.

"You are not saying", said quietly Tatso, "that those _supposed _(they still lacked proof...) ressearchs are conducted with the support of Washington ? It's a bit hard to swallow..."

"Honestly...no...Ressearch on bio-weapons...this would be hard to present to the American public opinion. But...it's almost impossible that there is not some connections between Kakuzawa and local commanders. Some of the gear is certainly coming from the 7th. Maybe it's just for turning a blind eye to the island...maybe it's something deeper. We are really lost here. But, paradoxically, the presence of the base may be an advantage if things go bad..."

Both Tatso and Xu understood very well the meaning of the sentence. Spies caught red-handed in the vicinnity of a foreign military installation...those things happened almost on a daily basis world-wide, and were generally resolved in a quiet manner, to avoid diplomatic sanctions : incarceration, followed by expeditive extradition (after some unfortunate beating..)

"But", continued the officer, "there is another international connection that we wish you to investigate. We mentionned you about the fundings of Kakuzawa...Well, we identified some of his backers...I must say that the actual contribution of the Japanese governement is certainly much larger than the one they should gave according to the official version...but it's still tiny compared to the overall sums involved. Sums that are coming from various organizations and individuals, most of them quite eager to remain secret...What interest us to the highest point is the fact that _a sizable portion of it came from KMT sympathizers..."_

"So, you are saying that Nationalist nostagics from Taiwan are paying Kakuzawa for developping a weapon that could be used on mainland China ? It's maybe true...but it's certainly a somewhat good thing politically, admit it...But...as I say, it's very possible..."

A state would never engage itself in such a risky business. Extremists and hard-liners, however...Especially from the KMT. Chiang had genuinely believed during decades that he would be able to return on the Mainland, and there was certainly some rich sympathizers that were still considering the Popular Republic as a bunch of rebels...If someone presented to them an opportunity to strike back...For the political part, it was obvious. China wanted Taiwan back. If they had been stupid enough to make such ressearchs, this would give justification to China for...an ''armed reunification'' (the latest euphemism for invasion...)

"That's an interpretation that we could give (Long period. The official from the Party was unsure of what to do...Better stick to the fact ; they would have enough trouble like this...) It's the one we will give if we are attacked by this new weapon and are forced to retaliate...against Kakuzawa, against Japan and against Taiwan. But...Kakuzawa was on expert on getting funds, even at the time of Unit 731...I hate to say that, but I think he is using those idiots...Do not worry ; we don't ask you to frame the Taiwanese in this affair, or officers from our side that we want to get rid off...It's not a remake of the Trials of Moscow"...(This was a deliberate answer to all the little insinuations made by Tatso over Chinese politics recently...)

"_Touché", _replied Tatso, still smiling. "But we changed too...Just a suggestion. Don't pretend that Darjeeling is behind that too, it's will be not credible at all. Even at home..."

The man of the Party tried to laugh, but it sounded a bit forced...He had probably considered, even very slightly, this possibility (which was more ridiculous than a cheap anime storyline)

"A ship is waiting for you in the harbour, finally said the Colonel Some combat and non-combat personnel had been put to your disposition, on the ship and on our Intelligence cell. "

"Just one final question...If I see Kakuzawa during the operation, what should I do ? "

"Kill him (The colonel barely hesitated) The trial would be a lot better...but we cannot let him die of old age, with what he done to China. He is the last alive member of Unit 731..it's time to end this matter once and for all. But he is a coward...he will let other die for him..."

Tatso and Xu left some times after, already discussing what they could attempt to do to get on this island...while trying to know a bit each other, and especially answer the killing question : why they had been chosen for this mission, apart because of skills, competences ?

Both officials said nothing for a while...They had done what they could...but still...

The man from the Party left soon after. When he was alone, the colonel took for his personnal wallet one final picture, very different than the ones he had showed tonight. This old black and white photo had been took decades ago at Harbin, and was hardly professionnal-the edges were blurry, it was badly focused...It showed a Russian girl, around sixteen, with a Chinese of barely ten years old-him...She had insisted to take that picture before the operation against Unit 731, to try to cheer him a bit...Like the others times, it was quite disturbing for the officer. Saying that this Russian had some ressemblance with Tatso was an understatement...


	4. Chapter Four : Annah

**January 1945, Eastern Prussia...**

The Third Bielorussian Front attack, a part of the huge winter offensive launched by the Red Army earlier this month, had been quite devastating ; the front lines had been completly smashed by a relentless artillery barrage. Several armoured spearheads had already made breakthroughts in Nazis positions, and were currently seeding panic behind the lines...

One such small unit, mostly made out of four T-34/85, backed by an handful of trucks for carrying support infantry and supplies, was currently stationned in a pine wood, much deeper in German territory than most Soviet detachement. They were almost in the outskirts of one of the last stronghold before Berlin-Koenisberg, the craddle of Prussian militarism...That craddle was going to turn into a tomb very soon...Their main task (and of all others Soviet units sent foward the infantry) was to recon for the bulk of the Front the target, and disrupt the retreat of the Wermacht as best as they could. They had left in their wake quite a score of destroyed vehicles and outposts...The morale among the crews was sky-high ; after years of disasters, victory was now a question of months, maybe weeks. This was an elite unit, who had an impressive share of battle experience. Some soldiers and technicians had been at Stalingrad ; they had fought the Nazis and their various vassals from the Volga to the Elbe...Two years of constant battles in what was probably the most bloody conflict in Human history had provided them-at the cost of a stagerring attrition rate-the training they lacked badly at first...However, like for most of the Red Army, first-hand, this unit looked somewhat...undisciplined...For instance, in addition to the standard complete lack of uniformity in the...uniform...(which was quite ironic...), the camp, altought very well camouflaged for avoid detection, was more than a bit crude, even for a temporary installation. The commander of the unit was, for an rather obvious reason, not exactly paternalist with the soldiers and technicians, and did not enforced at all the various rules about protocol-how the soldiers should adress their superiors, and so on...All this did not prevented the unit from being extremly efficient when on battle...

One of the few tents that the unit had avaiable, installed under a camouflage net, was used by the commander-who was in fact a mere capitain, the only commissioned officer for the whole detachement...The place was more than a bit spartan, but it was an huge improvement over sleeping in the Prussian snow, which was quite deep this year. The rest of the Russian force was either on sentry, maintaining their gear, or sleeping in the others tents, in the tanks or at the back of the trucks. This was only for a few hours ; as soon as everyone had got the badly needeed two or three hours of sleep, the detachement would continue it's progression... Another thing showing the easy attitude of the capitain about the external signs of discipline was the fact the the two soldiers having sentry duty near the tent, theorically supposed to be battle ready, were playing a checkers game (the capitain had-logically-thought that the real sentries were more needed on the perimeter than at the core of the camp...)

"Hey", said a sergent from the tank corps coming next to them, "is the capitain asleep ?"

"Don't think so", replied one sentry without lefting his eyes from the checkers-he was not actually listening to the question and it was only one minute later than he realized that no, the Capitain was not sleeping, but was doing something else-as the sergent was seeing now-

"Capitain Sovorov, we are getting low on our stock of AP ammu-I'M SORRY ! I'M LEA-"

From the inside of the tent, there was a lot of indistinct noise, that was coming with the voice of the sergent who was frantically trying to apologize-apparently, without much success...

"Apparently, he again met the capitain at the wrong moment...I will always wonder if this actually worth the risk", said jokingly one of the sentry..."It's a real killing sight, hmn-"

The other sentry was about to reply something, when both the capitain and the sergent exited the tent-the sergent with, which was not very surprising, the red mark of a slap in the face...The capitain, Annah Sovorov, was not looking to be much angered (well, it was very relative way of speaking..) to have been interrupted while she was bathing-or to take a more realist term, washing herself the best she could with hot water...She had not dressed up fully, and both sentries concentrated on looking on the checker board, as if the Capitain thought they were peeking, they were good to for the slap too...This was one of the few side-effects of having Annah Sovorov, one of the best small tank unit commander in the whole Red Army, for officer. The advantages were far superior to the disadvantages, however...Like the last minutes had showed it, Annah had a very short temper, but she also genunely cared for the lives of her soldiers...As a results, she was adored by her subordinates-who were ready to do for her much more than for "common type" officer, who sent their soldiers dying...

"Capitain, I assure you", said the sergent, "I saw nothing-and this was an accident-"

"Yeah, yeah, you all say that, but froze completly when you see me. You go blind at while ? I warn you ! The next time someone come while I'm changing myself, I will (here followed a lot of colored curses in Russian, showing that the capitain had a lot of creative ideas of what she could do...) Get away from here, and send me Vassili-I will check that matter of ammo !"

The sergent left in quite in an hurry, quite glad to get out of this mess so lightly...

"I think the Capitain is worried, honestly", said one sentry..."She is not in her usual mood..."

"Yeah, her insults were not as agressive as usual", replied the other. "She only threatened him two times about execution, and three times about sent him to disciplinary batallions (In all the case, those were just that-mere threats. Since she received her command, Annah had never done a similar thing to one of her soldiers-especially for what remained a trivial matter...)

"I'm serious. You know what I mean. It's her orderly...It's getting worse, not better"

Officially, the orderly of Annah was another Russian girl, who was around eighteen (still officially...), Natalya. She was currently in the tent. Everyone that had ever looked to Natalya, even from away, know that her official role was a lie...Annah had tried to deflect suspicion by letting rumors spreads that Natalya was a parent of her, that she had took under her wing because of her limited capacities, or similar things. To this point, she had succeeded in not raising too much attention-but, even there, there was wild suppositions about Natalya...

When she saw her, Annah anger over the sergent quickly vanished. This was much more serious...Natalya, as most of the time, was staring most or less blankly. There was an hint of a movement when she saw Annah-and that was all...No real reaction...Even less speaking...

"Natalya...come on, say something...Please...You cannot stay that way forever (no answer...) I'm going to give you some tea...I have to leave, I need to speak with someone.."

It's only from very close that someone could have seen that there was something _quite _wrong in the whole scene. Natalya was handcuffed...Not because she could pose a threat to anyone in the unit...the threat she posed was to herself. In the past two months, she had attempted twenty time to kill herself-and this was only the attempts they knew, or the ones that have almost "succeeded"...Natalya's mental health was...wrecked, to say the least. She accepted the presence of Annah, of some others soldiers who had been with Annah when they had..."found" her, and...that was all. She was prone to extrem reactions in the presence of anyone else. Before the offensive, Annah had sent Natalya to a field hospital for evaluation -two suicide attempts in less than a day...They had then kept her within the unit. Natalya was not making a lot of problems by herself-it's just that her current state was taking quite a strain on the Capitain, who was devastated to see what had become one her best friend...

There was still bandages on her wrists, as a consquence of the latest attempt, who had occured only some hours ago. This was why Annah was trying to wash herself and her clothes-even if the timing could hardly have been worse...They had left Natalya alone at the back of one of the trucks, under the far watch of an handful of sentries (much more there for guarding the trucks and the supplies...) while striking an Wermacht command post-total success for this operation...But when they had come back, they had found Natalya in a pool of blood-she had cut her wrists with a razor blade. And when Annah had tried to stop the bloodloss...she would remember it for years. Natalya, seriously weakened by the hemorragy, had tried feebly to push her away...splashing her blood all over Annah, on her face, forearms, clothes...After her wrists had been bandaged, Natalya had tried, desperatly, to tear up the bandages-it's why they had to handcuff her, just for the time to her to calm down-those suicidar attempts were coming in, how to say, crisis...After those crisis, Natalya would return to an more neutral state, until the next attempt...Everyone knew how this was going to end : Natalya was going to not "miss" herself sooner or later-the attempts were growing more and more violents...

Natalya was visibly pleased by the tea...she looked calmed. After an hesitation, Annah freed her hands, hoping that she was not going to regret it...No...Natalya just smiled. Heartwarming.

The actual orderly of Annah, Vassili, a man who had been in her own tank crew since Stalingrad, came, both to answer her summon...and to warn her of a potential trouble.

"Capitain ! Our sentries have reported that someone is coming next to us...And...I think you must come, at once, to see the situation yourself-it's more than slightly puzzling."

Annah sighed, and come out of the tent, following her oderly. It was probably not the ennemy-Vassili had mentionned _someone_, and usually, soldiers were not coming alone...Maybe a civilian ? But why the heck Vassili had used the word "puzzling" ?

The layout of the area was quite simple. The pine wood they were in was traversed by a road, connecting the Koenisberg area with the current battle lines. This was not an heavily settled area-there was only one major feature, dubbed Objective 342-merely just another potential command post/lab/depot detected by air recon that needed closer inverstigation. It was laying just outside the woods, and Annah was planning to pay to the place a little visit as soon as possible...In fact, she had even sent scouts evaluating the defense, by an indirect way, some hours ago. The thing was, anyone going to the front (which was easy to locate : the thunder of Soviet artillery was a tell-tale sign) from this fortress-an evaded POW, a downed Allied pilot, a desertor-was going to pass throught the area...This could prove very interesting...

"The foward sentry team saw her ten minutes ago...she is coming straight here..."

Vassili handed her binoculars, and pointed her a point in the darkness beyond the camp...

Like the sentries, Annah was astonished when she saw the newcomer. A young girl, eyes half-closed, who was only wearing a shirt, was slowly walking toward them, holding something.

" ! What the ? What she is doing here ? (Annah wondered at once if this could be somewhat that had evaded from one of those hellish Nazis camps. Maybe...But the way she was walking toward them...it was not normal. Not the fact that she was walking slowly-this could be explained by malnutrition or a similar thing...it was rather the way she kept her head down...)

It was not hard to see how the girl had found them. Tanks and trucks are not exactly easy to hide in a makeshift way. Their camouflage was aimed at protecting them from air reconnaisance-but at ground level, it was extremly obvious that they were there...

"All right. We will be cautious...This is way too strange...Cautious but _no actual fire..."_

Two 80 mms guns from the T-34s turrets swiveled to be pointed toward the newcomer, a quite clear message of intimidation. The girl did not even flinch. She continued to walk..Either she was genuinely not caring about what could happen to her, or completly fearless/insane. The girl was now just next to them-Annah decided to not press the matter"

"Let her come here...She certainly does not look very threatening to us, hey ?"

"Hey, we don't know-she may be a Nazi spy..a bait, for gather info on our strenght"

This sentence was quite rude, but served a double purpose. First, it showed that the girl had a least a minimal knowledge of Russian, since she stopped to walk It's also showed that she was really disturbed by this mere assumption, as her eyes literally flared with anger. The said anger receded quickly when the soldier that had said that had an accident-he slipped and hit the ground. This was more funny than anything else-with all that snow, his injuries were minimal. In fact, it was comic relief, and it was not only on the lips of the girl that there was a hint of smile...That the soldier that had collapsed was not amused was comprehensible...that he was _frightened _was more strange-and everything had happened too fast for anyone to notice that the girl smile had appeared as the soldier was falling, not after...

But, however, since the soldier fall, everyone, just by sheer reflex, had grabbed weapons and was pointing them in the direction of the only potential threat-the newcomer, before laughing.

Sarah lifted her head, and watched the soldiers. If they started to fire on her...

Annah knew that the situation was a bit tense. If someone got nervous and fired a weapon, there was going to be a totally unecessary bloodshed (This was certainly true. The only detail was that the bloodshed was not going to be on the side that Annah thought...)

"Weapons DOWN ! Everyone, and right now ! AND NO ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING ! "

There was some hesitation, but some unspeakable insults later, everyone had lowered weapons. The girl continued to walk...Was she merely wanting to pass throught the area ?

No...she came just next to Annah-it was obvious, by her orders, that she was in charge here...

The girl spoke Russian, indeed, but it was not very good-it was typically schoolbook.

"I think I have something that could interest you", she merely said at the attention of Annah, while she was handing her an handful of papers, the thing she had been holding in her hands...

Annah glanced at the papers, that Sarah had found on the body of the general. It was data about the genuine Nazi force deployment in the area-and saying it would interest the Headquarters was an understatement. If this was indeed a trap, it was certainly the most straightfoward one that Annah had saw in her career (honestly, a somewhat short one : she was only twenty-one). But still, this trap would be very crude, even by Nazi standards...

"Err...how did you find _that _? Or rather..._where _did you find that ? At the fortress ?"

"You know about it ? (Sarah realized that this must have been like for the bombers...They knew just the location) Yes...I was there...I just thought that those documents I found would be useful for you...I'm not asking for anything...just take them, and let me pass..."

Sarah was trying to convince herself that she was doing that for help the Russians. But she knew deep down that it was just because that would result in a lot more of Nazis dead...And she was not asking permission to the Russians ; she was going to pass anyway. The difference was wether they would be alive or not...If they don't want that document, or asked too many questions...fine, she would find another unit. That one was just the first one she saw...

"Oh, it _is _going to be useful, very useful even...It's just that it's surprising that you _found _them" said in a unesasy voice Annah, while handing the papers to Vassili. "Would you...talk...with me, please, about them ? " (Annah never knew that what saved her and the whole unit from death was her polite formulation of the phrase-_talk with me _instead of _I will question you..._Almost no one had talked to Sarah in three years-unless you consider the times she was interrogated under torture-and it had affected her deeply, like the way she had deal with the SS officer at the fortress had showed it quite clearly...Sarah simply accepted...)

"Well, we will not stay here, hey ? Come with me...You can't continue like that (Annah was making reference to both the fact that they were in the middle of a war-zone and that a shirt was not adequate clothing for this time of the year-not to mention decency...)

"Capitain, we did not even searched her", started to say one tankist-who was quickly stopped by the Eye of the Death (the name her soldiers had given jokingly to Annah's typical menacing eyes when they said or did something that displeased her, like this suggestion)

"Do you _really _thing she had a weapon hidden on her ? And don't say you did not looked !

Annah considered first to question her in her "headquarters" (fancy name for her tent...) but with Natalya already there, this would be bad...There was still the "medical ward" (another fancy name for the back of a truck kept clean for the wounded...) that was empty..Better than nothing. Before going there, Annah had a final order to give, concerning their guest...

"Vassili, go find her some clothes-she is going to freeze alive by this weather..."

It wa indeed s very cold...but it was not the weather that was making Annah herself shiver...It was the state of this poor girl. There was numerous marks on her body, and there was an awful amount of blood on her (and a good part was a result of the months of experiences...not of her escape...) The most striking thing about her was her lack of expression-or rather the fact that the little there was was focused in the eyes. Eyes that had quite an epxression, that was actually scaring Annah. The Soviet officer turned yet more white when she noticed that the girl had two horrible wounds on the side of her head, around her temporal bones...Annah was too shocked to notice that those wounds were perfectly symetrical, which was a bit unusual...

"Oh ! How those wounds...how did you get them ? You really need medical treatment-"

Sarah replied nothing, recalling what she had done, when she realized that her horns would be a problem...That had been really painful, but she had no choice.. She had took and handgun, and...The worst thing had been the tentation, when her finger was on the trigger, to just shoot herself and end it...The main problem was, however, that she was half-deaf now, because of the detonations-which make her look even more...detached. Moreover, the horns were bound to grow back quickly-but she would look more normal for at least some weeks...

Sarah did not even bothered to answer...She was barely caring about those injuries now...She had suffered so much-and not just in her body-that for her, this was a mere scratch...

"Okay", began Annah..."First, judging by some of the words you used...you are Czech, no ? (Sarah had fumbled with the Russian she had learned in books, and had used some Czech words. Annah spoke a little this language...She showed it by switching to Czech) I think I will use this language-it's going to be easier for you.. (Easier for her and for Annah, who would not have to cope with distorsions made by a double translation). And what is your name ?"

"...It was...it's...Sarah And, yes, I'm from Czekoslovakia-from Praha, more exactly.

The fact that Sarah had started by using the past tense was not a mere error..During years, she had been denied Human status, both because of her origins and later of her capacities. Asking if the Nazis had bothered to even call her by her real name was a stupid question...

"Oh. I'm sorry..." (Annah did not add anything. Sarah...This name alone explained a lot of things...) "This...must have been terrible for you...All that propaganda...all that hate..."

This started an extremly painful memory, who was-making Sarah suffer a lot more than during the worse torture sceance...When she had to explain the...situation...to Myriam...How it have been painful, for her poor little sister, to realize that all those abominables lies the Nazis and their servants were saying, basically day and night, in the press, at the radio, on the walls of Praha, were talking in fact about her, about Sarah...Myriam had cried for hours...

"You are sorry that I'm still alive, or something like that ? ", she finally replied angrily.

"Of course not ! (Annag cursed herself...What a bad way to start talking with someone...) I...understood what you must be feeling...all of us here are in the same situation..."

If they remained strickly on the _Human _point of view-a thing that Sarah wanted with desperation-Annah was probably somewhat right on that point..The unspeakable racism of the Nazis was not only directed against Sarah's people. It was directed against every single human on this world-and the Soviet Union had a first-class experience of it over the past years...So, yes, probably the Soviet officer could understand the hatred Sarah had against the Nazis…But Annah could not guess-no one could, even Sarah herself…-how much the death of her sister had affected Sarah…And the Nazis were going to pay for her. Dearly.

"I want to kill them...Every one that I will see...Until there is no one left alive..."

The comment did not shocked, at all, Annah, who had often exactly the same thoughts-And was also very serious about it. The difference was that Annah knew very well that this would not happen...while Sarah was fully able-and willing- to do that, given some time...

"As I said, I feel like you...If someday, I lacked motivation for going on….I would just need to look at what they had done…" (Sarah took this comment as a quite general declaration….While in fact, if Annah was of course making reference to all the atrocities committed in Russia, she was also thinking to something much more specific-and honestly, quite minor compared to things like the Siege of Leningrad, the deportation for slave-working in Germany, or the way Soviet POWs were treated-and still, it was just some _example-_she was also speaking about something much more personnal ; the fate of Natalya...)

Sarah replied nothing...After a while, Annah sighed and decided to resume the conversation.

"What are you going to now ? Do you have still have some family ?

"Cut the chit-chat, and ask the real questions...I'm not in a mood for that...(A pause) And for your information, I'm alone...completly alone. I just want to go back to Praha..."

Annah hesitated for a while about asking _why, _in this case, Sarah was wanting to go to Praha, but decided against it-the girl was visibly annoyed by those kind of questions...Anyway, this would have been just curiosity-and it was _obvious _that the subjet was hurting Sarah...

"Well, I... I'm sorry to ask that to you...but what did they did on you ? "

Of all the questions, _this _was the worst to ask, and...Annah knew it. She had thought that it might help Sarah to talk about it (which was maybe true in some cases...but not in her...)

"This is really, really not your business'', replied Sarah, dangerously close to lose control.

"Okay, very well. Details are not necessary...It's...it's somewhat _obvious, _you know..."

Sarah heart sank for a moment, thinking that the Russian had noticed about her...nature...then realized that when someone saw an half-naked girl (more than half in her case...), wounded, in deep shock, very hostile to any contact, there was certainly an simpe and rationnal hypothesis that could come to the mind...The worse thing...was that this was not completly false.

"Just tell me how you get the files, then...You are right, better stick on the subject..."

Sarah proceeded to describe quickly, without much detail, the layout of the fortress, merely mentionning the labs (she did not wanted to remember about them...And Annah, at the second she mentionned the word labs, had an extremly bad feeling...There had been alreay rumors in the Red Army about some experiences performed by the Nazis and their Japanese allies...Rumors that were true, she was sure of it-she had _seen _some installations...)

"There was a bomber raid", continued Sarah..."Bombs hit the electrical installation...There was a lot of confusion...I took the files on the body of the SS general commanding the place...and left...When I exited the place, they were all dead...and they had desserved it..."

(Sarah was well aware that this story would not hold for long, especially when they will chek the bodies, and see how they had died...But what else she could said, to explain her evasion ?)

"...I see", replied in a neutral tone Annah, who was finding the story quite strange...At this point, she was almost sure that, altought the girl was sincere-a Nazi agent would have prepared a better story-she was the part of a deception operation...Maybe a trap to lure a Soviet unit near that fortress ? However, Sarah next anser changed completly her opinion...

"Could you identify any of the high-level personnel that was there ? (Annah was not asking this question in the hopes that Goebbels, Borman or the like had been there-chances of that were quite slight-but rather for seeing icoould put _names _on SS officers and generals...)

"No...and it's not because I don't want to...There was officers, both Wermacht and SS, several scientists-only one of them was not there during the raid...It was a Japanese men...among the worse of them...(the Nazis scientists were monsters...but there was something..._different..._about Kakuzawa. As worse as them...but in a different way, for a reason she could not put her finger on...)...I think his name was Kakuzawa..."

Annah remained perfectly calm, but her attention was raised to-almost-the same level than if Sarah had said to her that the High Command of the Wermacht was holding a staff meeting at the fortress..._Kakuzawa _? (Well, of course, this could be another Kakuzawa-that name was maybe pretty common in Japan...But a Kakuzawa doing ressearch for the Reich ? No...)

"It's...very interesting, what you said ", replied evasively Annah, her mind focused on the potential presence of Kakuzawa in the area... (Vassili finally brought what he had found for clothes-a standard tankist uniform, decently clean. Annah used the interruption) But it's obvious that you are a bit tired...Why not rest here a little, hmm ? (Annah checked in the supplies, and handed Sarah a small military-type bag.) There ! ..take that...you are needing it...

If you are asked about ID, or something like that, by one of us...(Did Annah was meaning : from the camp, or for the whole Red Army ? It was not very clear...) just hand him this, and things should settle (she scribbed something on a paper, and gave her...Then, she left...)

After changing herself-that clothing was certainly an improvement over her previous one-Sarah did look at the package Annah had gave her. It was Red Army gear-some food (quite bad, but that was not really important...), some low-scale maps of the area, blanket, things like that...The only thing that was lacking were weapons, but Sarah did not really needed them, for obvious reasons...The piece of paper Annah had handed her was, from what she understood of the hastily sribbed Russian, a kind of _laisser-passer, _stating that she was a partisan recruited by Annah, in circumstances that were left quite vague (with the stagerring under-administration of the Red Army compared to most of the modern armed forces, this piece of paper was as good as genuine identity documents. And moreover, there was a detail that Sarah was not aware-that Annah was quite liked in the whole Third Front, and that with this paper, it was likely that Sarah would be seen with a certain goodwill by most officers)...

Outside, Annah and Vassili were discussing the situation...Annah had told to Vassili what Sarah had said-merely mentioning the gaping holes that were in her story...

"What we should do with her, Capitain ? She obviously did not told us all..."

"What do you think, honestly ? She is on our side, after all, and gave us extremly valuable info. The situation will be very soon stabilized on the front-it's a question of days before the bulk of the Third reach this position...She can stay with us until that moment-it's not going to be "safe", far from it, but it's better than nothing. After well, she will do what she want..."

"But she said she want to go to Praha...It's still under Nazi control...She will never made it. "

"This points worry me too...(Annah remembered how Sarah had looked when she had said that she was going to kill each Nazi crossing her path...Sarah had been deadly serious-it was not a boast...However, it was certain that, unless a miracle, she would be killed quite fast...) I will try to reason her as soon as possible. But now...this would be useless. She is in shock..."

"Yes...But, capitain, we should warn her to...how to say...prepare a more solid story...

The issue that Vassili was trying to raise was that the NVKD, the Intelligence, was likely to have a certain interests in asking question to Sarah, about the fortress and those documents. And with the NVKD, you knew when the matters started...never when they ended...

"Oh, I think the matter will settle himself...You will see soon what I mean...(She changed of subject...) I'm quite eager now to see the report of the scouts we sent at this fortress...

Meanwhile, Sarah, still in the "medical ward", was trying to sleep a little...Compared to the conditions at the camp-and the ones at the fortress, where the only sleep she got was when they sedated her-it was an huge improvement. Yet, she had trouble to slip away. Her mind was too worried...She, in the last few minutes, had realized how...an Hell the rest of her life was going to be...Since she had surrendered to that voice within her, she had scrapped all her chances to have an normal life in society (altough, to be honest, it was that or no life at all...) The Soviets, with the exception of the capitain, had been somewhat rough, but it was really nothing compared to what the Nazis had done to her-it was a relative coldness due to caution compared to unspeakable torture...In this case...why she had to constantly fight impulses to kill every single one of them-which she could do in an eyeblink ? The worse part had been with that Annah. She was obviously well-meaning, and even kind with her, to a certain point. But it was because she was having pity for Sarah. In normal circumstances, being the subject of such a feeling was often ackward...It was the case for Sarah too...and had a couple of time during the short interview, she had came very close of losing control, and making Annah shut up, because of the painful memories trigerred by her questions-make her shut up, of couse, in a very definitive way...She had to rationnalize, to say that this woman knew nothing of her situation, and so on, to kept herself for slaughtering her at once...If she reacted this way to someone showing goodwill toward her, this was a bad sign about her future interactions...

_((You cannot do anything. This world...is not for you..The thing is...you change it...))_

Sarah tried to not think to much to what her inner voice was saying. She had others things to do...Mostly, avenge herself and Myriam. By killing everyone that was responsable of their capture and the death of her sister-a very broad category of individuals, according to her...But when this would have been done...What she was going to do ? She had mentionned Praha, because the Human part of her wanted to see what was left of her earlier life...But it was a delusion...she had somewhat happy memories of Praha, but not because of the city-because of Myriam...She had...nothing, at Praha. No one awaited her return...Even the ones that had sent her and Myriam to their deaths probably did not even remembered her existence-for them, they were not really humans beings...If she was still with Myriam, Sarah would had done everything to try to give her a normal life-this would have helped her to resist to the insinuations of that voice. A world for her would not have been a world for her Human sister.

Not worried at all about the possibility of a betrayal-not because she trusted the Soviets, far from it, but because if they were foolish enough to try something like that, they would be death within the minute, Sarah finally managed to get some sleep...for a quite short while...

.Sarah had been probably sleeping for an hour, when she was awakened by a nearby presence...Hardly startled, Sarah rose slowly, ready to unleash her Vectors on anything nearby-she stopped very quickly when she saw who was there...An other female Human-Natalya-had climbed in the truck, and was watching her..Natalya had heard about the arrival of Sarah, and this had raised her interest. She was maybe in a troubled mental state, but she was not dumb-Natalya had not the slighest trouble to slip unnoticed in the camp-the fact that the soldiers were somewhat used to see her wander aimlessly was helping her a lot...

Natalya looked a while at Sarah, who was not knowing what to do about her...It seemed that the girl was acting simply out of curiosity-a trait that was at odd with her fear of newcomers, which showcased quite clearly that her mind was more than a little troubled...As Sarah was not moving, the whole scene could have lasted for a while, if Natalya had not noticed the wounds on her head. She took a very surprised look, and instinctively tried to touch the general area of the left wound...Sarah did not do anything too harsh. She just used her Vectors to stop the hand of Natalya from touching her-just self defense in front of someone who was visibly not on her right mind...It was not violent too-all that Natalya should have felt was a slight push on her hands (she had hit the soldier that had accused her of being a Nazi with much more strenght, and the long term conscequences on him had been pretty small-short of the fact that he was going to ask himself, for years, what the heck had hitted him...) But the things did not go as planned. The eyes of the Russian girl grew wide, and she looked suddenly very, very panicked. Tears quikly began to run on her cheeks, as Sarah tried to calm her down-without much success...Her social skills had always been quite bad-the way her life was before her arrestation was certainly a reason...Of course, her stay at Ravensbruck and at the fortress (and also her inner voice...) had not exactly helped her sociability to improve...Natalya did not scream, did not try to defend herself-she just cried, and backed herself as far as possible from Sarah-which means, with all that space in the truck...something like some meters at the very best. Really, a surreal scene...Sarah stopped talking, noticing that this was not having any effect on Natalya. When Natalya realized that Sarah was doing nothing, she calmed down somewhat, and clamb back clumsily to her feet. Still crying, she left, leaving a somewhat dazzled Sarah. Why she had this reaction ? Almost like...

Sarah had not much time to think about it. As she was trying to return to sleep, she heard that the Soviets were discussing about something. When she heard what the conversation was about, she realized that it was already time for leave...With that and what had happened to the other girl-even if she was not talking-they were certainly be questionning her story soon...

Annah was discussing with the tanks crews about the next operation, when Vassili had to interrupt her...It's looked like their "tongue" had told the truth...but only a part of it...

"Capitain ! The foward scouts had just returned from the recon of the position...and...it's seems that there is something quite wrong there. You need to see it with your own eyes"

Annah saw that next to Vassili there was indeed two of their scouts, who were both livid.

"Capitain, said wealky one of them, a battle-hardened veteran, we reached the target...Good new : resistance is inexistant. The place is completly empty. Allied bombers paid up a visit ...(Cheers from the soldiers) There is no one left alive (Yet more cheers) All...all dead..."

"Ah, Vassili, you see ? It's like she said ! Well, is there something left ? Data, documents..."

"We...we don't know, capitain...It's hard to say...we...err...did not looked for that..."

"(Sigh from Annah). You know, I am somewhat comprehensive about looting-but, frankly, it was really not the thime ! You were there for grabbing info, not watches or things like that !"

"Oh...we were not thinking about that, capitain. Oh no...The state of the corpses...(The scout tried to focus his ideas)...It's certainly not the bombing run that killed those Nazis..."

Annah struggled for remain calm. If this was what she think...it would be both horrible to seee and an indiscutable proof of the involvement of Kakuzawa in this affair.

"I'm definitely going to see that myself...You are probably exagerating a little.."

When, less than half-hour later, Annah, Vassili and some soldiers, including the scouts, arrived at the fortress with a tank and two trucks, the capitain immediatly understood that the recon group have not exagerated...at all. The first thing she saw was around twenty soldiers of the Wermacht, most of them still with weapons in hand, litteraly hacked appart-heads and limbs detached...in the best cases...Farther in the coutryard, there was a section of SS guards-who had all died in spectacular ways. The worst case was about the lieutenant of the unit...Since the Invasion, Annah had seen a lot of horrible things-the Nazis had done abominable acts in Russia and in East Europe...And for a Soviet soldier, seeing dead ennemy soldiers was a perfectly normal thing. Still, bodies in that state, it was _really _shocking...The terms bodies was not even adequate. Some of them were...were like assorted parts. Like most of her soldiers, Annah had trouble to control her stomach for the minutes following her arrival. To the point that she had to go find quickly a dark corner to...ahem...

"Well", she said, still dizzy, after returning..."someone have an idea how this happened ? "

"The first thing to do", replied Vassili as calmly as he could (thought he was somewhat shocked too), "would be to determine the exact cause of death-especially, were they hacked this way alive, or death, but unfortunately we don't have the skills or gear for that..."

"Hey, I'm doing what I can", said in protest one soldier, who had basic medical training, and had been charged of that (rather dreadful...) task... "But how I'm suppose to determine how they died with such remains ? I can just say that by their faces, they have seen it coming..."

"It's not exactly an medical opinion", sighed Annah, "...but I guess it's a valuable one..."

"I suggest we signal the place for the specialized forensic teams-altought, even with this cold weather, there is not going to be much thing left for autopsy when they will arrive..."

Things were even uglier underground. Some action-delayed bombs had been used by the RAF, and have blowed up well after the bombing run, adding further devastation. And to top that, fires were starting everywhere. There was not really reasons to remain there for more than a few minutes. Altought this was useful for confirming the story Sarah had told them.

"The place really present the configuration she mentionned...Cell blocks...labs...(some of the equipment in the labs was bound to give her nightmare for years to come,...)...she had been actually there, it's sure...So, I guess most of her story is true..And those dead...they...

Those corpses...these trigerred somethin within Annah memories...From six years ago.This was _definitely _the mark of Kakuzawa...And if he was doing things in the line of the ones he was making at Harbin...That poor girl must have suffered to an unbelievable level...

"We...Capitain, we have to question that girl, as soon as we are back. It's _impossible _that she does not know something about how this happened...I don't say she is responsable, but-"

Annah was not really listening...she had found something very, very interesting. Beneath the body of the operator in the communication room (this individual had apparently somehow-an effect of the bombing, maybe ?-smashed is face into his gear-and the results were quite awful...) there was a fragment of a message. She read it aloud, for the benefit of Vassili and the others, translating from German to Russian and adding sarcastical comments...

"_...be provided for escort. The evacuation aircraft, for top technicians, scienticial staff and the project itself_ _will be sent at _(another of those long Germans names for forgotten places...) _within 24 hours...Proceed with all speed for the evacuation, as there is some reports of Soviet elements in the area, due to a slight disruption of the front that may cause for the moment some doubt among the politically dubious soldiers _(traduction : everyone that still have a brain, and was not a fanatized fool...) _about the final outcome of the war... _(Everyone laughed when they heard this euphemism for _the Red Army had completly destroyed the front, and we are doomed !_) The rest is standard hardcore Nazi stuff-the Leader have a secret plan to smash us with reserve divisions (They must be running out of little flags at the OKH, with all those inexistant divisions that they pretend to throw at us...), in fact we are not here, but still around Warsaw (in this case, why they are evacuating the place ?), and so on...I guess they will say that they may not win the war, after all, when will be in the streets of Berlin...Signed by Reichfhurer SS Hein-!" (Annah stopped when she saw the name. With pure rage, she shredded the paper to tiny pieces. If only she could do the same thing to the author...Or even better, to his Leader. Well, on the other hand, she had on her hands the possibility to seriously disrupt one of their plans, while sticking to her orders...All this with a strong possibility of going against Kakuzawa ! Really, it was killing three birds with a single stone...)

Annah was midly worried about one thing. The escort. The strenght and composition of that force was lacking. At that time of total disaster for the Nazis, any escort they couls muster was _probably _not completly outclassing them...still, she had a bad feeling about this...

"This place is only some dozens of kilometers away. Everyone ! We are moving back at the camp...and leaving for this rendez-vous point. Contact the STAVKA, and ask for confirmation...but leave before we receive any answer (typical manoeuver of Annah : warn the High Command just enough to not be blamed...and not enough to be stopped by it...)

As the group was leaving the fortress, Vassili insisted one more time with the idea of reconsidering the role of Sarah into this affair. Annah was trying to avoid the subject, but she finally sighed and answered...She too, was beginning to have some doubts on the matter...

"I will be honest...I don't know what to think of her role in this...I really don't see how she can be related to those events-maybe she just saw something occuring, which would explain her somewhat shocked state ? I will definitely ask her _as soon as I see her back."_

Vassili did not noticed that the sentence had a possible double meaning...

When the tank and the trucks reached the camp, somebody came to speak with Annah.

-Capitain...the girl...she left ! The sentries were busy...they did not see her going away...

-What a surprise, said Annah, looking threateningly to the two sentries that were in charge of the ward (Vassili noticed quickly that, like many times, her anger was a bit...played)

They told her a wild story about tree branches that had suddenly fall on them-it's looked a _lot _like they had drunk while on duty, and Annah expressed herself very clearly on the matter...

" Capitain, said in a low voice Vassili, I'm surprised you left for watching over her two obviously drunk soldiers...Just two guards too...I find that a bit strange, I must say..."

"Are you trying to insinuate that I made things easier for her if she wanted to leave ? I'm ashamed of this assumption, said in a mocking tone Annah...(Lower) It's exactly that...If she remained with us...she was in for a lot of questions from the Intelligence, the SMERSH, the NVKD...I think she had enough suffering for her whole life. At least, now, she have clothes, map, food, and documents that will help her to pass our lines. Trust me : Kakuzawa is going to be _much _more interesting for our services...and I will not have moral doubts about him"


	5. Chapter Five : Natsume

**Some years ago, near Kamakura...**

"This is for her that I'm doing this...this is for her...this is for her...Not for them, not-"

Lucy's phrase, that she was mumbling at an almost inaudible level, was interrupted when a very nervous trooper bringed the butt of his riffle in her stomach, to make her shut up.

Lucy could not resist to smile-just a little-when she understood the train of thoughts of that trooper...Sorcery, withcraft...he thought her Vectors were commanded by something like that, that she needed to speak to use them...The scientific with this team, Kurama, had certainly not told all he knew about Lucy to the soldiers, and since even the most braindead ,"I-shoot-first-I-ask-questions-later" soldier type would have doubts about the "murderer" part when seeing that the target was barely twelve years old, he had probably to use pretty far-fetched explanations...That little hint of sarcasm was quickly overwhelmed by sorrow when Lucy thought to another person that had thought that she was using magic-Lucy had used her Vectors to try to please her, to make her laugh...And Lucy had, in the following minutes the definite proof that it was indeed very hard to use her faculties for anything else than murder...

She was so worried about the fate of her friend that she barely noticed that one of the soldier had slapped her, because of her smile. He had thought that Lucy was laughing of him. Even model guards usually don't like that prisonners mock them, and those ones were everything but model guards...

They were nothing more than a bunch of sadists-and any Human girl would have been quite nervous about some of their glances...Lucy had overheard her share of cruel sentences, such as "Without those (censored) horns, she would be really a...(the rest was rather obvious)", or "What a waste to send her to this (what followed was really not a good sign about the place they were sending her to) before (one more time, rather obvious, and said in an extremly crude way-and of course, without the slighest consideration for Lucy opinion on the matter...)"...One had asked to Kurama-of course, fully within Lucy hearing range-if they could "amuse" themselves with her, and Kurama had only replied, after a while, that it was preferable that they did not, since it risked to "damage her" (opus citato...Lucy thought-quite rightly-that this was not really an good sign about Kurama's intentions toward her...Damage her...Like she was a thing...)

This quite mild warning (showing a total lack of concern for her, which was hardly surprising) had not prevented some troopers to exploit her-apparent-powerless state...They had grabbed her ''accidentaly''-in a very intentionnal way, of course-quite a number of time since her arrestation, to the point that her clothes were now in a rather tattered state...Lucy was feeling quite...dirty...for the contact of their hands on her-it had not been as worse as rape, but still, it was terribly humiliating, sickening, for her...

_((It's typical Human behaviour...Granted, Kouta was not like this with me. But he was an exception-and now, he is certainly, with some reasons, very hostile toward me...Why the heck I tried to live a normal life ? I can't atone for what I done, and my life just grow worse...))_

"Normal life" mostly means, for Lucy, not using her Vectors, and trying to resist to her inner voice. She had managed to do it for the past years-since Kanae, in fact. During the weeks following her flight from the orphanage, Lucy had killed without any mercy whole families-sometimes just because she was not supporting to see people having a decent life, sometimes because she needed a place to sleep or to take a shower-both reasons which were making a part of her scream in horror. Lucy never wanted to fall back to this level-even detention was probably preferable to be such a monster...If only Kouta had killed her, in the train, afther she had slain Kanae...she would not even have defended herself-and it would have been simply over. On the other hand, it's only a that point that she had realized that she _had _to resist, or at least try to resist, to her impulse...The fact that the life she had led in the seedy streets of Kamakura since that night would not have been judged normal by almost anyone was not important to her-it was an _Human _life, not the life that her inner voice suggested her to have -to be, according to what she had overhead Kurama saying to the guards, be a _Diclonius._

This night had a least a valuable result. She had learn what she was...Diclonius. And it was a safe bet that since there was a name to her condition, she was not the only one like this...Kurama had told her that there was not a place for her in the world-she was quite ready to accept that fact, as she had let, volontary or not, quite a bloody wake...Lucy life was tragic, but she brought tragedy too...If this was made quite clear with Kouta, it had been also obvious with Natsume ; Lucy was well aware that she had played a role in all those events-and not only the shooting proper. If she had not been there in the first place, Natsume would maybe never had the need to go hide into this warehouse...Could Lucy's soul be so dark that she dragged down to her level the people she meet, even if she had genuine good intentions ? With what had happened to Natsume, she certainly could ask this question... It was not true that, however, that Lucy could not atone, at all, for what she had done. She could do something, for at least compensate for a part for her past actions ; save the live of her friend.

_((Natsume...why you did that ? Either I could have deflected that bullet, or it would had hit me-and you would be right now in shock, but not in risk of dying...Instead you saved my worthless life...I'm repaying you the favor...I don't regret doing this...even if this is not enough to save you. I saw how Kurama and the other scientist _(Lucy would learn later that this quite depraved individual was the son of Kakuzawa) _reacted when you were evacuated...Almost hopeless. ALMOST. It's why I surrendered. Any chance to save you worth to be taken...I'm not a fool...I know I will never see you again, even if you survive.))_

This is only why Lucy had not killed those soldiers long ago, who among the charming characters traits that they had showcased earlier, were also complete cowards..They had gave her a serious beating immediatly after her arrestation (which was, technically, rather a perfectly willing surrender), no longer fearing her Vectors-or rather, still fearing them, but thinking that Lucy was not able to use them for some reason-for instance, the sedatives they had injected her...Kurama had only stopped them when this had began to be dangerous for Lucy's life. That man...Lucy had to obey him, for the sake of Natsume, but saying that she hated him was an understatement...And she was sure that the feeling was quite reciprocate...

Kurama, who was seated next to the helicopter cabin-Kakuzawa had found an excuse for getting onboard the second helicopter, since he did not wanted to be too close of Lucy until she was completly under their control-was watching Lucy struggle with herself with cold detachement...He was finding the situation very interesting, on a scientific viewpoint. Kurama was not caring a single bit for Lucy herself-they needed her body at the island, and that's all-she would turn completly insane within a few months, probably weeks, anway. But he wondered how it was possible that this Diclonius, who was even by the standards of her specy a ruthless killer, could accept to be imprisonned because of an Human girl ? Kurama had seen, at the facility, that some Diclonius could be tricked into trusting Humans, and genuinely trying to help them...It was not hard to understand why Number Seven was trusting him, for instance : he was basically the only person that had something that could ressemble as social interactions with her...

But Lucy had lived for years in Kamakura-and as her record showed off, her homocidal tendencies had really awakened...Maybe she had seen this girl as a potential Carrier ? (Kurama was not aware, at all, at the possibility that Lucy could have genuine feelings for this girl, that she really wanted to save her.. Diclonius could not co-exist peacefully with Humans, the events at the facility showing it very clearly. Usually, they "lost" two or three guards or technicians _by month. _Of course, Kurama and the others scientists never seriously considered the fact that the way the Numbers were treated was probably not helping their mental health, or improving the opinion they had about Humans...)

Kurama, since the death of his wife, had always been somewhat...detached. He did not really cared if Lucy killed him outright-this would prove that he was right...the only problem was that this would still delay the ressearchs for the vaccine, for which they needed Lucy...Understanding the capacities of the Diclonius was the first step for their elimination...

So, as long as they did not killed or seriously wounded her, the troopers could do what they want to her-altought Kurama was admitting mentally that there was _really _a problem with the moral quality of the facility security force. It served first as an test about the control Diclonius had on themselves...and second hand, Lucy desserved no better, in Kurama's opinion.

Anyway, this would be over soon. The pilot warned Kurama that they were almost arrived...

The transport helicopter was indeed on the final phase of it's approach toward an island base, just a few minutes of flight away from Kamakura. Lucy was not exactly eager to see how the place was looking-she had the feeling that it was going to be extremly depressing. And moreover, she could hardly do that. She was strapped, as tighly as possible, on the med-evacuation stretcher in the middle of the craft cargo hold. To see a little more than the metal above her required excruciating pain. And when she moved, the troopers often took the occasion for hit her a little more...As the craft was landing, Lucy however tried to got a look at her future residence. It was even worse than what she had thought...As soon as she had cooled down a little(mentally...) after her surrender, Lucy had realized that the ones that were after her were almost certainly not regular police forces that could have been sent for Natsume-her own murders were much more numerous than the purely accidental one commited by Natsume, but the police had never a clear lead toward her in those affairs...Regular police would not have gave conditions to help Natsume. And would probably have asked some questions before opening fire on twelve years old girls...Natsume had just been a "collateral damage"...Those soldiers were after her...For now, it was not really important to ask _why _: they would not answer...and she was going to know it quite soon...

Lucy saw clearly the lights coming from Kamakura, as they were unloading the stretcher from the cargo-hold...and this sight, from rather obvious reasons troubled her...So close...

She was rather eagerly awaited. Director Kakuzawa was in Tokyo, for a meeting with officials-but he would come back as soon as possible to see with his own eyes the "Queen"...All the facility was on full alert-for instance, just on the landing pad, it was crawling with Security forces..Kurama nodded when he saw Shirakawze among them...

Shirakawaze had a real soft side-her desk was filled, for instance, with photos of her various nephews and nieces-but she divided very clearly private life and work. This meant that she did not act like she felt there was a parallelism between the said nieces and the Diclonius held here-and was quite cold in the way she treated the later...In fact, this was not true...There was a kind of parallelism-Shirakawaze feigned, when it was needed, to have some feelings toward the "tests subjects". It was often quite cost-effective-Shirakawaze lying to a crippled Diclonius led to the vivisection room for termination, saying that they were going to operate her, that everything would be fine, could prevent a lot of "work accidents"...It was not that Shirakawaze was perfectly easy with what she was doing-she was finding it despicable, horrible-but _necessary _(Necessary is certainly one of the most terrible words in History...)

"Remember...If you resist, your friend is going to have an unfortunate medical complication"

Kurama said this matter of factly to Lucy, as he was giving orders and quickly explaining the situation to his colleague. Shirakawaze was also very intrigued, and was a bit dispointed when Kurama said to her later this night that he did not think that the girl would make it. Questionning her-in the real sense of the word, since she was Human-would have been very interesting...However, they had Lucy-and with her, the conception of the vaccine could finally start...Shirakawaze prefered to not consider what Kurama had said...Could he really gave orders to kill-or stop medical treatments, which would gave the same results-that Natsume if Lucy tried to resist ? On a logical point of view...no. This girl was a master card, in fact-it would be foolish to lose her...On the other hand, her existence was probably giving some focus, some motivation to Lucy...The death of Natsume would be a blow for Lucy's morale. Maybe it was better to just wait and see how the matter will settle itself...

"I...can walk, you know...I will not make any trouble-you know you have an hold on me."

Lucy had just said that...Shirakawaze sighed. Lucy was the oldest specimen that they had ever captured, and this was going to cause some problems-her extended stay in Human society had made sure that she would perceive quite fast any lie...And also, unlike the others, she knew very well what was happening to her-while Seven, for instance, found her stay here more or less acceptable...because it was normal for her ; it was the only life she had ever known...(This kind of view helped to make things easier for the scientitsts, who could say that this was the "life" that the Diclonius could hope to have...But it did not means, at all, that the Diclonius here were not suffering-it's just meant that they were fooled, deceived, too...)

Kurama did not replied anything, short of ordering the stretcher to be brought down to the underground labs, which was in fact an answer in itself. Lucy insisted with her demand-without pleading or threatening, merely asking. But Kurama was not going to let her have a favor, even a very slight one. It was enough that the special detention equipment was not ready right now, according to Shirakawaze..His colleaae was rather for accepting this simple request. As long as she was not "secured" (a neutral, administrative word for describe a much darker reality...But it had to be used, for the sanity of some of the personnel-the guards were not caring about euphemism-or for the good conscience of the officials that were covering their activities. After all, on a report, "detention at maximum security conditions" sounded a lot better than "caging her like an animal"-or rather, _worse _than an animal...) Lucy was going to pose a major security threat. Why risk to anger her-and have heavy personnel losses-on such a trivial issue as allowing her to walk ? Especially considering that she was going to be as dangerous walking than restrained on the stretcher...Finally, if Lucy tought that she could argue, discuss, negotiate with the scientists, this could make her accept the situation...until it was very too late for her to resist. She was going to realize, quite soon, that no matter what she did, her fate was no longer in her hands, at all..

She could not even kill herself : Diclonius apparently had a mental blockage about suicide (Suicide in the traditionnal sense of the word...Director Kakuzawa had warned Shirakawaze and Kurama about something else that the Diclonius could do when truly pushed to their limits. Years of torture and despair were apparently not enough to reach that level, since it never had happened here. A Diclonius could truly unleash her Vectors, for shredding everything around her, including her own body, at a very extended range...And the way Kakuzawa had described it had make everyone hearing him sure that he had some problems with mental health...)

Moreover, if Shirakawaze seemed to give to Lucy a favor, this could make the later think that she had a kind of ally, in the facility...This was not going to be the case. Sure, some scientists have a certain liking for individuals Diclonius-for instance, Kurama for Number Seven, herself for Number Twenty-Eight. But this was hardly the kind of feelings they would have for Humans-the fact that they still called them by their number was very significative. Sure, the scientifics genuinely tried, sometimes, to make those Diclonius avoid the most horrific experiences. But even a very lighty "softened" treatment at the facility was still harsh beyond words-both Number Seven and Number Twenty-Eight were still submitted to various "tests" on an almost daily basis...And Lucy, with her previous actions, would never attract the slighest sympathy.

Shirakawaze, after concerting with Kurama, ordered that Lucy was unrestrained, for the short traject between her cell and the landing pad-maybe five minutes, at the very best...Lucy was somewhat glad for that, since it's allowed blood to return to her extremities-it was mostly just for this that she had asked to walk. She did not planned to do anything "wild"-she just wanted to accept her fate with some dignity, by walking toward it rather than being dragged...

She was going to be heavily escorted-Shirakawaze, Kurama, and a full section of the best security troopers avaiable on the island, ready to fire. Kurama started to walk toward the main building, Lucy and the escort following. Quickly, the door closed behind her like a tomb...

An apprehension quickly started to build within her, as she was seeing the security measure protecting the facility-especialy of depth was the point she was being led too...

This uneasiness was nothing compared to what she felt in her mind as she began to walk in the direction that Kurama was walking, after reaching the underground levels...Behind those heavy doors with numbers, there was...others, like her. The scientists at the facility had never been sure to what to think about this ability that Diclonius had to sense each other at a relatively short distance...(To not mention the killing question : How the heck it was possible ? On the other hand, it was pretty light stuff compared to the Vectors...) Was this a kind of communication, or something like that ? Definite conclusions were hard to reach-the only thing that was sure was that _some _information could be sensed-pain, from instance (Asking how the scientists had realized that was really a stupid question...) or some strong emotion...

The voice within her seemed to not be very troubled by this. She seemed rather...pleased.

((_There are others, here... Other Diclonius. Humans know about me, and fear me...))_

Lucy was beginning to feel genuinely sick because of what she was...feeling...behind those doors. Madness. Despair...That was the fate that awaited her. She could not "see" much details, but she could get a decent idea of what was happening-and it was depressing...

Some "prisonners" were quite young-Lucy was sure that Thirty-Two and Fourteen (being identified by a number rather than a name was rather shocking, deshumanizing-and if Lucy escaped to that, it was just because she was placed in a completly different block...) were barely about one year old...This was the definite proof that this place was not a normal, even at top security, detention center...And this trigerred within Lucy's mind a comparison with a much happier event in her life-the day she had spent with Kouta in Kamakura...This would have been an almost funny comparison-if the situation had not been so dreadful...

_((Kouta is not maybe like that...But others Humans...yes...This place is like a...zoo...And I fear that they are not just watching us, here...They...really want to kill the human part within me ?)_

She only felt a kind of reaction-other than insanity, hatred and rage (the two cells she had noticed earlier had much too young inoccupants for have a good idea of their situation...) when she passed in front some doors...It was Twenty-Eight, Seven and Four cells...

...Twenty-Eight...

She was around her age, and...resigned to the situation. She had cried, pleaded during years, to just be killed, without result. So, she had given up any hope, and decided that, after all, the situation was not so bad, with Shirakawaze being minimally kind with her, because she was accepting her fate ; even if the cooperation of the Diclonius was not required, it often made things easier to accept for the personnel...Lucy was not sure to what to think about Twenty-Eight...What was worse between resignation, false hopes and madness ? Lucy was _lucky _compared to Twenty-Eight-at least she had some bright spot in her life...While Twenty-Eight had nothing...Still this resignation, this broken spirit, was...frightening. Lucy shaked at the idea of being reduced at this state...On the other hand, she had two objectives that were going to help her to hold in this Hell. The first one was to save Natsume-if possible-or avenge her as best as she could...which was going to be _much _more easier than save the life of her friend, and also, much more probable. The second one was to meet Kouta one more time...to excuse herself for what she had done to his family...Not to ask for forgiveness-it was impossible to ask that from Kouta...Maybe this would make things a little easier for him...Both goals were just tiny hopes...but it was real hopes, and no delusions like thinking "Maybe they will let me go in a few years if I agree to cooperate"-Lucy meager hopes of being released a day had vanished when she had saw the island and the detention facilities...It's reminded her of a sentence she had once read : _"Toi qui entre ici, laisse toute espérance"..._It her memories were correct, this sentence would have been very fitting.

...Seven...

She was quite young-around eight, maybe-and Lucy was...shocked, by what she understood from her feelings...(However, it would take years for her to place all the pieces of the puzzle, to understand what was exactly her relationship with Kurama...) Seven was recuperating currently from a serie of experiences (the said recuperation was being left alone for a few hours...This "kind" attention was the best someone could hope here)And...she was eager for the experiences to restart, since this means that "Daddy" would be talking to her...The fact that a Diclonius could be so eager to have some kind of contact should have make the Humans here doubt about their theories...However, most of them just considered Seven as a somewhat dimwitted-which was not, at all, the case-Diclonius, that was not making much trouble. Kurama had been touched, to be honest, by the affection that Seven had showed to him-but still, that was not enough for remove her from the experiences...

...Four...

She was only a little older than Seven, but the two were _very _different..There was a sequence of muffled knocks coming throught the door-those knocks were the very subdued sounds resulting from the thunderous hits that Four was currently giving on the walls of her cell with her Vectors. She was signaling to Kurama and Shirakawaze that she was aware of their presence. And also, her hate for them...for every single human. Like many Diclonius detained her, Four killed everything Human she could put her Vectors on-and she had, even by Diclonius standards, a taste for cruelty...Most of the guards that had come to close to her died after hours of pain...(which was rather light compared to what Four had to endure, but this point was not considered...) And this was coming from basically a _eight years old girl..._Kurama and Shirakawaze used the case of Four to prove to officials (and to themselves) that even detained, Diclonius were bloodthirsty killers, not desserving any mercy.

"I guess that Four find that she had affinity with her", said in a low voice Shirakawaze...

Shirakawaze had several time filled forms requesting for the termination of Four, who was much too dangerous to be continued to be held here, but since she was, according to Director Kakuzawa, a very interesting specimen-maybe because her mind had not break, despite her...special detentions conditions (Special in the bad sense of the term, of course...It was Kakuzawa that had found this euphemism, mentionning that it had worked wonderfully earlier in his career, with a sarcastical grin that was making the blood freeze in the veins...Both Shirakawze and Kurama preferred to not think too much about the kind of employers that could have used that term-they would have find their identity quite fast...) she had been kept alive, in harsher and harsher security conditions, despite the number of guards she had killed. The Director and his sons did not seem to accord to the lives of the personnel much thought. At the very least, Shirakawze and Kurama, whatever was their opinion about the quality of the personnel, make a _point d'honneur _of sharing the same risks than them. If the scientists had dared to consider coldly the situation-to consider it...scientifically, in fact-instead of obeying orders, they would realized that the Director was not giving a lot of worth to Human life...)

Shirakawaze noted with concern the jolt that Lucy had when she passed next to Cell Number Four, as well as the aghast look she had...She was sure that Lucy was now more or less conscient of what was happening behind that door-which could push her to resistance...But Shirakaze was relieved when she realized that Lucy was...not believing it. Or rather hoping that the kind of vision that she just had was not the truth, that this was not her fate...(Technically, it was true : it would not happen to her-it will be even _worse..._)

Lucy was not going to be detained on this level-again for security, she would have the deepest level. In the-remote-possibility of an evasion, she would have a _lot _of guard posts to pass to reach the surface-and the scientists could reasonably hope that the guards would manage to get one or two shots pass the Vectors...There was a last interruption before the final descent...

As Lucy was walking toward the elevator-a bit slowly, since her legs were beginning to feel a little weak from apprehension-she heard some noise behind her-the guards were arguing with someone else, who was saying that she needed to speak to Kurama right now. Just by curiosity, Lucy turned, to see who it was-the way her "escorts" hastily pointed their weapons on her proved quite clearly that the very rough handling they were given her was mostly caused by fear...And she was pleased to note that, this time, Kurama was clearly nervous...

The interloper decided to not wait for the approval of the guards-they were trying to block her- and to pass throught, to get to to Kurama. The hallway was not very brightly light-she tipped over something-and fall down straight on Lucy, throwing her to the ground too..

The newcomer, whose face was quite close of Lucy, was a young woman, probably a secretary...and certainly, judging by her behaviour, much more good willing that actually competent. She had some documents that she judged _absolutely _critical that Kurama saw...

"Professor !", she said, slowly rising to her feet, ashamed of her clumsiness-and not noticing the horrified looks of everyone around her..."I need your signature for some supplies request-the photocopying machine _again _broke down, and I think we need to replace it..."

"Very well", said in a very gentle voice Kurama-all right, his secretary was maybe a little...lost, at times, but she was an hard-working girl, very devoted to him-Kurama was certainly a very good employer, and quite forgiving for little errors (it was really not the case for the Directors and his sons...) She was more or less of what was occuring in the labs-but since it was the Professor work, it could not be so bad..."I will settle this matter a soon as possible-as soon as I'm done . For now, you should return to the administrative level...

Kurama simply planned to send back her secretary to the uppers levels-and to not explain to her the situation, that she was currently in contact with an...thing that could kill her in one split second. If he started to yell "Get out of here", his secretary could froze on place, ask questions...Kurama was ready to risk his life-but her, she had nothing to do with this.

Very relieved that the matter would be seen (sure, problems with a photocopying machine seemed maybe a little out of place here, but for paperwork, it was as disastrous as it could be...), the secretary began to rise herself to her feet-it's only a this point that she noticed that she had bumped into someone...She cursed herself one more time for her clumsiness...

"Hey...what are you doing here ? ", she said to Lucy with concerned voice, that astonished everyone..." Are you lost ? This is a heavily restricted area, you should not be there..."

Lucy thought, for a split second, that someone would be minimally kind with her in this place, would consider her worthy of some Human consideration...but this feeling was quickly drowned by anger when she realized why the woman had said that, and when she paid attention to the words rather than the tone...The secretary had not seen the horns.-not yet...Until that moment, Lucy was for her just an Human teen girl, who had certainly not her place here-she probably thought that Lucy was the daughter of someone in ther personnel, or something like that. At the second she looked at Lucy more closely-and saw not only the horns, but how closely the girl was looked by guards, that she had been beaten, the state of her clothes,..her initial gentle reaction changed completly. For fear, horror, repulsion...(Lucy was aware that she desserved repulsion. But for what she had _done, _not what she _was_...)

The secretary let out a cry of panic, while Kurama was ordering to separate her from Lucy...which was done with some care for the secretary, and with a total lack of the said care for Lucy, who was pushed violently on the floor, riffles pushing in her back...Kurama calmed down the woman by promising her two weeks of paid leave...She was now as pale as dead...Lucy was still on the ground when she heard the sentence she said while leaving...

"You...you could amost believe that _it _is an Human girl..." (the _it _hurted Lucy...a lot...)"

When Lucy was put back to her feet, the look she had in the eyes was so dark that Kurama made the mental promise to take a special care to never send his secretary close to Lucy...

"Well, well...did you tried to make some trouble, Lucy ? Quite useless, as you see..."

Kakuzawa (the elder son) had finally arrived-Shirakawaze thought with disgust that he must wanted to see a part in particular in the..."securing process"..He wanted also to mock Lucy...He was cautious, however-he remained well outside the potential Vector range.

His only answer was the even darker look Lucy gave him-the only thing she could do...

"Oh no, don't worry" said in a voice reeking with sarcasm, Kakuzawa..."...we will not do anything too harsh to you...You are the Queen..._YOU DESSERVE A CROWN..."_


	6. Chapter Six : Toi qui entres ici

**Present time, same place...**

With the recent "incidents", there had been an all-out recruitement effort at the facility-at the price of a much reduced efficicency-that was already somewhat low at the beginning...As Kakuzawa's was not for spending a lot for the personnel, some jobs that had to be done were _a lot _under the qualifications of some of the work-force. A rather funny example of this was with the coffee-since the requests for an automatic machine had never been grantde before, most of it was done by the secretaries of Shirakawze and Kurama, who were both now...gone. (The secretary of Kurama had a "work accident", and the secretary of Shirakawaze had received the choice between leaving her job, or be the assistant of the second son of Kakuzawa. With the reputation-even _worse _than the elder son-that he have, she had left. Many had found that the helicopter taking her to Kamakura did a rather short trip...) As a result, the scientifics and technicians had to make themselves their coffee-with very average results...More seriously, even if the facility was lavishly set up with operation rooms, there had never been an proper emergency room-most of the operations made out at the facility concerned the experiences programs...The personnel had to do with a rather makeshift medical service, made by the ones that had training in those field. And with the recent personnel losses, the one that was currently avaiable was doing her best, but it was not enough, considering that her "medical training" was limited to her courses in biology...

"C'mon, c'mon", said Arakawa, "hold him in place-it's already hard enough..."

Arakawa was with a newly recruited technician, who had arrived here only days ago-he had probably took this job because of the pay, without paying much consideration to some sections of the work contract, written in suspiciously small characters, detailing the security conditions...The technician had been more than a little troubled by what was happening there, and was distracted when he was checking visually the restraints holding Number Four-he did not remembered the vital instructions about _distance..._Well, at least this one had only got a major nervous shock from the following events...The guy that was with him had been less lucky-a lot less lucky. Unfortunately, he would never learn from this accident...The technician himself was now bound to have more trouble-with all the medication that Arakawa had gave him-or rather, was trying to give him, since he was now...well, out of his mind, due to the terror he had experimented, and struggling frantically-he was not in shape to work for at least a couple of days...and director Kakuzawa had made several times very clear the fact that he really disliked when people avoided work because of health reasons (like, in fact, a lot of employers, from Japan or elsewhere. The difference was that, in other workplaces, the worker just risked to be fired, and not _fired upon..._) Finally, the co-worker that had been trying to restrain the tech finally managed ed to get an hold on him long enough for Arakawa to make her injection...Less than an minute later, he had finally slumped, sedated...

"Well, I hope I got the right dose-it should allow him to cool down a little...Hmm...you actually saw the scene of the accident, right ? Is what happened was really so terrible ?

"...Yes...that b... really teared him appart...Like that...Without reasons ! She...she toyed with him, damnit ! We saw it on the records...She let him scream until his voice broke before finishing him-just as security was coming ! She did that on purpose-since she could not harm this fool, who had crawled out of her range, she tried to make him insane-and this worked !"

Arakawa added nothing to this-she did not wanted to alleniate her co-workers-but she had made a inquiry about what had happened to 4 the earlier night...Easy for her-the younger Kakuzawa had apparently a certain liking for her-she shuddered at the thought-and he had no trouble to share information with her-because he knew she could not do anything with it...

Frankly, when someone-Human or not-had been subject to _twenty_ majorbiopsies in less than six hours-without anesthesy or regard to pain, of course-it was really, really hard to say that Four was completly "without reasons..." to be hostile toward any presence...

Especially when considering a thing-when she was making tests with the other son of Kakuzawa in Kamakura, the biopsy was the last thing they were doing before the vivisection...It was very likely that the protocol they were following for the rats was followed here for the Diclonius. Sure, Four was not-at all-raising the sympathy of Arakawa, but...

Arakawa was truly...lost. Her job at the university with the elder son of Kakuzawa involved looking for a vaccine-something that she could hardly been ashamed of-even if she admitted retrospectively that she never asked much questions about the detention facility...Now, however, she was seeing the truth...She had been shocked, of course, to realise that her former boss was a Diclonius-but even then, she had rationnalized, said to herself that maybe he was ressearching indeed a vaccine...But when she had saw the Director, his madness, and when he had basically boasted about his plans...She was feeling very, very bad when thinking to the ressearchs they had made...Isolation of the virus, identifcation of his properties...of course, this could be used for make a vaccine. This could also very well used to diffuse it-they had even found-thanks to Arakawa, who was cursing herself for this idea-an extremly efficient delivery mechanism. If this had been indeed for save Humanity, _maybe _some of what happened could have been justified-but she was very doubtful of even that...But what they were doing here was much more doom mankind than save it. She wondered how much people here knew about the intentions of Kakuzawa ? Probably a lot more than she dared to think...If she talked to them, she saw three potential reactions. Them thinking that she was insane, not believing her...or immediatly telling this to Kakuzawa, with dramatic results for herself. There was not one chance out of a thousand that she would be able to stage a "coup" against Kakuzawa-and yet, if everything else failed, she was ready to do this, as a last ditch solution. Of course, the better thing would have been to warn the authorities, but she was doubtful of the results. At Kamakura, she had realized that the Kakuzawas were very well connected to the authorities-even if, like all scientifical projects, they were always lacking funds, the requests they filled were answered a lot more quicker than other projects...Of course, the authorities were likely in this affair for the vaccine (well, at the very least, Arakawa hoped that this was like that) But with the level of secrecy there was on this project, it was very likely that in case of a leak in the medias (either written, audio-visual, or web-based), there was going to be major pressions for silence. And anyway, she could not even contact people that could eventually spread this information. She had not even bothered to _try_ to leave the island-with the knowledge she had about the nature of the Director, she posed a severe threat. There was two way out : the sea or the air. Even if Arakawa swimmed like a rock, it was technically possible to survive up to Kamakura by sea-Lucy had managed to do it with an headwound, after all. The problem was that _two _evasions (Lucy and Nana) had been made this way, and that even Kakuzawa was going to have learn from it-she was pretty sure that when she would touch land, there was going to be a welcome comity at Kamakura...As for the air, it was a safe assumption that she was never going to be able to board one helicopter unoticed, Thanks to her own personnal security "grunts"-a gift from the Director- that were always close when she was talking to personnel that could still go in the outside world (for instance, while she was treating the technician, her "bodyguard" was outside the room-fully within hearing range, in case she tempted to blow the whistle) she could not hope to have a kind of "messenger" (and even if they had not been there, she had to find a _reliable _person. Unlikely)

Of course, she could have tried to use cellphones or even Internet-but she had also the bad feeling that those mediums of communication were heavily monitored. She was without a cellphone, first of all, and if she "borrowed" one to a co-worker, she would be in face of a major problem : usual cellphones signals were very distorted by the numerous concrete and steel layers of the facility (and moroever, lucky as she was, she was working several levels underground, and the meager appartment she got was almost as deep...) There was two ways to go around this, the first one was to use the facility's antenna to relay the signal. Unfortunately, the use of the antenna was monitored, which meant that any communication judged dangerous would be very quickly denied. The second way was simply to go outside. And if Arakawa could very well go on the landing pad some minutes per day, for have fresh air, she was always followed while during that time...As for the Internet, for avoiding hackers, most computers on the islands were only connected to the local network...The ones that were connected to an network with possible access to the Internet were physically separated from the others, and were completly empty of any interesting data-Kakuzawa, in what he thought was a bright move (usually, his plans were rather...straightfoward, to say the least...), had filled them with data about the official role of the facility-altougth he had forgotten a killer detail, that was sure to attract the attention of eventual hackers. Anyway, the access to those computers was protected by key cards, live guards, and logins...

Arakawa could have managed to steal a key card for gain access to the room, or to sweet talk to the security guard, or find a working login. But the _three _things, without being detected before her message was sent ? Very unlikely...Of course, given time, Arakawa was sure that she was going to found a way around the security...but the thing was, she was not sure, at all, that she had months in front of her. For two reasons : first, the Director had kept her alive mostly because she had been a crticial part in the ressearchs of his son-and then because the death of Kurama and Shirakawaze ; he planned that she would eventually replace them...until he had found a way to replace herself, unlesse she failed before...The thing was, Arakawa was _not _of the level of Kurama or Shirakawaze...yet. She was a recent graduate, and had not a lot of work experience-Kakuzawa had hired her at the university primary because she was not asking much money and was ready to accept very long work hours (maybe also because she had been the only female graduate that was not aware of the reputation he had...), and also agreed to help him (traduction : do all the work) prepare his courses for the college students (Why the heck Kakuzawa had ended giving courses to college students ? The best explanation is that this was a way to him to find potential candidates for work at the facility-Arakawa had been of his students, for instance...) The second reason was that she had the feeling that there was not much time left-the Director had said several times that things were just starting. Why, by the way, he had _told _her about his plans ? Either he thought that she would work with him eventually, or that she could not pose the slighest threat...On the last point, he was probably right. If she had be in, let's say an cheap anime, Arakawa would have been a specialist in martial arts, or a lethal with a gun, or a master of hacking, and probably the three together..The thing was, she was pathetic in sports, she would have trouble to find the trigger on a firearm, and her hacking experiences were limited to have play online with an pirated version of _Starcraft..._This feeling of being powerless was another humiliation for her...

The remaining son of the Director, her new supervisor, had also provided her another argument for staying here, in addition to the threats to her security (quite real, the threats. Her shoulder still ached...) A large file, with recent pictures of family members she had in Kamakura, Yokosuka, and the whole prefecture. With the adresses of the said relatives. He had said nothing, but it was really a very clear message. As the Director had said with his usual subtility, her survival was heavily related to the work she could do for him...

With such methods, Arakawa was hating her employers-and was not exactly hiding her feelings. Both the Kakuzawas had chosen to laugh at this, thinking that she could do nothing...

It was not _entirly _true. Arakawa had a "card" thad could work if carefully played-the obvious dissession between the Kakuzawas (many of the high ranking personnel were sure that he was behind the evasion of Lucy)...she had overheard pretty heated discussions...They agreed on the general objective, but wanted each the leadership...Of course, those things were tricky-being paranoid does not means being _stupid _; if one Kakuzawa was approched by Arakawa warning him of a plot of the other for kill him, the likely reaction would be to think this was a trap from the said other, and "fire on the messenger" (in all the senses of the word...)

Moreover, starting an confrontation could have results opposed to the ones she want ; of course, there was a good chance than the two ended killing themselves together-but it was a tiny one...The result would rather be than one of the two would end as a clear victor, with total control over the project. And frankly, she could hardly tell who was the worst in the pair...or the trio, rather, since she had an extended experience with the elder son (she wondered if there was others siblings in this family). The elder son was openly making advances on her-but he was a _saint _compared to his brother and father on this field. Arakawa was not sure that the fact that her current boss was not trying to "get" her was an improvement, when considering where his preference were going-to younger females...Quite young ones, even...While the father had extremly scornful views on female (Humans and Diclonius, from what she heard), he had even worse opinions on the ones of Chinese or Russian background-this was probably related to his past as an Imperial Army officer...

Speaking of the devil, Kakuzawa arrived at her makeshift medical station. Speaking of the devil...this expression was quite ironical, with the Kakuzawas-but it was hardly funny...

Arakawa was as rationnal as someone could be, but she could not kept herself from wondering if the association DevilHorns could not have come from in part from Diclonius...Extremly unlikely. Arakawa had...very peculiar field of interests in her youth, for a future scientist (I.E., a fascination for...pen and paper RPGs, altought she was not a very popular player, because of her complaints toward the usually very stupid and illogical scenarios "crafted" by the others...) that a lead to an huge amount of knowledge on stuff like mythology. The difference was that her searched on the actual mythology, rather than the cheap stuff usually used for the setting...So, it was well attestated than the association HornsDevil was coming rather from divinities of Egypt and Middle-East, like Amon or Moloch-which were technically not so-evil, associated to goats and similars animals. So, the anthropomorphized version of those divinities were of course horned. Those divinities were shifted to demon status when new religions rose up...It was sure that the tell-tale sign of the horns probably contribued to the prompt death of eventual Diclonius offsprings in medieval time-and that if the very rare ones that reached adulthood behaved like Lucy, the opinion of the medieval man about people with horns was likely to have remain very bad (And also, but Arakawa had not thought to that, if they were treated like the child of demons, it was very likely that their tendencies were heavily enhanced...) All in all, it was probably the demon concept that affected the perception Humans had on Diclonius, and not the reverse...

Kakuzawa made a gesture to make everyone leave-except Arakawa-that was quickly obeyed.

"Well", he said after everyone had left. "I see that you are trying to make yourself friends here..." (True. Arakwa hoped that she could gain some allies this way, or rather people that would owe her something...but to this point, the results had been rather unimpressive...)

"No, no", replied sarcastically Arakawa, "why I would do that ? Your father have such a keen interest in my well-being that I have very close friends, indeed ! " (reference to the guards, that had been told to be intimidative-to convince others workers to not talk with her..

"Arakawa, those unfortunate security measures will be lifted when you will have proved yourself reliable (Arakwa felt ashamed when hearing that. They were really thinking she was _that _stupid ? Reliable was a term with no fixed signification-this meaning that she was never going to be found enough reliable for security measures to be lifted...They basically hoped that she would work harder, without questions, in the hope of better conditions of living...) And there is a way you can do that : as I told you yesterday, there is a medical check to do

"I'm not very qualified for this-I have only very basic notions of general medecine, and..

"Arakawa, my dear, as you know, you should broaden your range of skills, to stay here..."

Arakawa, like most of the time, did not really had the choice...she picked up what was needed, and followed Kakuzawa down the hallways, toward the Diclonius cells-the medical check she had to do was on one of them, only known as Number Twenty-Eight...

Why Kakuzawa had picked her for such a job ? There was a number of answers, all of them very depressing. He wanted her dead, and being killed by a Diclonius would do the trick...Twenty-Eight was so dangerous that he did not wanted to lose valuable personel...

"As you have seen this morning", he said in a conversation tone, "Four have quite a temper..You might be interested to know that, this time, she had gone too far-her mind his beginning to break, and we have performed enough tests on her. Keeping her alive longer is waste of valuable ressources...We will terminate her this week. Nice public relations stunts..."

What Kakuzawa was meant was simple ; the execution of Four was going to please security officers, especially if it was very painful...But the reason of the execution was not that she had killed guards-it was that they had found that she was no longer useful for them...And, as they needed all the ressources they have for an operation, economy dictated the death of Four.

The said operation was the talk of everyone in the facility these days...Director Kakuzawa had deciced to do everything possible to secure Lucy, and a launched another major operation for reach this goal, that he judged vital to his overall plan (thus, Arakawa was rather for the failure of the said operation...) This time, he had decided to go with a plan with three distinct elements, thinking (logically, for one time) that if a component failed, the two others could very well succeed, especially if Lucy had been weakened/affected by an earlier attack

The first element was the thing they had already tried with Nana and Mariko-locate Lucy with the help, willing or not, of a Diclonius, and sent a SAT team deal with her, with all the heavy gear avaiable, in the hope that she will be wounded enough to be brought back to the island ...

Saying that the earlier versions of those type of plans had backfired was an understatement. In addition to the losses in security personnel (stagerring...), of the three top scientifics of the facility, the only clear result of the two first operations was that instead of one Diclonius at large, there was now two. Seven was not presenting the slighest interest to Kakuzawa, but only for the sake of security reasons, he could not allow her to live (and this was not considering his little mental problems...) She was not a threat of the same level than Lucy, but finding her was going to be as difficult...Due to those failures, the next Diclonius brought out of the facility would been controlled by what had been labelled as _extreme security measures. _Arakawa was trying to not think too much about what extreme could means-in her personnal opinion, having explosives in the body like Mariko was pretty much extreme. And there was also the fact that Lucy knew what awaited her if they retook her-she was going to really fight to the death. And yet, which was not very surprising, Kakuzawa was not caring about the casualties, sending whole platoons in Kamakura at the slighest hint of her presence. Most of the time, those were false alarms-but when it was indeed Lucy...The latest attempt had arrived only days ago, and had resulted in the slaughter of two full platoons, no survivors.

This time, however, the soldiers would have at their disposition weapons designed to neutralize Diclonius that _should _work better than the normal ones (well, in theory. It was a thing to use them against helpless Diclonius here, and another one to use them against Lucy)

The second element was to try to localize the Humans that were probably sheltering Lucy-survivors from the attack with Mariko had reported that she had used her Vectors to shield someone...There was definitely something to be digged there-and this was why the Director was currently in Kamakura proper, with a good contingent of security forces, to investigate a lead. The opinion of Kakuzawa on this matter was basically that someone had began to have doubts on his intentions, and was trying to secure Lucy-for ressearchs too (he was quite narrowminded, to say the least...As for the individual she had protected, he had merely thought that this was someone that had managed to "trick" Lucy in trusting him (Kakuzawa had thougt this was the explanation for the connection between Kurama and 7, to a lesser degree between Shirakawaze and 28, but also for an earlier case that he never specified) So, basically, the "plan" was to kill everyone involved, after "convincing" them to tell where Lucy was...Arakawa was certainly the only one at the facility that had some idea of what was going on...She knew who Lucy was probably with, and, of course, she would not share this information with Kakuzawa-it was another of her meager hopes. Granted, that Kouta looked a little...slow...at times, but he looked concerned by the fate of Lucy-for instance, he had even brought her to college-for entertain her, came back for her...He was probably in this much more for Lucy herself than for the Diclonius. The question was, of course, _why _Kouta was doing this, and why he was still alive. Fortunately, the lead Kakuzawa was following was not looking to be pointed toward him or his cousin-it was rather about a homeless girl...

The third component of the operation, carefully kept secret-but it seemed to raise the ire of the son of Kakuzawa. She had only heard one word about it : _Infinite. _(Fortunately, it was unlikely that it was about something that was in infinite quantity-moneyguards...). Arakawa had maybe an idea for what it could mean, but for a rather unscientific reason : _Evangelion.._

The thoughts Arakwa had about the next operation ended, as they were in front of cell 28. She took a deep breath, and entered the room, Kakuzawa following her every move, smirking...

Her orders were to be as cold as possible with 28-avoid to talk to her, and so on...Honestly, it should not have been that hard for her, since most of the Diclonius were no longer able of speaking, being deep in madness...And the ones that could speak (like Fourteen and Four) were usually rather in the mood for screaming threats and insults than for chat...

Still, Arakawa decided, upon seeing 28 (she had the dubious privilege to be in the "lightly restrained" category-this meaning "just" being chained by her wrists. If this was indeed light compared to the detentions conditions of Mariko, Lucy and Four, it was still very harsh) that, at the very least, trying to say something to her would certainly not _worsen _the situation.

"...Hello, I'm here to make a little medical check-up on you, and-" (the rest of the phrase that Arakawa had prepared died in her throat when 28 looked at her with lifeless eyes...) "

Arakawa readied herself for Vectors tearing her appart-she had not even asked about the range-but 28 just...sighed ? and continued to look at Arakawa, completly motionless.

28 had been picked up for the localization part, and it was Arakawa's job to check if she was enough in shape for doing so-her words. Her actual instructions had been phrased with extrem harshness concerning 28-that Diclonius was clearly nothing more than a tool for their projects , and that he had the intention of getting rid of her if she was not in "working order"...

For this reason, Arakawa was determined to make her report as positive as possible...And from the look of it, it seemed that she would not need to lie a lot about 28 health...

28 did not moved, did not say anything when Arakawa performed the check-up. She seemed to not be even conscious that someone was there-she had broke down years ago...

Arakawa almost asked her how she was feeling, but realized how absurd it was...

"Hey", said finally 28, with a chidlike voice, "can you...tell them I want to help ? Please..."

She was emotionless...but certainly not threatening, or hostile, which surprised Arakawa...

"...By...help, you mean...the tests, hmm ? Why...why would you want that ?..."

"...I just want that she (She ? Shirakwaze, probably. 28 thought she was still alive ?) talk to me again-I'm sorry, really sorry for the last time...Do...do you need me ?

"Yes...I don't know how...But...I think it will involve going outside-would you like that ?"

28 had not visible reaction to this...but, for the first time in several years, she felt something inside her ; a mix of joy and sadness...This time, it...was maybe true, after all ?

"Miss, please...can you come back to see me ? (28 knew that the answer would be a lie, but...)

Arakawa was touched by this-for a very simple reason ; 28 was a lot more friendly that most guards and the Kakuzawas...She immediatly promised that to 28, before leaving the room...

Kakuzawa was waiting for her at the outside of the cell, not complaning about Arakawa obvious trangressions of instructions (bad sign, that). He merely asked for her report.

"Well, the health condition of 28 was pretty good for someone in her situation-in fact, physically, she is in a perfect health ! On the other side, I think that on the mental side, she-"

"Who care about the mental side ? It's not going to be important, the way we need her..."

"You know, she...seems really willing to help. Maybe you don't need to be harsh with her-

"Oh, we don't need her help-as long as she is alive, it will do the trick...You can, if you wish, explain to her what we plan to do...or you can let her have this wonderful surprise...

He then proceeded to explain her what was the extrem security measure, employing of course the usual euphemisms. The thing was, he was visibly finding the said euphemisms funny, to the point that he could barely restrain himself for laughing as he was descripting it...

"You...are joking, right ? You cannot really plan to do _that _? It's completly insane ! Sick !

"Actually, no. I'm very serious. My father had this idea sometime ago-even the explosives fitted in their bodies are not enough to control Diclonius-and, after all, if we kill them, we will lose the possibility of finding Lucy. This method is maybe radical, but should be very efficient...With all the data we had gathered on Diclonius, we have a pretty good idea of what is going to happen...She will not die, for sure...at least, not right away. We estimate that she will hold at least...hmm, three days, largely enough to find Lucy. The required gear is already designed, and ready to use-want to see it ? (He saw Arakawa horrified look) Hmm...no. I think it's would be vetter to show it to you when everything will be done with 28...And since she is very dumb, she will probably be still willing to chat with you, if you wish to...

Arakawa was not really listening to Kakuzawa's babbling, angered tremendously by two things : of course, the fate of 28, but also the fact that Kakuzawa was playing with her-he had sent her check on 28, probably knowing that she would have pity for the Diclonius-and that, in conscequence, it would hurt Arakawa even more...especially considering that the medical report saying that 28 was in very good shape physically-and thus able to handle the...stress...of the procedure, it was here that have written it. They could say it was _her _fault.

"You (censored) ! . You are proud of you, hmm ? You managed to trick me into this, and-"

"Arakawa, why are you so tough with me ? 28 is compely helpless-her life is just a waste of ressources. You saw how she is broken. This would finally gave her some usefulness. But, despite your insults...I will be nice..I will give you an option...We are not forced to take 28 for this part of the operation-we can very well take 4. Any expendable Diclonius will do the trick, you know ? So...if you wish to make a favor to 28, just tell me-and I will make you a favor...

"Oh, I'm sure of it", replied angrily Arakawa..."C'mon, make it short, what do you want ?"

"Nothing, don't worry. Just say to me "Please, take 4 instead of 28..."...It's all.

Arawakaze was tempted to say that, right now. 28 did not desserved such an horrible death, while 4..well, she could _hardly _raise sympathy (and moroever, Arakawa could rationnalize and say that what Kakuzawa had planned was maybe better than the vivisection, and...No. It was an...abomination...It was really worse that anything she could think to...She could not vizualize the poor 28 being treated in such an monstruous way...) But she realized quickly what Kakuzawa was wanting-he wanted her to get _involved _into this. This is how they had got Kurama and Shirakawaze-who were very decent folks at the start-to accept do and worse and worse things...And if Arakawa was not fooled, this was mostly because she knew the real nature of Kakuzawa-that meant that she less vulnerable to the utilitarian argument...

Kakuzawa saw that his strategy was not working. He tried to push Arakawa to commitement.

"Arakawa, one more time, 4 really desserve this-many will enjoy her broken, begging for being mercy-killed. I will be honest ; 28 and 4 are bound to die within a week, whatever is your decision. The thing is, 28 can have a relatively painless death...or an horrible one..."

Why Arakwa was not just saying that damn phrase ? She did not wanted to play Kakuzawa's game. Fine, but it was not her that going to have a fate worse than death. That was going to be 28...or 4...And Kakuzawa was not going to ler her think about it for days...

"And Arakawa, I'm sorry to precise you that, but if you say nothing...It's will be 28..."

This conversation then ended-the professor received an urgent call from Security...

"Radar detection sginal that an aircraft is approching the island. Helicopter...Instructions ? "

"Saved by the bell, Arakawa. But we will return to this conversation as soon as possible..."

Kakuzawa, followed by Arakawa-still under the shock of what she had learn-reached the radar control room, as the craft was now very close..There was no _liaison _flights planned ; and his IFF was not the one of one of their own helicopters, or any craft allowed on the island. However, this unknown craft did not looked hostile-they were establishing communication...

"What is this ? If it is for emergency landing, tell them to go to Kamakura or Yokosuka-now"

"Hmm, no, professor, it's not that...They state that they are...sent by the International Red Cross ? (The operator was not believing it...) For our ressearchs-the fakes ones...

Technically, this was as credible as it could be. With the recent outbreaks of aviaran influenza-including some cases of transmissions to humans, the Red Cross could very well have an interest in the matter. Of course, this could also be a-crude-trap. Kakuzawa considered the matter quickly. No...this was not an attack-the craft had announced itself, and was coming in broad daylight-and alone-if that craft was carrying an assault team, it would be small enough to be swiftly dealt with. And if there was major trouble...they could call some of their friends at Yokosuka. Better, to not raise too much attention, let them come. If those newcomers were spies-like it was probable-they would be able to deal with them later...

Inside the craft, the pilot keyed down the communication, and turned to face her partner...

"Well, I think that our little recon/preliminary operation will go very swiftly", said Tatso...

"Did I told you that this plan is _completly insane ? _It's make the whole Endor operation in _Starwars _look like a masterpiece of planning, machiavelism and strategy ! " replied Xu, who was using the last segment of the landing procedure to make an close inspection of the facility-using a method a less sophisticate than spy satellites, but potentially more reliable : her eyes. Neither her or Tatso were carrying, on them or onboard the craft, anything that could be seen as spying gear-that could give a pretext to kill them on the spot

"If I'm not mistaken, you told me it was insane around three times. But if we add other similar terms you used, like "crazy", "mad", the word count climb much higher"...

"I still think it...I don't like this place, at all...Look at those water tanks spread on the roof." (Xu pointed out structures that were visibly out of place-very crude _camouflage, _indeed...)

"Yeah...that's screaming "hidden heavy weaponry..." Will have to disable them...And if the security is like they said on the briefing, this is going to be fun ! I would like to see, for instance, how a gun-crazed American they hired as a grunt could handle a biology question ?"

Tatso's joking sentence corresponded to a reality. Altought they were not specialist in this field, both Xu and Tatso had took college courses on the matter-which was likely much more than the average mercenary. If, indeed, there was security hidden among workers, it would be very possible to find it by asking some casuals questions to them-especially questions that were hiding traps, like taking an obviously false statement, that could be answered as a yes/no question (example : asking to someone if the security procedures type Delta-Zero-a thing that Tatso had just invented-were ready to be implemented...If someone answered "yes", it would be a tell tale sign..However, in addition to this information, Xu had apprehensions about where else this "agressive data collect" could lead them ; it's involved a lot of firearms...)

"C'mon, said Tatso seeing the worried face of Xu, it's in cheap action movies or animes than the bad guys shot on inspectors ! That is the worse way to attract publicity (A pause...) _After _our leave, however, that's another matter-I wonder if they will go for the subtle way, or not ?

Xu sighed, considered all the possibilites : sabotage of the helicopter, bomb, being fired upon while taking off, and of course various forms of assassination at Kamakura...Charming.

"All that said", she replied..." I must admit that this could very well end up working...

Meanwhile, in the facility, Kakuzawa was giving orders for the "visitor drill''...

"Well, I will go meet our guests, Arakawa. I don't think I need to precise that if you do anything funny, you will find that your work conditions will worsen...And as those fools are going to have an unfortunate accident soon, this would be foolish and useless...I think it's would be better, for your health, to withdraw to your quarters-without causing a commotion.."


	7. Chapter Seven : Mane, Tecel, Phares

**February 1943...Praha….**

The sleep of Sarah were never peaceful, being troubled by constant nightmares...It was horrible visions-and the worse thing about them was the words that were coming with the dreams...Sarah tried to forget those words, that were tormenting her. Words telling her that she was not like others Humans-but not in the sense that the Nazis were saying, telling her that Humans were her ennemies (with her situation, she was rather for accepting this statement, with some conditions-especially considering one Human particular), that the world would never accept her existence (quite true...she had this feeling every single day...)

((And Sarah, they are treating you this way while they are not even aware of...to take your own words, your gift..What do you think they will do when they will realize it ? You will maybe take some worth in their eyes, but only as a precious test subject..A thing...)) Did that voice was ever going to let her alone ? The situation was already very tense, but this voice was pushing her close to the breaking point...Sarah did not know what that voice was or wanted exactly-short that this was a part of her, and a very dark one...And as this was part of her...she suffered too from the situation...from the half-starvation, from the cold...and the rest.. 

She probably suffered, like Sarah, from the constants humiliations...It had been this way since long years. Her mother had managed to hide during a good time their condition-a thing that ashamed her to no end...(Sarah was more...neutral, on the question-it was not that she was not feeling part of this people in particular, it was just that she was feeling sometimes...alien...to all Humans...) but even during that time, things had been very hard (and they were even harsher now, since...Sarah could not think about that event too much, it was too hard for her, to think how she had been stupid-and it could have resulted in _her _death...) From the day the Nazis had come in Praha-Czekoslovakia had the misfortune of being an early victim of the Reich-Sarah's life had been an almost endless night...It was not exactly an happy life before-she never had an, let's say eaysgoing, personnality-and never made real friends-her origins, but also her apperance (she had been often called the "ghost"), her relatively weak health and her short temper had always been in the way of her social relations, with everyone...

_((C'mon, stop lying to yourself, it's pathetic...You THOUGHT you had one friend, but this bastard was even worse than the usual Human...Remember what he said to you ?))_

If she had been indeed speaking with someone, Sarah would have scream, at this point, to the other to just shut-up-she did not need anyone to recall her this event in particular...

_((You don't find that your life had not been harsh enough ? If you do nothing, sooner or later, they will find you...I know, you think it will be over in some years...Maybe it will-probably, even. But there is a good "chance" that you will not be there to see it, without me...))_

The dreams were often about this...about the difference between a certitude and a possibility. Between, what, indeed, was going to happen sooner or latter-the Nazis coming to arrest them...and what, if she wanted, she could do to those Nazis and their vassals-make them scream for pity...Make them bever consider her again as a sort of sub-human vermin, that they could kill when they want...Make them fear her, and not the reverse...The Nazis, who boasted so often about the fact that they were superior to everyone, that the best hope that people like Sarah could have was a quick death-despite all, they were nothing compared to her...gift...that was still sleeping within her...The voice was pleading her to "awaken" (she had a pretty good idea of what this could mean...Give up her...human side. Honestly, some days, she was quite tempted to do so. She was not treated as an Human, anyway...And her "gift" was indeed very tempting...She had used...them...already..and it was hard to resist to the impulse of unleashing them...The voice was not very agressive-she was maybe a little manipulative, sure, but...she was just saying the truth, basically. It was why it was so hard to resist to it, especially when she was toying with Sarah on her only weak point..._Her..._)

Sarah woke-up suddenly, finally getting rid of those dreams, those insinuations...

It was around six o'clock-still very dark...Another wonderful day starting. She was about to have another fit od depression when she heard a noise near her-a sleepy moaning...

Myriam, probably because of the cold (this winter was very harsh-it was however soothing to think that it was even colder in the plains of Russia...) had come to sleep with her...This vision softened Sarah, who immediatly stopped to think about that disturbing inner voice...

Sarah stopped to move, laying as still as she could, hoping that she had not woken up her little sister already-she looked so peaceful, this way...An hairlock of her hair was in her face...Sarah, without thinking, brushed it aside,as softly as possible . It would have been a very normal gesture...if she did not had to fight an impulse of doing it...in another way...

Unfortunately, Sarah had awoken her little sister, who, still very sleepy, moaned yet again, and came closer to her, to feel a little more warmth. Sarah simply put her arms around her...

_((I know, you think that I'm toying with you, when I mention her...I don't care about her like you, it's true...But I would never harm her, and I know she is important to you. Her death would break you-I don't want that. So, LISTEN TO ME. There is something that you-))_

Sarah was no longer listening. Myriam was now wide awake, and speaking to her...

"...Did I disturb you ? It...was a little cold, this night, so I thought that I could come..."

"...Of course not , you did not disturb me ! At all ! (Sarah took her gentler voice to answer-she was always trying, and it was sometimes straining, to present her better side to Myriam. Her little sister did not have to pay for her own "little problems", or her crisis of depression...) It's sure that it's a little cold, those days...But you know, you are warming me too ! "

Sarah was wanting to say that Myriam's presence was making her feel better-a thing that was very ackward to express-but Sarah was aware that her sentence was quite crude...

"...Well", she said, to hide her uneasiness, "let's get-up. I will make you a nice breakfast..."

There was some milk, bread and chesse left. Getting foodstuff was getting more and more complicated, especially because they could not use rationnements cards-they were living on clandestinity. Those cards would have been already dramatically insufficient. Like everyone, they survived on the black-market-surviving being the key word...(Survival of the populations of Occupied Europe was secondary to the well-being of the "surhumans", after all...)

Sarah bringed the "breakfast" to Myriam, in the hope that she would be enough happy to have to take it in bed that she would not notice too much about the amount of food...

The relationship between the two was not exactly normal, and Sarah was realizng it...Sarah's mother had taken care of her elder daughter, but the relation between the two had _never _been very easy-Sarah's...condition...at her birth was a reason for this, but another one was the rather hostile character of Sarah...To put it shortly, the relationship between the two was more than a little cold, Sarah being well aware that her mother was sometimes a little...afraid...of her...On the other hand, her mother behaved in a normal way toward her sister (...who was, her, normal, unlike Sarah ), which had, at first, made Sarah quite jealous of Myriam...A feeling that disapeared when she realized that her little sister enjoyed being with her-mostly because, she was painfully aware of it, Sarah was one of the only person Myriam ever knew. Sarah's mother had often the impression that her elder daughter was trying to "steal" her Myriam-which was sometimes true, because Sarah did do everything to gain and conserve Myriam's affection-the only person that truly mattered for her...The obvious tension between her mother and sister was puzzling Myriam, but she never said anything to them...

When Sarah arrived with the food, Myriam showed her gratitude by thanking Sarah in English-her elder sister, was trying, for a reason she understood more or less (she was six years old, after all, and her life had sheltered) to teach her this language those days...

In the recent weeks, there had been an interesting developpement...After Munich (the diplomatic destruction of Czekoslovakia), a lot of opportunistic people had learn to speak German-many Czechs knew the language anyway, because the country was as part of the former Austrian Empire (Sarah herself was in the later case-her mother had taught her)

Those days, however, people were much more worried about learning Russian or English.. Even the Germans of the Sudetes (the Sudetes being the area which had been the pretext of the annexion by the Reich...), who before were much for the Nazi regime (to be honest, for many of them, the support was more or less forced-and a good part of the rest had been manipulated by the propaganda. Still, that was not improving the opinion that many Czechs had on their former compatriots, which was not surpisingly hostile) were doing this...

Because, the Nazis and their collaborators were feeling the wind turning those days...The last months have seen the beginning of the end for the Reich. El-Alamein... Midway...Stalingrad...those three names had been the _Mane, Tecel, Phares _of the Third Reich and it's allies-the sign that they were going to lose this war. The mere fact that the Nazis had been forced to admit those defeats was a sign of their magnitude (and that the battle reports of the BBC, despite what the propaganda was saying, were true...) Liberation was going to come in Occupied Europe. But before that, this would be the darkest hour. With what they had done, notably in Russia and Poland, the Nazis were aware that there was not going to be any mercy for them...(which was very fitting, since they never had showed the said mercy to their opponents. Nazis were never considered that a treaty with a "inferior" nation was worth respecting, as the recent events in France showed it clearly-when the Nazis had saw that it was the Vichy regime was no longer useful, they had invaded the (token) free-zone...) The Cassablanca Conference, where the Soviets and the Allies had declared that they would only accept the inconditionnal surrender of the Reich (traduction : no negotiations) had been a clear sign of this, even if the propaganda was trying to use this declaration to boost the moral in Germany. The Nazis, already quite brutal with the civilians in Occupied Europe, were increasingly tightening their hold-and the closer the final defeat was close, the harsher they would be...Which meant that the situation was even more bleaker than before for the civilians, who could hardly fight back (altought even here, a region more or less annexated by the Reich for years, their reign was not accepted. Heydrich, one of the worst Nazi leaders, had met his end in Praha, killed by the Resistance, some months before...) And it was even worse for people like Sarah, who were perfect scapegoats, targeted by years of hate propaganda.

"Sarah", she said, while eating her breakfast..."do you think Mommy will return today ?"

"Why not ?" said Sarah, trying hard to keep a neutral face. "She will return...She love you..."

(The meaning of the sentence was so clear that even Myriam understood it...)

"...Don't say that...I don't like it, when you are like that...Mommy love you too..."

"...No. Myriam, I...already tried to explain it to you...I...have some problems...within me (Sarah would have used the word "soul", but this would have confused Myriam. She sticked with the version she had already told her, about the fact that she had a kind of sickness...) Those problems are...hard to live with. Mommy did her best to love me...but I guess we just did not get along together. This does not change _anything _to how we are related with you ! "

(Sarah felt bad, really bad, while saying this. It was not true. It was affecting Myriam's relationship with their mother-since Myriam had a marked tendency to take Sarah's side...And it was really unfair, cheap, to do that, since their mother was really doing everything she could to get her daughters out of this nightmare...And it was probable that she had died for this goal : their mother had left two days ago, to try, one more time, to find a passage toward a neutral country-Swiss, for instance. And she had not come back, which was an _extremly _bad sign...

_((Why care about her, Sarah ? Why ? She was just feeling obligated toward you-she never had real feelings for youDo you remember how much you suffered when you realized it ?))_

Sarah's inner voice was always make insinuations, about the fact that anyone around her was in fact a potential ennemy, that would turn on her if they realized the truth about her-not about her origins, but her gift...The dark part of Sarah's mind made often suggestions on this point...Sarah had not took badly (coldly, even, to her own horror) the suggestion that she may had to kill a day her father or her mother-especially the father...this bastard...

Sarah talked of small things with Myriam, trying to make her forget about her earlier questions, while she was dressing up. She then heard some noise in the street-cars...Oh, oh...

In those time of restrictions, only an handful of vehicles were circulating-oil was going in top priority to the Wermacht. Those vehicles were, unsuprisingly, the ones of the Nazis.

Sarah lifted carefullly of one the wood pieces blocking the windows-for the blackout...She was not really surprised to see that two large cars were almot just below them. Despite the darkness, Sarah was clearly seeing that several men were coming out of them...

_((Well, well, well, they are coming to us...Four...five...six...guys. Piece of cake for us. Their weapons cannot even harm you. They will be dead before they knew what happened..._)

_(...No...I don't wan't to do that...I'm an Human, despite what they say. Not a monster, like ...)_

_((...Like me ? Like...YOU, rather ! I don't think that the good time for having this discussion.))_

(..._You don't think that if I do what you said, there are going to hunt...us...even more ?) _

This whole conversation within her own mind was pretty insane-but the other within her seemed to be sensible to rationnal arguments, since she...just shut up. Finally.

Sarah tried to calm herself down, by taking deep breaths, while the men were knocking at the door of their building (they were living into an old appartment block, decent, but not much else...much worse than her previous living, but better than one of those places the Nazis had set up-places that were only known by rumors, so dark that they were imposible to believe...) Someone had denounced them to the authorities...She did not bothered to think to who-probably one of their neighbours, who wanted their appartment. She struggled to remain calm. This was really not the time to panic. They had at the very best three minutes to get out...

"Myriam...take all your stuff-as quickly as you can...We wil leave this place right now..."

She feared that Myriam would ask her questions, but her little sister was seeing plainly that she was very tense-she nodded and immediatly go picked some things shejudged critical...Meanwhile, Sarah rushed in the kitchen, to remove a tile on the floor-it was there that her mother have hide their last ressources, some jewelry...Sarah knew that, this way, she was dooming her mother, _if _she was still alive and free-she could yet return there, after all...Without money to buy silence or complicities, or to use on the blackmarket, there was no way she was going to survive. But it was her or Myriam. For Sarah, it was hardly a difficult choice (Moreover, she could rationalize and say that it was very likely that her mother had been already arrested, and deported or executed-and that "money" would serve to nothing...)

Sarah hid this jewelry the best she could in her clothes, and with now a clear hint of panic in her voice, called in a falsely cheerfull voice her sister to hurry up. Myriam, now with her coat and beret (she looked so...cute, this way, that Sarah was sure that nobody half-decent would have harmed her. But, of course, Nazis had not a tiny hint of decency left into them...) came quickly in the kitchen, with an assortment of things that would have been funny in better times. Myriam had tried to take things that she _thought _would be useful for them-and with the mind of a six years old girl, the result was not terrible. She had took, for instance, an mechanical alarm clock, and...a dictionnary ? Sarah sighed. Her little sister barely knew how to read...It was a safe bet that this thing was not exactly critical for their survival...

"You can't bring that along, Myriam", she said in her most gentle voice. "Bring rather one of your child book-or a doll, even-it will be much funnier for you than this big one..."

Myriam looked genuinely troubled. She could not let this book there-it was her surprise, for Sarah-of could she could tell it to Sarah-but then, she would know about it...On the other hand, Sarah was not much in the mood of talking-and when Sarah was forced to argue with her, she did not know what to say, to not sadden Myriam, and it was very ackward...

Myriam then sighed, and put back the dictionnary, while Sarah, to cheer her a little bit, took things that her sister would enjoy more...(more weight for her, but she did not cared...)

Now that they were ready to leave-there was still the killing detail of _how _they were going to proceedFortunately, Sarah had thought to something that could work...

One of their neighbours was in the hall for greeting the newcomers at they entered-like Sarah had thougt, he had denounced them from a mix of high morality reasons ; ranging from a servile need to stick with the official propaganda to purely monetary/financial reasons...Altought he claimed to the Gestapo men that he was happy of doing this for the Reich, he was still hiding-if the rest of the building knew he had given (given ? the word was almost funny) those girls to the Reich, this would be bad, with his _mouchard_ reputation...

The Nazis, not worrying about the loud noise they were making in the stairs-it was too late for their targets to escape-and anyway, every exit of the building was covered by them-rushed to the fourth story, and without the slighest warning, bashed through the door...

The place was empty by now, of course-and those girls had left the place very recently and in quite an hurry, judging by the state of the room-drawers still open, food on the table...

The leading man of the Gestapo sighed. They had probably been warned by too sensible people...The citizens of the former nations of Europe had trouble to accept the new state of things, and were doing foolish things, like (often feebly...) interfering with the...what was the new name for those procedures and operations ? ...ah, yes. "Final Solution", or trying to resist to the Reich, passively or actively. Once the Great-Britain and the Soviet Union would have been crushed (even if there had been some...slight setbacks recently), the Nazis would be finally able to drop the charade about the "collaboration", about making promises place on the status of the defeated nations into the dreaded "New Order"-and teach to all those sub-humans what was their right place : the modern slaves of the Reich...(No one in the Nazi command, had ever considered the fact that this monstruous, completly insane, plan, was so...opposed to civilization, in fact, that no one was ever going to accept it on the long run...) The fact that the Nazis considered that they were showing _mercy _when they "just" had destroyed a _whole town_ (with the population...), Lidice, for retribution to the death of Heydrich was a good sign about the high value Human life had for them-and a sinister omen for things to come...

Where those girls had gone ? Not too far, probably ;there was some tell-tales mark near the chimney-protecting panel removed, ashes outside the fireplace, that kind of thing...The conclusion was rather obvious. The conduct was likely, however, being blocked by several grids. Even if the older girl have access to something that could slice those grids-which was somewhat doubtful-it would take her a long time to climb up to the roof...So, they were likely still into this conduct. Grinning, the man from the Gestapo gave orders to send men to the roof, to block the chimney with wood panels…while he was lighting a fire down here. The result was likely to be very interesting...amusing, even, to see and hear If those girls wanted to save him and the Reich the trouble to be transported at Treblinka or Aushwitz, all of this to finish almost exactly the same way than they would here, he would gladly help them...

Meanwhile, Sarah, hearing the orders gave in German (with the typical screaming that she associated with this language) asked herself why the heck she bothered to resist to her impulses-did an individual thrilling at the idea of burning or suffocating girls who, together, had barely eighteen years old, and whose whole job was not better was really worse than her ?

But she also thought that they were _very _stupid, to imagine she had acted this way.

The actual plan to escape was very simple-during the time the Nazis were stupidly checking the chimney, Sarah and Myriam, already in the hallway, were quietly descending in the service stair of the building, without running, or doing anything to raise attention...As they just had their clothes on (Sarah was carrying under her coat some things for Myriam-books, a doll, the jewels, but nothing for herself...) they did not have the fugitive look that could draw the attention of anyone. Despite what Nazi propaganda was saying on this matter, nothing in the physical appearance of Sarah or Myriam was betraying their origins...Unfortunately, Sarah did have a peculiar appearance: her eyes, her hair, and her ghostly-pale skin that made her quite remarkable in a crowd...And during her stay into this building, many people had noticed her-they may stay quiet, may said a word...It would depend on the circumstances...

The first encounter she had did not improved her opinion on Humans (why she was thinking this way ? That voice was getting an influence on her, for sure...) Someone whose appartment was next to the staircase, hearing their steps, opened slightly the door-and indiscutably saw them. With the German voices coming from the fourth, the conclusion was very obvious-the door closed very quickly. Anything to avoid trouble...If there had been a Nazi nearby, the reaction would have been likely to denounce them. Not exactly a courageous reaction...

Still, everything proceeded nicely, even when they arrived at the rear entry of the building. It was, of course, watched by the Gestapo-they had left a team of two men to secure this issue. But they never thought that someone could try to dare to pass right in front of them.

A part of Sarah was rationalizing, saying that she was doing this in the hopes that, if she passed in front of them calmly walking, this would maybe not raise suspicion (quite true). Another part of her thought that if there was indeed trouble…she could deal with quickly.

Sarah had a smile of sarcasm when she realized that the two Nazis were currently inspecting the cellar (the door to it was in the hallway/coal storeroom/storage place that was linking the stairs to the service exit…) officially checking if there was "ennemies of the Reich" hidden nearby, particulary in plain crates, that were filled with foodstuffs…They were in fact performing an operation whose name varied among time periods, from "looting" to "requisition"...The owner of the building was making some blackmarket deals. The smile vanished when Sarah realized that that the men of the Gestapo were not alone….She closed briefly her eyes. Trouble, major trouble. With the men of the Gestapo, there was a third person, that she knew. He was a Czech...and a collaborator, who thought that the way to go was basically to kneel at the feet of the Nazis, and try to impress them by being-vocally, most of the time-even more extremist than them. Asking what he will do if he saw them was a really stupid question. There was nothing that pleased Nazis more than denunciations-he was probably the one that had signalled to them the presence of foodstuffs in the cellar, just for showcasing his allegiance. It was soothing that this individual, which was making frequent tirades (including ones that were coming straight from Nazi propaganda, about the "vermin'' that were Sarah's people-and of course, the logical conclusion that this vermin needed to be ''dealt with". Sarah would not have cared much about this idiot-who had not the slightest doubt about her family origins, if he had not said one of his little speeches in front of Myriam-a thing that had, of course, hurt her deeply-it's rather disturbing for a six years old girl to hear that she had to be killed…) was copiously hated by everyone in the building …

_((This is the perfect day, Sarah, for make him pay for this…He is a threat…))_

It was certainly true. This man had seen them numerous times, and the Nazis had probably told him why they were coming. This meant that now, he knew about them. The risk that her and Myriam got noticed increased….Maybe, if the trio were too occupied by the looting, they would not care about them-there was still a chance. Motioning her little sister to remain as silent as possible, she walked with her straight from the exit, slowly, passing in front of the cellar's door…With her extraordinary luck, it was just at the time the "collabo" was exiting…

_((You are DEFINTELY going to need me, Sarah-this time, it's a fact, not an hypothesis_))

"HEY ! THOSE VERMINS ARE _THERE _! THEY ARE THE GIRLS FROM THE FOUR-"

He did not finished his sentence. Sarah had pushed him into the cellar-with a strenght that was a little surprising for a twelve years old girl (well, it was not as bad as she...had truly used her Vectors_…_) and was now running for the exit…with the two man from the Gestapo after her…

She ran a little in the courtyard-then realized that this was useless-with Myriam, there was no way she could outrun the Nazis. There was…really just one way out of this….

Sarah pushed Myriam in a small alley, not exactly to protect her from the Nazis-it was rather from protect her from seeing what was going to happen...The Nazis, seeing this, just laughed. It was unlikely that a six years old girl could outrun them, even if her sister tried to buy time...And what the heck a twelve years old, without weapons, could do on them ?

She was probably going to plead them to let her flee...Maybe she would offer some money-or even herself-to try to get a deal ? They would take it, but of course arrest her after. They, however, find very strange the behaviour she had-her tears, her slow approach...Suddenly worried, they pulled out their handguns...Sarah looked at them with pure despair...

In the alley, Myriam heard the laughter stop very suddenly, followed by a serie of detonations, and screams...and noises she prefered to not think to much about...

On the street, one Nazi was watching his own hand pressured to hit the trigger of his handgun-pointed toward his own chest...He was not hearing what his colleague was saying-it was likely that it was not a very positive comment, since he had been shot this way too...

Myriam moved to see what was happening-Sarah heard her...Without turning, she pleaded, in a voice that stunned Myriam-it was indeed Sarah's voice, but there was something different...

"...Myriam, don't come here. Please. I...really beg you...I will be there, very soon"

Sarah had still enough control on herself to realize that using her...Vectors...in a more straitghtfoward way was bound to attract attention-while the current situation was likely to puzzle their colleagues, but not necessary push them to far fetched solutions (after all, it looked like one individual had shot is colleague in the back, then comitted suicide...)

There was just the collaborator left...Sarah slowly walked back into the building, only caring about the fact that Myriam had seen nothing, and asking herself what she would say to her...

He was lying, half stunned, on the ground. The last thing he saw was a crate suddenly falling down on him-more exactly, on his face, from five meters high. Results were rather dreadful...

A little time later, Sarah came to pick Myriam up, with a strange look in her eyes...

Sarah took her sister in her arms-better to spare for, as long as possible, Myriam's legs-and began to walk away from that place, not too fast, again to avoid dragging attention...Sarah's whole body was shaking, and she was holding Myriam very tighly. Her amethyst/reddish eye were with an initially fearsone expression-that quickly disapeared when Myriam asked her what was happening...Sarah started to cry, realizing what she had done...It's what not that it was it was a bad thing in itself-it certainly was wrong to kill, but this was truly self-defense-it was that she had surrendered to this inner voice...and that a part of her _liked, enjoyed _what she had done to those individuals...She already felt that it was harder to resist to that voice. She had used her...gift...sometime in the past, but never to kill...and each time, it was both easier and harder...Easier to use it-the first time she unleashed her Vectors, she was barely four years old, and was very clumsy-she had used it for a rather menial reasons, taking something that was too high for her to reach (Merely jam, if she recalled correctly. If only all her earlier use of her Vectors could have been so innocent...She had used once for something she was happy off, but the rest...) Harder...to remain in control of herself after, espcecially this time...

"...I'm...never going to let you down...Nothing worth more than you for me, Myriam..."

Myriam was a bit frightened, because it was not only the tears of her big sister that was raining on her face-there was also blood, that covered her face, and most of her clothes...

"Where are we going, Sarah ? We…will never return there or home, hmm ? "

"No...It's not that bad-this place was rather dreadful, hmm ? (Sarah was saying this for cheering up her little sister. And obviously, it was not working) I don't know where we will go...I...will be honest, Myriam, we may have trouble to find a place to sleep for some days (She tried to look confident) But I'm sure I'm going to find something nice !

The chances that she found a decent place were quite low. She had no usable identity papers-the best she could hope was to find a place in an more or less abandoned building….

_((You can try to continue "living" this way. I will do nothing to prevent it. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to be very useful if you still don't want to truly use me...no...be me...))_

"Sarah...are you sure that you are fine ? I mean...you...you are really burning..."

Sarah replied nothing...she was having a terrible fever right now, yes, but it was not this that worried her...It was rather the pain she was currently feeling on the sides of her head...

**February 1943...Stalingrad...**

Stalingrad, once a major city in Soviet Union, was now only a huge wreck. It was often hard to localize where streets and buildings had -months of incredibly heavy fighting had destroyed things on an incredible scale. Hundred of thousands of soldiers had died there-it was not exagerrated to say that more Humans died in one day at Stalingrad than in many whole wars of the past…And this sign of "progress" was frightening to no end...

A thing, however, was helping the morale of the Soviets-civilians and Red Army alike-to increase, despite the monstruous casualties and destructions they had suffered from the Wermacht and the SS...The fact that Stalingrad had been the icy tomb of Nazis...

The surviving troops of the "Facist Beast" (the name gave to the Reich by Soviet Union officials) were in a rather ragged state, weakened by cold, disease, and hunger-many would not survive to the travel toward detention camps…To be honest, their survival was not exactly a priority for Soviet commanders-the way their captured troops had been treated by the Nazis was not exactly an incentive to give to the prisoners a fair treatment...(And still...the Soviets, globally, behaved better toward their prisonners than the Nazis had with Russian POWs...)

A group of soldiers of the Wermacht was being disarmed/searched (and...looted of their personnal possessions, too) near the Mamai Kurgan, the place were the battle had been the fierces-thousands of deaths...A female Russian officer, a lieutenant, who was checking out the burned hull of a T-34 tank (destroyed during the first phase of the battle-what was left of the crew was still in there...Horrible sight) saw this scene, and walked toward the group...

"Look a this, Nazis !...See your work..._THIS IS HOW BERLIN IS GOING TO LOOK !_"

Some months ago, in the middle of the Black Summer, many of the soldiers present there would have laughed at the idea that Russia could end the war at Berlin...Now, they were finding this much less funny-the Red Army had proven in a quite definitive way that she could beat the Wermacht. The Soviets had learn-by the hard way, like the Allies-to resist to the Third Reich war machine-and if some Nazi officers tried to convince themselves that this stagerring defeat was just a setback, most knew very well that Russia was now winning...

But, in addition to those facts, there was something irrationnal at work too-the conviction of the Russian officer saying this-so strong that it was influencing even her ennemies...

From a command post nearby, a Soviet general, who was previously reading to a report about the captured gear, with an politic commissar, heard the ourburst of the lieutenant...

"This is Lieutenant Sovorov, with the prisonners ? "(Rhetoric question. He knew the answer)

"Yes", replied the comissar, without lifting the eyes from the documents..."

"I'm a bit surprised to see the lieutenant there-I thought that with the little incident..."

"The said incident have been forgotten, general Chuikov. This man...never surrendered..."

The event had occured some days ago. Annah Sovorov had been put in charge of the preliminary questionning of several prisoners-just soldiers. Annah had quickly identified that hidden among them, there was an officer-another testimony to her capacities. Then, an "incident" had happened, resulting in the unfortunate death of the major-before questioning.

"This man", continued the commissar, "was from an unit that had once stationed in the Briansk area-this raised the attention of lieutenant Sovorov, who asked him a question about the whereabouts of someone she knew…Well, the prisonner apparently thought that he risked nothing by saying something quite rude to the lieutenant conerning that person-that, with the information he could give us, his life was protected. Note here that he said to the lieutenant was pure provocation...The lieutenant slapped him-and I think that for this Nazi, the "humiliation" was too much. He tried to attack Sovorov. She killed him in self-defense..."

"...Still, it's a rather critical mistake, and I wonder why there was not...investigations..."

"It's because of the personal history of Sovorv-with her outsdanding record for the Soviet Union, she desserve a...certain comprehension...And she had friends-very high-ranking friends in...some spheres. I will give you some details-purely official ones..."

"Officially, lieutenant Annah Sovorov is born in the area of Odessa, in 1923...I think it's better to tell to you immediatly that it's not exactly the truth. Altought, well, the date is probably the good one, but it's hardly an critical information. And, anyway, you should never ask a lady her age-it's a very tactless question (This strange attempt from humor from a political comissar was as surprising as it was completly dull) More seriously, let's just say that there is some…problems…with the family of the lieutenant, politically speaking..."

The euphemism "politically speaking" could mean a _lot _of things, that have a point in common ; the family of Sovorov had likely attracted the attention of the NKVD-unhealthy...

"Just to know...what kind of problems ? Is this related to the...(an hesitation...) trials ? "

"No. It's a completly different matter-and it's probably well-over for her now...(Traduction : this subject is also over) At the time of the Invasion, she was residing in Odessa proper, studying in university-and her previous combat experience proved to very useful...

This point puzzled the general. Combat experience in 1941 ? For an eighteen years old girl ? Where the heck she could have got it ? She was not even born during the Civil War. Maybe in Spain ? She would still have been too young-the Soviet Union had sent there experimented personnel, not conscripts… Finland ? Well, this one was at least possible, but no one in Soviet Union would have boasted from having gain combat experience from the Winter War…The general promised to himself to try to learn more about this point in particular,

"Sovorov genuinely volountered for the Red Army. Unfortunately, due to the patriarcal views of some reactionnaries officers (traduction : because she was female. The Soviet Union was now indiscutably the army with the most female personnel-and the only one with some of them at combat posts. But it would have been exagerated to say that they had been welcomed at first….), she was left out…and was still in the city when it felt to the invaders. Sovorov however managed to get out of Odessa, with one person-a young girl, Natalya. Sovorov is not very...talkative, about her, and what we know about her is rather sketchy-the best hypothesis is that this was the daughter of her neighbours, or maybe just a friend...They ended in the area of Briansk, unable to go further. It's there that Sovorov, after meeting with some partisans and isolated soldiers in the resistance undeground, took command of a tiny unit... She nammed, with a typical streak of self-confidence and optimism, her group totalling at his peak five persons (including one girl below fourteen, and with a fearsome initial arsenal of two handguns, one of them out of condition…) nothing less than the _241th_ _Brigade of Revolutionnary Warfare Against the Facist Oppressor_...Don't ask me where were the 240 others brigades-she picked up this number at random, to impress the Nazis. One of her first actions was to diffuse a proclamation that was stating, among numerous insults concerning the Nazi regime and it's officials (some of those insults were _very _interesting, especially the ones concerning the SS...) that the brigade was going to fight the Nazis, either until the "Facist Beast had been smashed once and for all", or that all Nazis had surrendered..."

"I must say that in the summer of 1941, even by the standards of psychological warfare, this was a rather bold declaration. I guess what was the initial reactions of the Nazis..."

"They laughed, yes. I'm not sure that this was not part of the plan of Sovorov-she really have a machiavellian spirit...(the commissar thought that Annah had showed this in her actions _before _the war...) In any case, they severly underestimated the capacities of the group, and even launched in Briansk a propaganda campaign, ridiculizing them. It's served to highlight even more the capacities of this partisan unit when they began to act...Results were impressive : numerous assassinations of traitors, collaborators and Nazis officers, ammunition stocks blown-up, war materiel sabotaged, Intelligence gathered, and so on...Sovorov managed to get herself a fearsome reputation-and quite a score of stupid surnames gave to her by the Nazis-Red Wraith, Red Ghost, and even Red Valkyrie…Those names, which in my opinion are simply reeking with superstition and cheap esoterism, gave to her an idea that, I must admit, was genial. General, have you ever heard of a thing nammed _Operation Zohar _?

"I must say that I never (A pause) _Zohar..._I think I have heard this term before. If I remember correctly, this would be a quite surprising name for a military operation made by us ?

"And it's normal, since it was a completely fake "operation"…But I'm sure that the top Nazis heard about it-and that it disturbed them...Annah Sovorov truly have a…_wild…_imagination...I can even say that some of our own officials-at the very, very, very _top _level, if you understood what I mean-when they heard about it, made bets about how Himmler and the like were bound to react when they would learn about _Operation Zohar. _We will probably never know-and this is unfortunate, since I'm sure that it was...amusing...Anyway, this plan, while successful, had a side effect-this definitely attracted the attention of the Nazis toward this group. They put a rather huge price on her head...you guess what happened-there is always traitors…They were betrayed, and their hiding place in Briansk was gave to the SS. Sovorov and most of her group were at this time performing an operation...only Natalya was there. She...well, according to the propaganda, they made her pay for the whole operations of the Brigade-she is the only member they ever questionned about _Operation Zohar..._I fear that even by Nazis standards, she was treated very brutally-and when they realized she knew nothing, it likely worsened...This is why Sovorov don't want to talk about this-she felt that because of her idea, she sentenced one innocent girl to death...There is defintely something about the _identity _of the traitor-Sovorov said, after her group had finally join our lines during the battle in the outskirts of Moscow (after their very spectacular last operation made in Briansk, the destruction of a whole unit of the SS, probably ordered for avenge Natalya, they could no longer stay there, as the whole garrison was after them) that she does not know who it was. It's obviously a lie-Sovorov was extremly cautious, and gave the location of this hiding place to an handful of persons-she had almost certainly no trouble to find who was the mole..And yet, she had not mentionned it. Either she want to execute this traitor herself-or it's the traitor was rather, ahem...close to her, and this influence her judgement..."

The general, after hearing this, seriously wondered what kind of service Sovorov could have gave to the Intelligence and NKVD to be somewhat "protected" by them. It was certainly something quite impressive, since she had made commentaries on the political leadership that could have easily gain her troubles...He sincerly hoped that this protection woud last ; Sovorov had showed during the battle that she had, despite some insubordination, great capacities. And himself was quite willing to forget, like the Intelligence, this incident...

Meanwhile, Annah Sovorov had returned to her quarters, located to an house that had not been to much damaged (well, compared to Stalingrad in general : there was some walls left, part of the roof, and the cave...) were two of her soldiers-veterans from the 241th, Vassili and Pietr-awaited...Seeing her face, Pietr, worried, asked her is she was all right...

She had not told them about Natalya-well, not what the major had said, with all the scorn that a Nazi was able to show. She just had said that he had reported that Natalya was prisonner...

Annah collaped in sobbing, to the great unease of her subordinates (the lieutenant morale had never broke down, at Briansk, Moscow or Stalingrad-this was a sign that the news about Natalya were devastating her, ripping her appart...They were making Natalya pay-in a abominable way-for what Annah had done-it was horribe just to think to it...)

"...I will never give-up...Never. If what this (an extremly explicit insult) told the truth (a part of Annah hoped that it was not true...better than death, sure, but...), Natalya is alive, at least..."

"...Er, lieutenant, tried Vassili, I don't want to look negative-I want to find Natalya, like everyone-but...the chances are quite low, you know...She is probably now in Germany..."

"But _we _are going there, anyway", merely replied Annah, with an ice-cold voice.

The _we _was of course not just their group ; it was the whole Red Army...


	8. Chapter Eight : Nyu

**Present time, Kamakura...**

Yuka, after having one more time-in vain-to calm herself, returned with Nana into a room of the Kaede Inn-Nyu's room, in fact. Yuka had installed Nyu there, before the...events...the best she could (ignoring the numerous _Nyu _of protest that her guest had made at first-she would have preferred to sleep with Kouta. To say the least, Nyu was very straightforward on some points...For instance, her habit of...tickling, to take a very neutral word...the others female inhabitants of the Kaede Inn, Diclonius or Humans. It was certainly starting from a good intention, but...It was however much more due to her real complete innocence than the reverse) Nyu had enjoyed this place tremendously. She had blurred memories of what her life had been before (rather fortunate for her)-for her, the facility was mostly...a dark place. A kind of (very...) bad dream, that was fortunately over…for now. Nyu feared more than anything to return there-without Kouta, without Yuka, Mayu, Nana, without the people who were so kind with her. She had enjoyed every single minute of her stay in the Kaede Inn...

Those quite happy memories were very useful for the present time.. Yuka was able to kept in mind-despite the horror she had for what she was forced to do-that the poor Nyu deserved to receive help. It was hard to not like Nyu...Yuka had some crisis of jealousy at time, but, as she had realized it a good time ago, Nyu was so helpless that accusing her of anything (for instance, accusing her of trying to seduce Kouta.) was completely ridiculous. When she made one of her _Nyu, _especially after one of her domestic disasters, it was impossible to feel any anger toward her...Yuka recalled the time she had asked Nyu to help her in the garden...

With an indestructible goodwill, Nyu had done the simple task that Yuka had given her-pick up small branches. Unfortunately, there had been an tree root slightly sticking out of the grass...When Yuka, who had left to help Nana with the watering-the poor girl was basically _drowning _the plants-returned, she had seen a scene of total devastation-funny devastation, not like the kind of devastation occuring more and more in Kamakura...Nyu, unable, to pick up the "branch", had digged around it, shredding one more time her clothes, covering herself with soil, and ravaging the garden that Yuka kept in order with a meticulous care...The icing of the cake had been when Nana had come to see Yuka, who was contemplating the scene with a sort of horrified fascination, in a pitiful state, completly soaked-she had fumbled with the hose...The contemplation of those twin disasters had make Yuka...laugh, sincerly...

And if Yuka did nothing right now, the poor Nyu was...was going to die, and not easily.

By the way, why Kouta was saying now that Nyu was _Lucy _? Sure, Lucy was a kinda better name than _Nyu _or _Nana-_in the sense, it was a name given to an animal, and a number-but nether him or Nana were consistent in their use of those names-in fact, they still used both, without clear reasons…Yuka was sure that this was more or less related with the _obvious _differences that there was between the Nyu they had found on the beach (unable to speak-even if she had improved a little, to the point of being able to use several words it was still flagrant) and the Nyu that had she had seen at the temple, fully able to speak. (Yuka was founding that this last point was a very good sign-if Lucy was sometimes able to speak, to be normal...then it was _much _better that if she had been completly disabled on the mental side. As she had not been able to speak to Lucy much time, Yuka had not noticed that there was much more differences than just speaking abilities between Lucy and Nyu...short that, right now, Lucy was not as positive as Nyu was. But with her state, it was hardly surprising...)

"...Sorry about leaving", she said both to Mayu and Lucy (or Nyu ? She was really unsure of what term to use now...She decided to try to use both names the less possible, until things had settled...) as she entered back the room. "...I...I just could not support it longer, and..."

"...Have you told Kouta that I am here ? I...I need to speak to him. It's important..."

Despite what Nana had told them, about the fact that the _Diclonius, _to take her words, were somewhat quite resistant, Yuka was amazed that Lucy/Nyu could still talk clearly...

Even if her mind was a little troubled. She did not really recalled of having see Kouta when she had finally returned at the Kaede Inn-which was perfectly normal, as she was deep in shock, badly wounded by firearms ; she was currently in a real pool of blood…almost dying.

Yuka had decided, in face of the obvious distress of both her cousin and Lucy, to go for using a double white lie-which risked, she was aware of it, of angering both the girl and Kouta. She had said to Lucy/Nyu that Kouta was not there, and to Kouta that the situation of Lucy was not _that _dramatic-even if this would be better that he come see her. It was already quite bad that Lucy/Nyu was begging for his presence, and that Kouta was not coming because it was too hard for him (one more time, Yuka swore to herself to put some matters straight with him when Lucy/Nyu would be out of danger…or dead, which was an unfortunate possibility ) to not try to make him come with emotional blackmail…As for Lucy/Nyu, she had enough problems right now to not worry herself about what Kouta was thinking about her...

Lucy tried to ask something else, but she stopped mid-sentence, the pain being too harsh...

"I know, it's very hard to support-I don't know how you are able to do it...But I'm doing everything I can...", said Yuka in a low voice. " Just give me...two minutes, all right ? "

"Just end it...just end it...", replied Lucy, with a voice that was close to an kind of hiss...

"...Of course...I...I'll check the book again, there is something that I'm not doing right (Yuka put an hand over her mouth as Lucy moved slightly, exposing one of her wounds...and the result of Yuka's work...An horrible reddish hole on her forearm, almost bone deep...She continued much faster...) "Hold on a little more, it's going to be over very soon ! "

"...You told that one hour ago", replied Lucy, with a voice that visibly startled Nana...

Lucy was however, very grateful toward them. Considering what she had done to Nana, she did not desserved any pity from her...Same thing for Yuka. And yet, they were trying to do their best for patching her wounds (the fact that they were grossly inneficient in those matters was, after all, not so bad. If Lucy wanted to receive top level medical care, she knew very well where she could go-but were the "side effects" would be much worse than here...)

There was however a difference, and not minor one, between the situations of Yuka and Nana. The other Diclonius knew very well (it was pretty hard to forgot...) what Lucy had done to her-and even, to a certain point, what she had done in her past, as Kurama had told her many things-perfectly true-about Lucy, to motivate her for going against her. Yuka, was not in this case. For her, Lucy had done nothing wrong-well, except of the various killing of troopers that could be justified in a way, since they were after her and Nana, to bring them into a living hell. She was certainly _not _awarethat Lucy had killed Kanae, or all those people in Kamakura eight years ago. Only the fact that the she never knew the details about how her uncle and cousin had been killed (usually, this was really not the kind of things to say to a young child. And Kanae's body was really in an horrible state) had prevented Yuka to make the connection between that past tragedy and the present events...But she would, eventually-

There was something else about Nana...she was perfectly aware that it was Lucy in front of her, and not Nyu-the slight nervousness she had when Lucy had spoke in her "hostile" voice was a clear sign of that, since the voice was recalling her this dreadful battle with Lucy...

Lucy would have killed Nana if she had not been stopped-and she had done it in a unspeakable way...Nana had an extremely good motive to kill her, and a golden occasion-the pain was stopping Lucy from using her Vectors correctly, for defense or attack...and Nana could anyway block them for hours with the "trick" she had apparently found.

And yet, she was helping Lucy with a clear goodwill and kindness. Lucy "blamed" it on first on what she was seeing as the weaknesses of Nana, meaning her repulsion toward killing, her apparent submission toward the scientists...The darkest part of her always found Nana quite annoying, and the more Human part had always a little..._jealousy. _Because Kurama was minimally kind with her...Because Nana could live in Human society without much trouble and bringing tragedy to people around her-a thing Lucy desired so much...

The submission part was not true, however. Nana was not, despite what many thought, with such a nature-after all, she never had, unlike many Diclonius, have a mental breakdown, which showed rather a great resistance than mere passivity or acceptance of her fate.

Lucy saw Nana, fumbling a little (lime many persons, she was less dexterous when she was nervous…but she had quite good reasons) pick up a little vial on a nearby drawer…She checked the contents of it. Almost empty. It was the second one this evening. She took some pills and handed them to Lucy, whose breathing was growing more and more labored...

"There are some painkillers left...You should take them, as this is not over…"

A common reaction for someone in a similar situation than Nana (meaning, being badly wounded by Lucy…and seeing her now in the same conditions) would have been to feel that this was a kind of retribution. Nana was not thinking like that, at all…She had not...come to terms, with Lucy, far from it-but, after all, Lucy had saved her life, some time ago. And well, her new limbs were not as good as well as the old ones, but she was now very good using them. Things were not _that _bad-especially considering her life at the Kaede Inn…

When she was at the facility, Nana opinion on her future was rather bleak-she knew somehow that when she would be no longer useful, she would be…disposed off…After her return from Kamakura, she was _sure _that she would be killed in the next hours-she just hoped that it would not be too painful. When Daddy had sedated her, she thought that it was the last thing she would ever felt…She had never thought that she would awake at all-and certainly not awake free…It had took her a good time to realize that her new life was not a wonderful dream. She was so happy with her life here that it made her almost forgot her…wounds. And thus, made for her easier to live with Lucy-especially considering that Nyu was so kind, so unlike Lucy (On this point, Nana had trouble to understand,why both Mayu and Yuka were finding it strange that she let often let Nyu "tickle" her…it was so fun ! Even if, technically, she had to admit that it was not an usual kind of fun…What was the word they used ? Incorrect, indecent, something like that...Well, it was another thing for her to learn…)

But, apart of the fact that she liked Nyu (and not only, of course, for an highly dubious on a morality standpoint reason…), Nana was interested in _Lucy _survival for several reasons…She wanted to know who was that girl that made Lucy cry-not only for the sake of curiosity, but because it showed a much softer side of the older Diclonius…And also, Lucy may know something on a matter that was very important for Nana…it was about another Diclonius, that had died long ago at the facility-Number Three, the one that had hurt her Daddy…

Lucy pushed away the vial that Nana was handing her (which make the later snap back to the present time…) That stuff was just making her sick, and was not, at all, helping her.

Yuka then said, in a not assured voice, to Lucy that she was about to restart…Even if this was a piece of cake compared to many things she had survived, Lucy got very, very tense…

Yuka had borrowed at the local library what she thought could be useful...An old manual from the Self-Defense Forces, giving instructions for first-aid, on the battle lines. The instructions about simple operations, surgery-type were quite basic, and obviously did not considered the suffering of the patient . It was made for a soldier not knowing anything to surgery (like Yuka...this is why she had picked this book, that was more understandable that a surgery notebook…) with limited tools at this disposal, but willing to try to save a wounded comrade, when medics were not available at the instant. The suggested methods were then a bit...a bit crude, and if they were indeed easy to understand, they were not very sophisticated…To be honest, a good part of the manual had been written in the optic that the wounded would be unconscious during the process...Which was not the case of Lucy.

The painkillers that Yuka had bought in the nearest pharmacy-the strongest stuff that could be bought legally-had barely dizzied Lucy, even if she had already took in the past few hours at least three times the maximal dose-the Diclonius had got, over the years, a rather massive resistance to sedatives, not considering her natural resistance that was quite high too…

Yuka was completely white, now, and she was trembling. This was really gruesome. She had trouble to _watch _what she was doing, which says a lot about how it was hard for her to _do _it.

Lucy managed to not move too much, as Yuka tried, for the third time, to remove with a kitchen knife (the best thing she could find...the blade was not exactly made for this job, and it was obvious with the "results" she was getting…) the two bullets Lucy had in the right forearm...She had managed to remove the one in the left leg in "only" two attempts, but had not been so fortunate with the others limbs...It's have been a real butchery. Yet, she _had _to do it, as they really not had other choices-short than letting Lucy die, which was out of question.

As bringing Lucy to the hospital or a mere clinic (or even calling a doctor here) was completely out of question. In the addition to her appearance (although she had lost her two most striking features...for the time being, at least...), there was the nature of the wounds. Injuries by firearms were supposed to be reported to the police-and even if Yuka managed to soft-talk the situation, by inventing something (saying, for instance, that it was an accidental shooting and that they did not wanted trouble...) this would have worked for one wound, maybe two...But _that _number of injuries (made, moreover, by heavy duty military weapons) was sure to be reported in top speed-any medical crew would be astonished that Lucy was still alive. And finally, it was a safe bet that someone able to throw away so many troopers against Lucy was fully able to issue a warning to hospitals with a precise description of her.

But what had happened exactly? Lucy had just come back to the Kaede Inn, after a month of absence…in which she had not exactly lost her time, judging by both the news and her state.

She was barely able to walk, which was a feat, considering that she was supposed to be dead three times, with so much ammo fired in her body...Her horns gone, resulting in two major wounds on the sides of the head, were just the most striking (or rather, _unstriking, _since they were no longer there…) injuries she had. There was quite a score of others made by projectiles (Diclonius could deflect a _lot _of projectile without trouble, but even for the ones with the most experience, there was a limit…) fortunately mostly in the limbs...If a good amount of bullets had not stayed in the wounds, there was five-six of them that needed extraction. Lucy had also suffered a very heavy bloodloss, that was seriously weakening her.

Basically, after Kouta had opened the door and saw her, frozen in surprise, for about one minute, she had (literally) fall into his arms, no longer able to stand up. It was an extremely disturbing experience, of course, that had rather shocked Kouta (and also provided him a nice reason for letting his cousin do the job...) Initially, he had wanted to be with Nyu, but as they were mutually depressing depressing themselves, Yuka had expelled him from the room...Since that time, despite numerous attempts from Mayu and Nana to make him react, he had stayed in an almost catatonic like state-he really loved Nyu/Lucy, apparently.

Yuka _almost _managed to have that thought without feeling anger...Almost.

Lucy let out a shriek of pain when Yuka finally removed one of the bullets. Just two left. Now, it was almost sure that Nyu was "going to make it", to take an common expression. But the trouble was just starting. Common sense suggested that for both Lucy and Nana, it was preferable to stay _very _low for a long time, to let the matters settle down-or at least make this Kakuzawa guy think they had left Kamakura, or died...In any case, Lucy/Nyu would not be able to move for a good time (with Diclonius constitution...some days, maybe ?)

Common sense also suggested that, with the efforts they had made to give to Nana a normal life-take her out in shops, restaurants, and even seeing movies, somebody was sooner or later make the connection between the girl that was hunted down (with orders for immediate termination, unlike for Lucy) and the _Nana Kurama _living at the Kaede Inn...

_Nana Kurama..._Yuka had tried, many times, to suggest another family name to Nana-her dislike for the professor was increasing each time that she thought about what he had done to Nana...Not just him, for be honest. He was a guy with some decency left, after all.

But Nana steadfastly refused to even consider it. She was very attached to her "Daddy"-and for her, the sign that he had give her _his _name was a sign that he really loved her.

And anyway, _Kurama _was almost the only option for Nana-it was the name she had on the false papers that the professor Kurama had made for her-one rare good point for the late professor, Yuka had to admit. Kurama was probably sincere when, _at that point, _he had acted the well-being Nana...It was just that it was a lot late-not _too _late, but almost...)

All that said, Yuka was almost sure that those documents would not be enough for a close scrutiny-but they were far enough to do things like enlist Nana in school-she was quite smart, and with a little more weeks of intensive "courses" at the Kaede Inn, she would have been able to attend to school almost normally. Her grades would have been abysmal at first (heck, up to some weeks ago, what Nana knew of the world was her cell, some labs, and the hallways between those places. Add to this some bits of phrases that she had overheard, some words of Kurama and Shirakawaze, and this resulted in a pretty disturbing "education"...) but Yuka was sure that with a little help, that she would have glady provided. Nana would have performed very well, even if some matters were likely to remain a little touchy (for instance, Yuka herself had disliked, and even hated, many of her courses in biology, because it's involved little experiences with frogs or rats...That was going to be _much _more troubling for Nana, who had been countless times at the place of the rat...) But this project was now over...

The name _Kurama_ was relatively common in Japan-but it was nothing short than a miracle than those guys at the island had not thought yet about this point. And miracles don't last forever. It was better to ditch that idea of sending Nana to school-and it pained Yuka...

After one another hour of work, Yuka finally managed to remove the last bullets. Finally.

The pain was decreasing in Lucy. The pain...and herself. Lucy was not fighting against it. She liked being the...other...Much better than be Lucy...the monster, the sadist, the killer...As adrenaline was decreasing in her body, she was feeling sleepy, the effects of the painkillers finally kicking in...Before it was too late, she managed to say something, critical...

"...Tell to Kouta that...it's probably _her _that will be there when I wake up..."

Only Mayu heard the sentence-and she was almost sure to understood it's sense. Was this a good thing, or not ? Nyu was certainly more gentle-but Lucy desserved to..._exist..._too.

After, there was just the...clean-up...to do. Bandage the wounds (awful, but easy to do compared to the extraction), remove the blood, install Lucy/Nyu in a bed with clean sheets...

Yuka was in the living room, about to get a well desserved sleep, for some hours-Mayu would check on Lucy/Nyu meanwhile. After, it would be Yuka's turn, then Nana-when the phone ringed...Nana, eager to show to Yuka that she was improving, picked up the phone, and almost answered in a normal way, before handing the communication to Yuka...

The person there was on the other end of the line was very well known by Yuka, and in normal circumstances, it would have been very normal that she called at the Kaede Inn-she had even done it at least one time per week, for the past month. Right now, however, especially considering that it was past midnight, it was probably not for a social call...

"Aunt Kosame ? How are you ? I hope that Mom is not causing you much trouble ? (Despite the situation, Yuka almost smiled. Her mother and her aunt get along pretty well...at distance...When they were within the same city, like right now, it was less easy...) Oh, she came _again_ with this old story about the set of plates that from grandmother ? I told you, she will never give up on that point-like you, like me, she is somewhat obstinate, you know..."

A short silence followed. The hint of smile vanished from Yuka's lips. Kosame was realizing that Yuka wanted to chit-chat., to avoid _the _critical subject, that Kosame wanted to raise...

"...All right, aunt Kosame ", she finally replied..."Oh, who answered the lcall ? A friend of me...(Other period, longer. Yuka sighed) _No, _really _no, _Aunt Kosame, she is not his...What ? Oh, wait a minute (Yuka hesitated, than put her left hand on the mike of the phone...Yes. Better use this occasion...) Nana, she just say that you are a looking like a very nice girl !

The comment made happy Nana, for sure-for three seconds. She realized plainly that it was a bit strange that someone that had never saw here could say such a thing. But well, this showed, at least, that Yuka (if not this Kosame) wanted to please her-which was nice...

Nana was used to see people lying to her-in the past, it had helped to make her life less unbearable. It helped Daddy to talk with her-often he could not tell her the truth.

But, the strangest thing was that Yuka was not lying...not openly, that is. Aunt Kosame had, in a fact, just said, while sighing, that Nana sounded at least like a "nice girl"...in the optic of a potential girlfriend for Kouta. (Kosame was more than a little inquisitive/obsessive about Kouta-which was perfectly normal, after all...) The not-so-well hidden sense of the phrase was a _lot _less nice than the appearances...As the reaction of Nana had been a little slow, she had thought that Nana too was..._slow. _The comment mostly meant "she sounds dumb, but kind"...and Kosame was actually _relieved _that Nana was not close, in that sense, to Kouta...

It was rude, but how to blame Kosame for this ? How she could have guessed about Nana's situation ? (which was basically unbelievable…) Yuka tried to recuperate the situation...

"Err, you know, aunt Kosame", she...she is still struggling with her oral Japanese-she is a foreign student that is living here ! (Yuka cursed herself immediately for this idea-first of all, Nana was in hearing range, and she understood very well what this meant. She looked instantly depressed, and left the place to go to her room...Second point, that stuff about foreign student, said on the inspiration of the moment, was bound to attract an _hellish _amount of new questions from Kosame...later. "Fortunately", for now, this matter was very secondary to Kosame...She had just raised the question to have a decent pretext to speak about Kouta)

"So, Aunt Kosame", continued Yuka, who was tired too of trying to delay the subject-completly useless "Why are you calling us at this hour...Ah, about the...incidents, you say, at Kamakura ? What incidents ? (Period) Ah ? I maybe heard, yes, some stuff about one or two murders or things like that, but it was so vague...(Yuka tried to sound midly worried-if she was too detached, Kosame would realize that something was wrong...) How I am not knowing more about them ? (Yuka was saying this while there was next to the phone a local newspaper from this morning with the front page covered mostly with articles related to those events, and while every single TV news report nation-wide contained at least a news report about the recent crime wave in Kamakura...Of course, the said coverage was sticking to the official version-the one without doubt promoted by Kakuzawa, about a serial killer at large) Well, you know, the college, the Kaede Inn, helping Kouta to move in...What ? All right, all right, I know there is a little criminality increase, but it's not dramatic Kamakura is still a nice place...! " (A _little _increase of the crime rate ? Altought traditional criminality had almost nothing to do with what was labelled as the crime-rate-which was giving to Kakuzawa an golden pretext to request for more security troops at Tokyo-statistically, Kamakura was now on par with the worst cities on Earth..And a _nice _place ? Yuka opinon on her hometown was plumetting daily-each time, in fact, she thought to what had happened on this forsaken island)

"There is _nothing _to worry about ! ", continued Yuka, trying to sound convinced…

She was not. Saying that it was safe was an extremely positive view of the situation, to say the least. Not only they were living in a city that was more and more unsafe, with all those incidents, but her and Kouta were sheltering the two girls that were the cause of all this…

" It's...nothing, really, you really don't have to worry", continued Yuka…but she realized quickly that Kosame was knowing the real situation. And she was basically issuing an ultimatum : Yuka and Kouta really should leave the city for some time-for instance, for returning in Hokkaido, for seeing her.…(Which was, honestly, would have been the smartest thing to do-aunt Kosame was well-meaning, she did not had to make such an offer to Yuka)

After inventing something for not allowing her to speak with Kouta-with his mind state, this would make Kosame worry even more-Yuka cut the communication. Damn.

The problem with Kosame was pretty minor compared to the one with Kakuzawa-but it was a very real one. Kosame had been pretty clear-she wanted them out of this town, and fast. If they did not find a _credible _reason for not leaving Kamakura (and with Kouta, Yuka would be hard-pressed to pretend, for example, that he was staying for studying...), she was likely to ask for serious explanations... and the situation was so crazy that Yuka did not even dared to think how she was going to explain to her aunt that her and her cousin had sheltered a runaway girl and technically adopted her (well, this one could pass relatively well, if well explained...), but also two girls that were not exactly Humans, had quite a life story, some...peculiar...powers, and were searched by a private army with very drastic instructions (that was going to be harder to explain...) As telling the truth was out of question, Kosame suspicious nature was likely to quick in-she would maybe come here, danger or not (danger ? Yuka had pretended that there was no problem in town…She could not say that there were problems when Kosame wanted to come ! ) The best idea would be to go see Kosame, calm her, and then return. Of course, there was, as always, a major issue with this solution : the Diclonius….

The two could probably, especially if someone was left with them (Mayu or Yuka) manage to live for a couple of days in the Kaede Inn (the state of the Kaede after those days would be another matter...) But this meant that in case of trouble (I.E, the guys from the island finally finding them), they would be alone. Yuka was well aware that neither Nyu or Nana actually needed the very meager protection the Humans could offer them (in fact, they risked to be in their way rather than be helpful)...but, honestly, they could not let those poor girls in such a situation. And after all, since the search for them was just in Kamakura, leaving was maybe the best thing. But this led to another problem. It was unlikely that the people that were after Lucy and Nana would give up if they leaved merely Kamakura for Hokkaido. This meant that they would bring trouble there instead of here-which was of course a thing to avoid. On the other hand, it was sure that those individuals had not-_yet-_identified her, Kouta or Mayu...

And then, Yuka saw it. Yes. This would remove Nana from danger for at least some days (the younger Diclonius still had her horns, but they could be hidden under a ribbon or a similar thing,..) as well as please her. Of course, her plan did not settled the long term issue (to put it simply, what the heck her, Mayu and Kouta were going to do on the long run…)

After she hanged the phone, she immediately walked to Nana's room, in the hopes that she was not asleep, even if the day and the night had been rather exhausting…

Nana was changing in her nightshirt, when Yuka arrived (and did not showed the slightest unease…Yuka made a mental note to _really _explain her the concept of modesty)

"Nana, for the love of…Lock your door, when you are-oh, I'm sorry (Yuka had suddenly recalled that Nana had developed a little side-effect from her years at the facility-she disliked a lot closed places. A rather mild problem, honestly) First of all, the mistake you make on the phone, it's not important. Everyone do little errors...And, trust me, you _are _really improving (Yuka was very sincere on this point) ...You worked so hard here, to help us, that I have a surprise for you.Would you like to go with me in Hokkaido, for…vacations ? "

First hand, it looked pretty insane, as they tried to _avoid _questions, to go with Nana see aunt Kosame. But Yuka did not actually intend to present Nana to Kosame. The idea was getting the two Diclonius out of Kamakura-and it was obvious that Lucy and Nana were more likely to succeed if they were separated. Yuka would find for Nana a hotel room somewhere in Hokkaido, for a couple of days, while she was calming aunt Kosame...and after, as this quite rude for Nana, excuse herself by taking Nana to places that would entertain her,

Nana enthusiasm for the idea-even if she was really unsure of what was this Hokkaido place-was showcased by her reaction : she thanked Yuka with profusion, kissing her on the cheeks…while completly naked (which make Yuka face turn to a nice red color…)

It was not exactly the reward herself that was making her happy (even if it looked somewhat better than the "rewards" she got when she was nice with Daddy-although she enjoyed them tremendously…), it was the attention…This night, when she finally managed to sleep, her dreams were about this OQUADO place…and not about the fate of the poor Three...

Now, Yuka had to deal with Kouta, and convince him to do his part. He was outside-the news that Nyu was in a better conditions had relieved him a little, but he was still in shock...

"Kouta ? It was Aunt Kosame on the phone...She is...worried, about the situation here-she is asking you and me to come back in Hokkaido, for our safety...Another new problem for us ! "

Kouta, not surprisingly, said nothing. His usual reaction, in fact. This new was...a terrible blow for him. The return of Lucy was a great thing for him-even if it was terrible to see her in that terrible state...butYuka had recalled him that there was dark things around Lucy...

"I have thought to something-it's simple, but it should work...We will delay things as long as possible with aunt Kosame-if there is not too much...complications in the medias (Yuka was rather optimist on this point-Lucy was crippled in a bed. She would avoid the patrols-and thus, the patrols would avoid death-good deal for everyone ! Unless...unless the soldiers would come here...Serious risk, completly unavoidable...) it may "hold" for one or two weeks-or even longer, but I don't really count on it...When it will be no longer possible to delay, I will take Nana out of town, in Hokkaido, and see aunt Kosame, to calm her a little...Meanwhile, in some days, you will go in Tokyo with Lucy and Mayu (Yuka had thought, quite rightly, that if there was a place in Japan that was relatively safe, it was Tokyo. Kakuzawa could not use so openly his troops there-too far from his "power base"-the numerous friends and complicities he had around Kamakura and Yokosuka,...Another important thing was the presence of Mayu-she was quite mature-psychologically-for someone of her age and she was certainly more level-headed than Kouta...) Then, aunt Kosame will come visit you, and see that _everything _is fine, that you are all right...I don't know, find something _credible _to tell her. Don't say that you are visiting museums, she would not fall for it for a minute-I guess that telling her that you are gone...ahem...amusing (get drunk)...yourself with friends could work. We will then advise on what to do..."

For a plan that had been crafted in less than five minutes, it was a pretty good one-and it should have worked quite well, as it was somewhat flexible. Yuka could be proud of it...But Kouta, for a reason was very hostile toward it-Yuka did not understood why.

"...No, this is impossible, Yuka. Completly impossible. We...cannot...Lucy can't see her..."

"...Why Aunt Kosame would not like to see Nyu...or Lucy, as you call her ? She seemed to be, err...alright, tonight ? Her mood a little dark (this word tensed Kouta...) but nothing serious-If she return to her former state...this could causea slight problem, for sure...In the very worst case, you just have to let Nyu with Mayu while you are meeting aunt Kosame.

Kouta could not accept this...Even a very remote possibility of encounter was to much...

"...It's just not possible, Yuka. I will do something else. I will find something (Yuka was dubious. Kouta was not dumb, but his plans had a tendency to never work...)

"...Okay. I guess that it's no use to argue. I will just go with Nana in Hokkaido...Stay here. But I warn you-this is not going to be enough. .And don't forget that those guys still hunt Nyu...We will have to leave Kamakura, sooner or later-better _leaving _it than _fleeing._

Kouta was not listening a word of what Yuka was saying...He was much too troubled...

The truth was that he could not go with Nyu see "aunt Kosame"-because it would be a meeting...that...he could not cope with. This would be monstruous...unthinkable...

Since Nyu/Lucy had killed, eight years ago, in a gruesome way Kanae and his father...

Kouta could lie more or less about that tragedy to Yuka (even is she was aware that he was hiding something. Of course, she could not exactly put her finger on...But as Kouta was not very good for lying in the common sense of the word-even if he could "lie" to himself in a very convincing way, his denegations were making look strange the critical points...For instance, the total lack of details he had gave about his childhood meeting with Lucy...)

Kouta could not, however, lie about this subject to his own _mother._


	9. Chapter Nine : Numéro Quatre

Island facility...present time... 

The landing pad of the facility was one of the most critical element of the island defense ; it was from there that any assault would come-an _Human _assault. Any military-style operation, large or small, would involve at some point securing this landing zone. Yet, as Kakuzawa was heavily underestimating the capacities of Humans, it was not as well guarded as the lower levels of the complex. And there was also the sense of false security that was often coming with positions dubbed as untakable. Even when considering an surprise assault (meaning, a force managing to land...), the chances of success of an opposing force were quite low. They would have to gain access to the facility proper, under very heavy fire. And if they managed to reach it, the hallways were protected by many layers of partition. _Almost _impossible (forgetting the _almost _part in _almost impossible _was a classical error). The officers from the Security also made the critical mistake of considering that their eventual ennemies would do _what they hoped to do_-an frontal assault, where infantry would be mowed down by defense fire. The facility even had several very nasty surprises for shooting down support helicopter gunships. Truly, a certain carnage. However, an unlikely carnage, as no one would be stupid enough to charge head on...In fact, the impressive size of the defense force was bound to push ennemy planners to design a plan to _avoid _meeting those conventionnal defenses.

Kakuzawa was also quite convinced that no one would attack him-the two most powerful military forces in the area, the American Seventh Fleet, and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, were infiltrated by "friends" of him...And this, honestly, was a better defense than all the military surplus of the world . If Washington or Tokyo (and it was very probable that this would have been Washington _and _Tokyo) had decided to attack the facility, the forces of Kakuzawa would have been able to repel one assault, two assaults...Not all assaults, especially considering that when the ennemy forces would have admitted that an landing/capture assault was impossible without very heavy casualties, they had far enough power (especially the Americans) to destroy at distance and without risks the facility a hundred time with conventional weapony, despite the ultra-thick layers of concrete...

With his "friends" he could hope that the detection of the facility (of rather, the detection of the actual goals of the ressearchs conducted here...) could be delayed. A little time was all he he needed. (Time...and Lucy) Director Kakuzawa did not even had to think to the long term-the completion of his project was now a matter of months, maybe even weeks. After all those years of setbacks, like the evasion of those two Diclonius at this facility, the...incidents before and during World War 2 (Kakuzawa was not aware, at all, that this chapter of his life was about to bring him a whole new kind of problems...And he was prefering to not think too much about this chapter of his life. Not because of what he had done, but because those incidents had resulted in huge delay for his project, and also a thing he saw as a personnal humiliation. A terrible one), it was now almost over : They had started to produce the virus in great quantities. Like Lucy had said to Kouta, in five years, this world would be very different...Kakuzawa considered that he had all the right to execute this plan. In his madness, he was by birth superior to everyone, Humans but also the Diclonius detained there. Humans were decidly inferior to him, after all...And the Diclonius he had in his power were just tools for him. Since they were in a sense "his" creations, he could do with them what he want.

This point was rather confused in his mind. Kakuzawa really considered that his family was the one that had been "chosen" to be the source of the new humanity, that had to wipe out the old one. And that, accordingly, all Diclonius were owing their existence to his "line"-which was not accurate, of course...Kurama had believed that most of the Diclonius were born because of infections made by Lucy-which explained a good part of his hostility toward her.

This was not considering, however, the fact that several Numbers were almost the same age than Lucy. 28 was even slightly older. Sure, there was often disruptions in the growth process of Carriers (Deep trauma was known to impair physical growth, and as their lives here were quite traumatic, several "specimens", most of them terminated, had major growth problems. In opposition, others had an somewhat accelerated growth, probably initiated by a need of the Vectors, to meet the constant agression they were living in) But those distorsions were relatively minor ; they could not explain everything. Lucy was partly the cause, but...

However, and Kakuzawa was aware of it during his moments of relative lucidity, there had been at least one other "breed" of the Dicloni virus, in Europe-to which Lucy was probably related, judging by her origins. (Her name, which was really Lucy, was a clear sign of that.)

Thus, his conception of what was a Diclonius was rather incoherent, but it was not really mattering to Kakuzawa, who just needed a justication for his bloodthirsty tendancies.

The son of the director had the command in the absence of his father, but with rather clear instructions (and several "measures" to make sure that he would obey...) to prevent a last-minute failure. One of the said instructions could be resumed easily : _avoid incidents. _The director was thinking mostly to the...preferences...of his second on (he was not finding it shocking at all...it was just very annoying from the point of public relations) but it was a safe assumption that he would be quite upset if his son attracted attention to the island...

From the eyes of the occupants of the craft, the landing pad did not looked underdefended, at all (the total effectives that were present at the facility had been heavily underestimated by the Chinese Intelligence...) In additions to Security, there was two layers of protection for it's defense The first one was an eletrified fence with very high voltage, that was honestly not much a defense-a Diclonius could have sliced it with her Vectors in some seconds, and an Human could have done it with tools quickly too. That said, this defense, in case of an Diclonius evasion, could have wked somewhat well-for instance, Kurama had once to stop Nana, when she was leaving for finding Lucy, for actually touching the fence ; as she was finding the sparkles quite pretty (silly reaction for an Human...not for a Diclonius completly cut off of reality...) The second defense was much more formidable : it was the cliffs and the ocean. As there was an need of checking the electrical fence from both sides, there was a narrow space between the edge of the cliffs and the fence, whose width varied around one or two meters...This was the weak point that Tatso had identified, after several hours of studying civilian maps of the island, that were pointing out the topography of the place...

This "weak point" was what could be called a back door (of course, not a real back door. There was such things in the facility-for instance, the one used by Lucy for her evasion. But they were now under constant watch). that needed to be opened from the island. This opening was the main reason of the raid; the recon of the place was just a nice bonus. Tatso...

"I did not know that chicken could be so dangerous", pointed casually Tatso, making reference to the impressive number of armed security guards that were on the landing pad. "And this is just what they are showing us" she continued...I guess that this is very normal, after all. Everyone know that virus can be stopped with rifles and a bunch of idiots to fire them...I think that they are confusing two concepts : _virus _and _information leak..._"

"You know, your jokes are sometimes really, really depressing..." replied Xu.

She realized, however, that Tatso was just trying to cheer her up, since her part of the mission was going to be...touchy. She was the one that was going to go inside, after all. Sure, on the long run, there was not going to be a major difference between dying inside or outside, in case of their cover got blewed up. It was just going that it was going to be less..._opressive_ outside-there was going to be an illusion of freedom, too. Not just an illusion. If things turned badly, Tatso would have the possibility of an relatively easy exit : jumping from the cliffs. While Xu risked capture. She was not especially afraid of death. She feared (rightly) torture, however...and judging by what he had done with Unit 731, Kakuzawa would not hesitate.

Xu took a deep breath. Well, it was the time to do it...She set foot on the landing pad.

She was playing the role of the inspector. In a perfect, accent-less English, she explained the situation to some security guards (of course, a rather strange welcoming comitee) that were standing, weapons ready, next of the helicopter.That she was sent here for an inspection of the security measures of the facility. That, with the current situation of massive avarian influenza outbreaks, strict procedures had to be followed, to prevent an accidental release of the virus...and so on, for a couple of minutes, using all the "catchy" administrative terms that she had learn during her long experience dealing with officials of the Party back in China ; stuff like "operative protocols", "orientation memorandums", "central directives" and so on.

Meanwhile, Tatso, who was looking with an apparent lack of interest at the surroundings, pointed out, with an irony that was not perceived by anyone (short of Xu) that from the look of it, the credits affected for security had been rather well used, on this island...

"The cost of exploitation of this place must be killing you", continued Tatso. "I mean, all the gear and the supply must come by air...As I said, you take security really at heart..."

Xu considered at this time that her partner was really dangerous to work with. On the other hand, no one would think that spies would dare to make verbal provocations...

The security guards that had been sent there were the ones that had some self-control on them. They did not reacted to this insinuation, and merely told Xu and Tatso to wait a little here, as people were coming to see them. The wait lasted for some minutes, which was not surprising. The guys back in the facility were probably scrambling for make the place look normal...

Finally, some people indeed come to see the newcomers...It was a couple of scientists, that explained to Xu that all the standard procedures about containement were followed...

Xu found nothing really strange about this story, and replied something that was appropriate.

Maintaining the cover of the facility (research on virus like avarian influenza) was a goof part of the job of those guys, after all. They had real training in this field, of course, but were of course not actually researching about this. Thus, were rather grateful that the inspector was not, at all, insisting on the sensible points, that could have exposed them as impostors...

Meanwhile, a quick search had been conducted by the staff of the communications, to learn more about this craft. Nothing looked suspect ; rented at Kamakura some hours ago, the pilot coming with the VIP. Of course, there was the question of this a real inspection or not…

This point was the most dangerous one of the infiltration, and there were not many things that could be done about it-short of presenting the whole inspection thing as a thing that had been decided without consulting leading staff of the Red Cross or any other international health organization (who had been merely told that the facility was somewhat off-limit. Most of them have simply decided to avoid trouble and not sent investigation teams. Many officials, both in those organizations and in the government, preferred to close their eyes, or send symbolic inspection teams, whose job was to _not _found suspect things for which there was what was sarcastically labelled as the Visitor Drill. In all those years, only an handful of outsiders had actually saw the real object of the facility, the Diclonius held here-people that Kakuzawa could blackmail or that he trusted enough) But any serious verification-that was however unlikely to occur before they had left this island-was bound to blow this cover...

The whole thing about the initiative was done by Xu with a rather impressive skill for comedy. She was perfect in her hole of a newly recruited scientist, straight from the university, that had been given by her superior a job without clear instructions. For instance, when one of the scientist asked her who had decided the inspection, she replied, slightly blushing, that she had merely thought that it was good place to start her work...

The little comedy seemed to work. The scientists finally asked her what she wanted to do.

"Well, if possible, could I see the head of the ressearch departement, professor Kurama ?"

"Ah, you did not know ? Professor Kurama is currently on the leave...We don't know when he was going to be back...But we will relay to him any question you could have..."

Traduction : we will sent you in some months a nice report saying that everything is fine...

"There is no problem. May I see professor Shirakawaze and her assistant, in this case ?"

The bald man that was the assistant of Shirakawaze had apparently met Lucy at the end of the Mariko operation. Thus, he was in the situation of Shirakawaze-not in state of answer...

"The assistant resigned, and Shirakawze herself is seeing her family-we cannot join her.. "

Xu looked at them for a minute, for make them known that she was beginning to be a little skeptic about this strange set of coincidences. But she continued to ask her questions. She was not surprised that she was not allowed to met the scientists working here...

"Well, what about the latest researcher who was recruited, professor Arakawa ?"

The scientists hesitated for a little time. Arakwa was an…unsafe…person. What they should say to this inspector ? This was going to look quite stange it they said that she was away too...Fortunately, the inspector provided them with an exit. She looked a little annoyed, then added casually that as long as she had the good reports, it was not critical that she saw the scientists in person. Very relieved, they said to Xu the first thing that passed in their mind, to make her definitely forget Arakawa : that the scientist was unfortunately sick...

(Incredibly stupid thing to say : any real inspector would have immediatly asked if there was a possibility of contamination...But Xu did not played this card, of course)

Back from where he was, in the central security room, watching the whole scene with the surveillance cameras for the landing pad, the son of Kakuzawa cursed the one that have come-up with those officials reason (in fact, it was himself...) The top scientist away, the second one in vacations, one sick, one who had resigned…it looked like cheap excuses. (Of course, telling the truth would have been far worse...) Fortunately, one of the newcomers was not listening, and the other seemed to not give much mportance to actually seeing the scientists. .

Those newcomers...judging by the names they gave, the pilot was from Russia (ex-military, maybe ? ) and the inspector was Chinese-from the Popular Republic, the diaspora or Taiwan ? Kakuzawa did not cared. He shared the opinions of his father on many points, especially his complete scorn for Chinese. (And the sons had another "reason"-or rather, what was passing in their madness as a reason-concurrence...) However, he had never exactly understood why his father was so...frantic...about his opinions on female Russians. The said opinions had already caused some "incidents...and it was probably related to one Russian in particular, that he had apparently met during his...activities...in World War Two. Judging by the rambling he was still making sometime, more than sixty years later, about what he would have done to her, it was a safe assumption that she had done something that had affected him badly...) Those two were lucky that is father was in Kamakura. If he had been there, he would have lost his temper, and probably ordered them shot on the spot, risks of raising attention or not.

"I'm going to met the Chinese" he finally said (Kakuzawa considered the word almost as an insult) The _popov _will probably remain on the pad. Everything should be fine, but, please, this time, if there is trouble, proceed with a _little _discretion. Not too much gunfire or explosions...it can be sometimes heard from Kamakura, and it's lead to questions..."

The man Kakuzawa was talking to was the chief of the current shift of the Security. He was from Yokosuka-from the Seventh Fleet, more exactly. Officially a deserter, he had been in fact "lended" by the Americans officers involved with Kakuzawa. They had probably been quite relieved of getting rid of him, as he had _really _a lot of issues on the mental side

Director Kakuzawa had been rather cautious with his dealings with the officers at Yokosuka. During his World War II experience, he had realized the very obvious following point : that with most military systems, some allies were enough to control everything. As the commanders of both American and Japanese forces were likely to have been carefully chosen (in the optic of being somewhat _reliable_) Kakuzawa had concentrated his corruption efforts on middle grade officers, that could give advice to the said commanders...He had also took some NCO that could be trusted to do the very, very, very dirty jobs, like this man.

The officer (he had never, in the American Fleet, despite years of service, made higher than sergent, because of limited capacities...he then insisted that his subordinates call him by this fake grade) was known here as _Turner _(from what the second son of Kakuzawa had understood, it was a sort of war name/nick name popular among some idiots in the States. Something related to the local extrem-right, if he recalled corectly, especially about an hate book...Anyway, he did not cared. Those kind of individuals made good recruits. Security wise, this guy was almost perfect : never asking questions (and probably never _considering _to ask questions...) shooting on everything that moved when ordered until it stopped to move. The Director had once said to him that he recalled him the SS he had worked with...The fool had take it as a compliment (in fact, no one sane would have take it as a compliment, but in addition to that, what Kakuzawa mostly meant was that Turner was following blindly orders).

For most people, however "Turner" presented a rather disgusting mix of traits of characters. Traits that were by no way rare among similar people, but with him, they were pushed to the limit…Fundamentalist, gun-crazed, hardcore racist, and genuinely believing that the US governement was making conspiracies...a rather interesting point, since he was indiscutably himself a traitor, not just against his nation, but in a certain sense of the whole Humankind...

Because he knew the basis of the project-mass diffusion of the Dicloni virus.

The thing was that, kinda like the KMT sympathisers of Taiwan who thought that Kakuzawa was "just" going to use a biological weapon against mainland China to make the governement collapse (causing dozen of millions of death at the very least...), Turner believed that the virus would only be deadly for the "ennemies of the real Aryans Americans" (or other sickeningly racist conceptions...) But that for the "real" Human he was, this would give them the powers to take their real place in the world (traduction : to kill everyone that was in their path) This had been basically the reason the SS had funded Kakuzawa ressearchs in World War II...

"Remain in charge of the security for the cells-I will take care of that (censored) personally...

A little later, Xu was summoned inside, where she was met by Kakuzawa in person...As Tatso was "just" her pilot, she had to be left on the pad. Which was exactly what she wanted...

After a while, Tatso walked very casually out of the landing pad proper, opening the gate of the unpowered eletric fence (powering it would have looked suspicous...) One guard tried to say something, but stopped. What harm this girl could do while walking near the cliff ? Tatso was looking prodigiously bored-and well aware that the attention of the security force was likely to be much more targeted toward her (and her quite open flight vest...) than toward her actions. She began to pick small rocks lying on the ground, and toss them in the sea, while walking. No one noticed that she did that until she was above a certain point, that her and Xu had carefully chosen. Also, no one noticed that one of the rock she picked was quickly switched for another object that she had previsouly hide in her palm, and before that in her flight vest. Still looking very natural, she throwed the thing-a small disk unwinding/trailing an ultra resistant rope, so thin that it was almost invisible. Well throwed, the disk (or rather, for the eyes of the guards, just another rock) felt into the sea below-but only apparently. In fact, it fell just next to the closest thing the island had to a beach-a rocky surface, almost submerged, barely one half-meter wide...Casually, holding the same way a second disk, connected by the rope with the first one, Tatso passed three support beams for the handrail, before throwing it too, with the same success. The rope was now running on the ground, hard to spot even when knowing where she was. The guards were never going to find it before it was too late...

Of course, this rope would _never _have been enough resistant to support one Human with gear on a thirty meters climb (even a rather lightweight Human like Tatso or Xu). But...it would be far enough to slowly pull up (then down, using the support beams as kind of pulley) an heavy wire, the kind of one used for moutain climbing. Scaling the cliffs by night, even with this wire for support, would not be easy, but doable. (There was just some "details" left, such as how entering the facility...) Now, she had just now to wait Xu's return.

Xu, as she was walking into those hallways, felt very ill at ease. The place, the guards, the technicians...nothing was right here. The man that was making her the tour (the son of Director Kakuzawa ? He looked less a...freak...than is father, but that was not saying much) was not better. He presented to Xu a sucession of tidy labs, all on the levels close to the surface, there was no sign that there was others ones deeper...Kakuzawa asked her finally in a tone where the mockery was badly hidden is she had found something...

"Hmm, everything seems fine...short of the slight problem with ventilation..."

Kakuzawa had excepted many question, but not that one. Ventilation problem ?

"You are not hearing it ? There is something pounding...faint but very regular noise..."

With this sentence, Xu came very close of being shot on the spot. She had mentionned this noise as a part of a kind of trap-she wanted to know if the guy making her tour this part of the facility was actually working there. Someone who genuinely spent several hours a day hearing this very annoying noise (a ventilation conduct with a fan that was badly working, maybe ?) would have known very well of what she was speaking about...Xu saw Kakuzawa look at her for one good minute, not understanding what she saying, listening to the noise...

And then, he made a simple gesture-a nod toward one of the guards. This looked furiously like a sign prepared in advance, a sign whose signification was rather obvious :_ Charade is over, kill her immediatly. _To prove her point, the soldier directly next to her raised his gun...Xu knew she had not a chance of surviving more than five minutes in those hallways, unless she had an hostage, like this Kakuzawa. This reflexion was almost instantaneous-because she had thought to this from the time she had entered the facilty. She was about to try to disarm the guard, when Kakuzawa suddenly motionned the guard to stop everything. Xu thought, quite rightly, that it was better to pretend that nothing had happened. But she wondered what could have make Kakuzawa lost his control on himself on such a drastic way..

"...Excuse me, miss, there is a slight problem that I need to deal with. I think you saw everything you need to see, hmm ? One technician will escort you back to the pad..."

The whole visit had not lasted more than ten minutes. Xu knew that protests would not work, so she complied, quite puzzled The trip to the surface was uneventful, except that the pounding stopped few minutes after Kakuzawa had left her. It's only then that she understood what this noise was, and her legs went a little weak, even if nothing showed on her face.

Some stories below, Kakuzawa was screaming insults to Turner and some security guards, who had one more time showcased a total lack of initiative. The pounding noise was coming from Cell Number Four, and had stopped because the son of the director had ordered to "calm this b...", which had been done with the firing, from distance, on several AP rounds. When she had stopped to use her Vectors because of the pain, Kakuzawa entered the cell. In the middle of the five meters circle that was the killing zone, Four was strapped on a steel table...

Four had been left in almost total isolation, from the time of her arrival here...She had replaced the Human social contact with Diclonius "social" contact. Which means mostly killing, of course. But because of her detention conditions-which were labelled as "sensorial isolation", to hunt her "preys" she had to rely on her Diclonius abilities. Like the others, she had what was labelled rather blandly as a "sixth sense"-a kind of warning about short term danger. The clearer manifestation of this was the possibility of deflecting shots from firearms. But this was also showcased, especially by older "specimens", by what was nothing less than a sort of premonition, which was not perfect (Lucy had been unable to "sense" that a sniper was about to shot her, for instance, but this was because she was troubled by the perspective of freedom) but still worked quite well. The whole bullet deflection, the most impressive thing with Diclonius (and certainly one of the most deadly…), worked also this way-very short term, split second term even, premonition…If the deflection proper was done with Vectors, and was proportional to their strength, the "calculation" about how the Vectors should be placed was so quick that it certainly relied, at least partly, on this sense…

But how this was possible was another point that was heavily discussed…

This question could not be resolved by tests and experiences, but by questioning of the Diclonius themselves. This was because this thing was pretty immaterial, and it was then extremely hard to evaluate it while using conventional means. The only thing that could be done was testing the physical manifestation of this-for instance, calculating in which conditions a Diclonius could be distracted enough to lose the track of some threat….

And it had been done, often. That kind of data could be put into nice charts, showing for example that there was a statistical correlation between the maximum numbers of projectiles that a Diclonius could handle and the age, or with the sleep privation, or with pain, or….

The said charts and graphs were not, far from it, actually useful for understanding the phenomenon. The only result was the terrible trauma for the first interested into those tests-the "specimens". The projectile experiences were considered as among the less dangerous tests that could be performed-which was maybe true, but was saying _a lot _about the way things were there…Thus, the Diclonius began to be submitted to it rather early-most often, as soon as their Vectors began to be functional…which was barely around _four-five years old…_)

As a result, the knowledge the personnel of the island had on this "sixth sense" question was rather limited. For rather obvious reasons, the Diclonius were certainly not in a mood to talk about this with their torturers. (Only Seven and Twenty-Eight had sometimes said things that could have helped on this matter...Phrases that had been completely ignored, thinking it was just an attempt to please Kurama or Shirakawaze : when Nana was saying eagerly to her Daddy that she knew he was coming to see her in the cell…it was sometimes the plain truth)

Actually, there had then been some theories made about the eventuality of a link between this "sixth sense" and the capacity that the Diclonius had to "see" each other at relatively close range. Those theories, that had been mostly rejected, were in fact quite close to the truth.

Four, even if the scientists were no understanding it, was an almost pefect example of this. She could of course sense her Diclonius "sisters" ...but also _Humans, _although it would have been normally in a much less clearer way. This was how, basically, the whole premonition thing worked-Diclonius were able to have a good idea of what their enemies were about to do.

This was much closer to a kind of reflex-especially when dealing with firearms-than a conscious mental process. And there was numerous limits to this: it was helpful for getting the general idea, not the details….For instance, this could serve to know that someone was about to attack-and not _how _he was going to attack, or to pinpoint is exact location…

Thus, Four, who had no other ways to sense things, over the years, had improved this capacity, to the point that she was able now to recognize some Humans with it, especially the ones that she hated the most. Meaning the Kakuzawas, Kurama, Shirakawaze…What they were doing to her, almost on a daily basis , was an extremly powerful motivation...

Accordingly, what Kakuzawa thought was mostly that Four had realized that there was newcomers on the island, and was trying to raise their attention, in a desperate bid to save her live from termination, which was now imminent : the room was ready, the surgical team too...

Four had not guessed this point. Kakuzawa had, with typical sadist joy, announced it to her personally...It was hard to know what Four could hear and especially _understand _(like for Lucy during her stay here, hearing was the only sense that she had not blocked, not for humanist reasons, but for avoid troubles with the inner ear, which could lead to disorientation troubles, that would reduce her value as a test subject...And also, if she was deaf, Kakuzawa would not be able to make threats and insinuations to her...) as her (spoken) language skills were _very _limited-after all, her native language was neither English or Japanese, the tongues that most guards and technicians spoke there...(Four had been there _almost _all her life …)

She was likely to have understood the basis meaning of the sentence-the tone was a good indication however, even if as usually, she had not showed any human-like reaction to it.

On the other hand, the use of her Vectors showcased that she had understood something…

Kakuzawa was somewhat right-Four had indeed reacted to the presence of Tatso and Xu on the island. The point he had missed out completly was the _reason_ ; there was officials visitors, new guards and technicians quite often, and Four did not had such an reaction...

Diclonius main "trigger" to their sixth sense was _hostility or agression. _Not only agression toward them (although it was a critical point)...Four had "felt" that Xu and Tatso were hostile toward the guards, and this had raised her attention. As they were Humans, she did not cared for one second if they were killed...she just wanted, like the other times, to tell the scientists that despite all their efforts, she was aware that there was a world outside her cell

Well, this was the _main _reason of Four reaction. There was also another one...

"...We are going to kill you, tonight. A vivisection. You don't know what this mean ?" Kakuzawa enjoyed humiliate the Numbers, who were heavily impaired by their lack of knowledge while dealing with the Humans here. And he was not alone in this case. An "game" often played by technicians and some scientists (not Kurama, however, who had severly sanctioned the indiviuals that had done it with Seven...leading to some insinuations in the ranks of the workforce about his links with her, the most odious being an accusation that he was indeed..._close..._of Seven) was to told to a Diclonius, especially ones that was not too hostile, which means mostly the youngers ones, that could be very naive, a completly ridiculous thing, and to humiliate her when she was beginning to believe it.

"I will gladly explain. Scientifically, it's a kind of dissection...made out on a living being. Actually, we are going to see how much it's take to kill you...According to earlier results, it can take a while...one specimen, already crippled, took 36 hours to die. Unfotunately for you, you are very healthy-you can hope that it's going to last less than a week. But, don't complain. Your live here was the only one you desserved-you were lucky, in a sense..."

Kakuzawa had a sigh of exasperation when he heard Turner launching himself in a tirade habout the fact that Four was just going to the Hell she belonged too. He was ruining completly the atmosphere .Not mentionning that it was completly incoherent, since Turner very original religious conceptions stated that the virus was a kind of "gift" (kinda like his father in fact) to the "real" Humans, to help them to form the new Chosen nation...(completly sick for any outsider )But the nominally Christian he was had kept some elements of his earlier religion. Not surprisingly, it was not the core of the faith (the redemption, the fact that all Humans were equals for Him, that no one was beyond salvation...) but rather some points of details-Hell, eternal punishement...Honestly, even if Four had knew the meaning of the concept "Hell", she would not have been really troubled ; it could not be worse than her life.

The son of Kakuzawa left the room soon after, not before saying something to the guards.

"...Oh, by the way, as long as she arrives at the termination room in one piece..."

One of the most guard expressed in a quite crude way that he understood what Kakuzawa meant, and that he would have done with pleasure...without the Vectors that she would use...

"No, she is going to be completly powerless...An injection in her spine-it's kill all willing movement. Very efficient. As far as we know, it's not blocking pain, however-which is a good thing, if you wish to teach her a lesson. We are not using this treatment usually, because there is permanent nerve damage after a few hours of use-which does not matter here.

Kakuzawa did not mentioned a killing detail ; this spinal injection was a new thing they had developped, for the vivisections, for avoid the side effects that massive doses of sedatives had (of course, not for the test subject, but because it was affecting the results of the experiences) They were not sure that the use of Vectors was affected by this. The injection affected the _nervous system_-and it was not clear if the Vectors were controlled this way. If they were indeed affected, fine. If they were not...too bad for Security. With the new weapons, Four would be put back in control without much trouble, if this happened...Seeing that Four did not react (she simply did not wanted to humiliate herself ) Kakuzawa finally left.

During this time, Xu had been guided back to the landing pad, for immediate departure, after receiving several hundred of pages of reports about the state of the ressarchs led here. Altough accurate, those reports were in fact somewhat...sketchy...in new information. Xu realized when one report she picked up at random had a table of contents with 70 pages out of 90 for describing the state of the ressearch in the rest of world, the rest being quite vague...When she saw Tatso nodding to her (sign that she had done her part of the mission), she given up insisting for more data, and, to the relief of the Security, said that is was time for leaving...

The Russian quickly made a visual inspection, to see if there was a suspicious bulge on the helicopter-indicating a bomb or a beacon. Apparently, no. She was much more worried about the possibility of an heavy weapon opening on them once they had take off-just to be sure, Tatso waited an unusally long time before warning Kamakura that they were inbound (it was so easy to shot them once they had left, and especially warned the outside world that they were returning...and then to pretend that the accident was completly unrelated to the facility)

Xu began to describe her time within the lab as soon as they had took of...

"Tatso...", she said after she had finished the description..."This is _not _a biology lab, I'm sure of it...I...I don't know what they are doing there, but...there is things that are not right...especially this beating on the wall...The frequency. It was not regular...Not always. It became frantic before it stopped...Honestly...I think it was...a prisonner held here...(Xu was thinking to a prisonner hiting an air conduct...) I fear to think why he could be there..."

"Human test subject, hmm ? This guy really learned nothing...I will _love _dealing wih him...?

"...Yes...But, tell me, Tatso...Why you accepted to do this mission ? You had the choice..."

"...Hmm, I guess you have the right to know Actually, it's pretty simple. It's your Colonel that picked me. Handpicked me, rather He asked my friends at Moscow to recruit me personally. I don't know why-it's intriguing me, to say the least...Pretty silly, hmm ? "

"...I must say that is strange, indeed (Xu, like many in the APL, had heard of the Colonel, a war-hero. What connection he could have with Tatso ?) Hmm. To return to the subject, I must say that I did not get, at all, even a remote idea of what they could be doing in those labs..."

"Well, let's take the positive side of it...Whatever they are doing, it can't be worse than the worse thing we can imagine. With this way to think, we will be _relieved _of what we will see.

"Oh, what a comforting point of view...And what is this absolute worst things ?"

"I don't know. Zombified ninjas playing pirates with lightsabers while piloting giant robots ?"

It took a good minute to Xu to find something to answer to _that _(while laughing).

"It's so...insane ! You really, really have a _wild _imagination. How can you imagine that ?"

"It's a familial trait, you know...But very seriously, I guess we just should prepare for everything...Some of the stuff you described just did not connect with the idea of a "mere" lab producing biological weapons. You are maybe right for the prisonners..there is the…thing…that we found on the beach, too, that is going in this sense..."

Tatso said ''thing'' because it was making her shiver-Xu too, and everyone that had ever seen it. It was an object retrieved on a beach of Kamakura weeks ago, and was maybe coming for the island...One member of the Intelligence cell, sent at night to take pictures of one destroyer of the Self-Defense Forces, who was in the area of Kamakura, had found it. Finding it quite unusual, disturbing even, he had bring back the item with him...What he had found was the parts of an kind of helmet-apparently a medieval one, but any close inspection revealed that it was fairly recent-some years old at worst...And the word "helmet" was grossly inappropriate-it was much more a torture tool than anything else. A nightmarish one. It was like a...tomb. The most horrible thing was the darkness the wearer was forced to live in...

Back in the place that was used as a safe-house by the Intelligence cell, Tatso had watched this helmet with an kind of fascination, before trying, machinaly to put it on her head...She had not been able to do so, quickly dropping this thing like she had received a shock.

She was not going to have much mercy toward the ones that designed this abomination.


	10. Chapter Ten : Smert Faschiskoy Gadine !

**February 1945...Outskirts of Koenisberg...**

The days of the Nazis were numbered. On the East Front, the Red Army was advancing everywhere. On the West Front, the Allies were about to cross the Rhine. Each day that passed, there was a new disaster ; a city stormed, a division smashed, a devastating bombing raid...After six long years, the New Order was about to collapse...And the ones that had brought it to Europe were terrorrized at the idea that the time for paying up was imminent...

In Berlin, the political and military leaders deluded themselves by hopes that the Great Alliance between the Soviet Union and the Allies proper was bound to collapse any day, that they would be able to turn theirs coats, to play the West against the East,...But themselves were not believing it ; any "political solution" (get a cease fire to one side, to concentrate forces against the other one, in the hopes of getting a better peace agreement) was impossible-with what the Nazis had done, no one was going to show them mercy when they were losing...

Still, the same leaders still found the time for petty disputes, for the fragments of power left. Borman, the current leader of the party, was making factionnal skirmish against Himmler and Goering, to secure the precious nomination as the official heir of the Leader. (any one with a working brain would have realized that this job was likely to be a very short one...)

Himmler had thought that he was winning this battle for the post of the favorite of the Leader...After the July Plot, the eleventh hour (but nonetheless courageous) attempt by an handful of Wermacht officers to assassinate the Leader, the SS had been basically give all power in Germany proper. With his rather dismal battle performance against the Allies and the Soviets (the SS were more used to fire on civilians or badly armed partisans than against regulars troops…) Himmler's favor had considerably waned in the recent weeks, however...

It was because of those events that Himmler had gave orders to assure that the project of Major Kakuzawa could be evacuated to Berlin. A little demonstration in front of the Leader was going to impress him a lot. With all the funds that had gone on very peculiar things (including the counter to _Operation Zohar..._Saying in front of the Leader or Himmler the two words _Operation Zohar _was death sentence), they were having a result that could be usable on the battlefield...(The said "result" had not been obtained, at all, beccause of the various "ressearchs" sponsored by the SS and the Leader...) It was because of this that the SS organization was doing everything to assure that the project arrived in Berlin,

Rail and road communication could be cut by the Red Army at any moment. By sea, it was risky too-Soviet aircrafts and submarines could intercept shipping in the Baltic. The safer possibility was an air evacuation, as Soviet airbases were now a little too far from the front to grant absolute air superiority ; the risk of a fighter interception was then limited...

Kakuzawa and some of his assistants (men from Unit 731 that could be trusted) had promptly fled the facility when they had realized that Sarah was free. The Nazis were never going to be able to stop her, and he did not wanted to be in her reach until he had gathered reinforcements for capture her. They had fled, on foot, as far as they could, until they had found an second Wermacht detachement sent as reinforcement for the fortress, that had picked them and brought them back to Koenisberg. There, after receiving a second time the instructions for the air evacuation, Kakuzawa and his assistants, had been placed into a very heavily armored convoy, headed for the chosen airbase, which was at some distance of the city, for avoid raising attention. They carried with them what was left of the project ; not much...

.A good part of the data produced by those two years of ressearch on the test subject had been destroyed in the fires that had followed the bombing of the fortress-everything was put on paper, and paper burned quite easily. There was however some copies back at the rear base of Koenisberg...and Kakuzawa had managed to save the most important thing-the various samples he had obtained from this very interesting specimen. The key to replication...

He had not mentionned, however, to the SS officials that the test subject, the most important thing of the project was...temporary away. He would explain to them the situation at Berlin...They were going to attempt to capture her back ;it was exactly his intention...

Kakuzawa was in an halftrack, with the major in charge of the convoy, who had been told only the strict minimum about his mission...and that he had to succeed...Right now, success was _almost _assured. There had been no attacks thus far, significative Red Army units were not bound to arrive in less than 24 hours. And they were now in the last leg of their trip...

The major contacted the last settlement between them and the airbase, which was less than two hours away (the presence of tanks in the convoy limited the top speed they could attain...)

Some dozens of kilometers away, in a traditionnal Prussian _junker _manor dominating an small hamlet, a very nervous SS lieutenant answered to the radio communication...

"...No, no, Major. No _Ivans_ sighted in the area...Perfect calm...Everything is very fine..."

The SS lieutenant voice was a little strained. Maybe he needed a little stimulation for continuing ? Fortunately, there was, in a quit convenient manner, a stimulus nearby...

Accordingly, someone sat on one of the ends of his desk pointed an handgun at him, in an almost playful manner.The barrel was just touching his head... His voice somehow reaffirmed itself, and the guys at the other end of the line probably found everything fine, indeed. .

The man tried to play smart, trying to insinuate something that could make the major realize that the situation was not what he thought. He asked them for their position-the kind of request that was a little strange to ask while on non-encrypted radio channels...

The person in front of him sighed, and made a little gesture resulting into a _click. _She was removing the safety of her weapon. The message was very clear. The lieutenant did not insisted with his very peculiar request, and quickly concluded the communication...

"See ?...It was not so hard, helping us to deal with this little manner. Thank you..."

Annah Sovorov removed her pistol from the lieutenant's forehead. This action was immediatly followed by Vassili and the others Soviet soldiers in the room pointing their machine guns toward him, to convince him to not try anything foolish against her.

Annah had been very cautious. One of her hand was on her weapon, the other on the switch of the receptor, ready to press it at the split second the other would have attempted something...The quality of this gear was too low, especially with the current weather (that was having a distorting effect on radio-waves) for the guy at the other hand of the communication, to really recognize the the voice of the lieutenant...however, the major would have realized that something was suspect when a Soviet soldier impersonating the lieutenant would have been unable to answer to the most basic questions about the situation.. And of course, if there was no answer, the Nazis would have cancelled the evac operation.

The radio call had occured as the lieutenant, the lone survivor of the SS garrison of the place, was pleading frantically for his life. He was lost-everything had happend much too quickly...

The unit under Annah's command had stormed the hamlet by surprise. Honestly, it was not much of a feat, since the garrison was mostly made of a platoon of SS, commanded by this lieutenant and some badly armed ederly men from the Volkstrum, the latest «total war» gimmick of the Nazis. Generally speaking, units of the Volkstrum were made of the last scraps of manpower avaiable (which was in the best cases veterans of the First World War...) and had almost no weapons. What the lucky ones that received a riffle and some bullets were supposed to do against tanks and artillery was not very clear...(Unlike the SS troops, those men, after a good amount of insults and looting of watches and other small personal possessions, had been made prisonners and locked up in the caves of the manor house...)

In any case, the attack against the village had been without any casualty on the Soviet side. (quite surprising for an Red Army unit, but Annah was a very cautious commander). The whole position was now occupied by the Russians, who were hastily removing all traces of battle, for giving a nice surprise to the armoured column coming there...

They had avoided using shells, and they were sure that both the column and the airbase had not heard anything. The lieutenant had been surprisingly cooperative with them.

It was because the SS had heard veterans talk about the Red Valkyrie (the _red _part being a reference to both the allegiance and Annah's hair color. In both case, very unsubtle)...and what they had told about her was very dispiriting...she was a living legend on the front...

Annah spoke an almost perfect, accent-less German (she really had a skill for languages) and she was very, very calm with the lieutenant, who was (rightly) finding it worse than if she was screaming insults at him...He tried to impress her by what he thought would be a bold phrase.

"SS never surrender, Soviet...I'm not afraid of death, if this is for the Reich !

(He did not thought, apparently, that this could be the kind of sentences that could be replied by something like "Never surrender ? Great, let's assure that this rule remains true !" Annah actually found his reaction somewhat amusing, and said something in those lines...)

"One, I'm sorry to say that you pretty much surrendered to us. Two, I don't think it's such a big deal that you usually never surrender ; no one want you alive (quite true : Russia had suffered enough from SS exactions that it was hardly surprising that there was almost none prisonners taken from this corps. The Allies had not, by far, been affected to the same level, but they had seen their share of burned villages in France and Italy...It was rumored that their troops had been instructed, at least verbally to not take SS prisonners) Third, I must say that, unfortunately, I never accepted your surrender...So, don't worry. You will die..."

"You are bluffing...I'm much too useful-without me, how do you plan to ambush them ?"

"Your loyalty looks pretty variable...And I'm not sure that we need you to kill the...Not sure at all...But...if you pass a little test, I _may _think about sparing your life...We may transfer you to one of our rear units of the NVKD in Poland...(the Nazi lifted his eyes…could he save his life ? The important thing was to say alive, after all…But Annah was not saying this without an intention) It's would be near a small town in the south of Polan, in the area of Katowice… (At this time, the SS began to have an idea of where this conversation was going….This was very likely to result into his death) Annah now had a really predatory smile. She pretended to search in her mind…) Ah, recall the name, now ..it's Auschwitz. Heard about it ?"

The SS would have pretended, in normal time, to never have heard about this place. But the way he paled when hearing the word was as clear as a very explicit answer...

"The Red Army entered there days ago, you know", continued Annah in a conversation tone. "And you know like me what we found there. (she raised from the desk, and came just in front of him)...The absolute abomination...I'm sickened at the idea that you and me are both Humans...But, as I said, it's the result of the test that will determine your fate..."

The Nazi, his mind disrupted by fear, excepted a lot of thing...Not that the test was going to be a Russian girl that seemed very out of place here, escorted by two soldiers in afterAnnah had called them...She looked to be pretty unsecure in this unfamiliar securing...Despite the Red Army uniform, the way she grasped Annah's arm showed that she was not a soldier...

The test was pretty simple. Annah spoke to Natalya in her most friendly voice...

"Natalya, I'm sorry to disturb you, but this is very important...Do you recognize him ?"

Natalya, upon seeing the SS, grasped even tigher Annah's arm. Her reaction was clear enough. Her eyes widened with fear...Annah was sorry to expose Natalya to this, but she thought that she could be helpful to show her that SS were now powerless against her...

"It's all right, Natalya", Annah said to try to calm her. "He will do nothing to you...You are safe... It's over...for him..." (she made an evasive gesture toward her soldiers...)

Two Soviet privates began to drag the SS from the room. Quite clear. He panicked...

"Hey ! HEY ! You are not going to kill me because of this...of this nutcase ? "

The lieutenant realized immediatly after he had said that whatever was the role of the younger Russian girl in this unit, saying that she was a "nutcase" was not bound to convince the Soviets to spare his life...In fact, it enraged Annah even more against him.

"This _nutcase_ as you said is, in this state because of you..." said very quietly Annah. Honestly, she had never really planned to let the SS alive, but his last sentence had removed the last moral doubts that she had about killing him (doubts that were quite limited, to be honest)...Did Natalya had realized that this man had insulted her ? Annah hoped that not...

The SS lose all control of over himself-he vaguely recalled, again from conversations with veterans, that someone in the unit of the Red Valkyrie unit (propaganda had said, which was both untrue and unsurprising, that she was the...lover...of Annah...) had been captured-and her fate afterward had been seen with an horrible glee by many...He was going to die, anyway, so…The reaction of Vassili and Annah when he began to scream about what his friends had done to Natalya was a clear sign that he had indeed find the right point...

The Soviet privates were quite ill-at-ease-most of them had a basic knowledge of German, and understood more or less what the SS was saying...It was not really a surprise-almost everyone in the unit was more or less aware of the situation of Natalya...But still...

Annah would have killed the bastard herself, and slowly, if she had not been occupied at blocking the ears of Natalya with her hands-if she heard this, it would trigger a new crisis.

He was finally dragged out of the room. Soon after, a detonation was heard...

A few minutes later, as she was trying to make Natalya eat something in the kitchen of the manor, before returning outside, Vassili came see her...the ennemy was coming...

"...And, Capitain, I still think that she just recognize the uniform patches, and not the guys..."

"It's an interpretation, Vassili...an interpretation that it's likely to be close to the truth...I don't think she is even recalling me, or you and Pietr. But I'm not very picky. It was members of the SS that captured her, destroyed her ? It's all I need to know...They are the praetorians of the Reich-I honestly think that death is a very easy exit compared to what they done..."

Annah thought of this poor girl they had found...She should have kept her in the unit, after all...What if she had indeed tried to go to Praha and been recaptured by the Nazis ?

She would have to worry about this later. A battle was about to start...She quickly walked to her command post, set in the woods ahead of the hamlet, next to her personnal tank...

To allow secure communications without risk of interception, a field telephone line had been settled between the various elements of the ambush. This place was dangerously close of the airbase, but the ground was ideal for a trap. Moreover...the ennemy would not except them here...Natalya was with the defense group, in the safest place avaiable : the manor. Annah had entrusted Olga to watch for her...Despite her...well, her «hobby», Olga was a likable person, and Natalya seemed to not feel too much unsecure with her. Deep down, Annah knew that if Natalya felt a little less afraid (or at least, looked to be less afraid...) when she was with her, Olga, Helene or Valentine, the four females in the group, it was probably because of...

Some minutes passed...Then, Vassili received the critical communication

"Capitain ! Kovolenko is reporting in. His group is spotting the ennemy on approach. He spot..two...three..._four..._Tigers Mark II and six Panthers (Vassili sighed) This is going to be tough...The rest of the convoy is mostly made of halftracks, and some trucks at the rear"

T-34s (especially the new 85 version, the one they had in their squad) were overall better tanks than anything the Nazis had in their arsenal ; easier to maintain, much better speed, great combat performance, but they were _medium _tanks, not _heavy _like that type of panzers. On the other hand, Tigers were not exactly nimble vehicles-they were good, very good for _defense, _not _attack. _Still, just two T-34/85 against four Tigerswould mean, in a normal situation, certain defeat for the Soviets. And there were the Panthers, and the infantry...

That said, with a tank commander like Annah Sovorov, things could turn very differently.

"Ah, don't worry, it's a joke compared to Stalingrad, Kursk and Korsun…." said Annah, while making heliographic signals (light obscured according to a code), aiming at a point on the other side of the road, in a wood that was facing her command post...

There was an heliographic answer in the woods...Helene and her tank crew were ready too.

The tactics employed by the armies of Russia were never renowned for their subtility...Which does not mean that they were not _working._ One tactic used since Ivan the Terrrible was to mass cannons, and to use relentless barrage fire. A little crude, but terribly efficient...The Red Army had employed this tactic against the Wermacht, with astonishing gun concentrations since Stalingrad. Before major operations, such as the current offensive, it was not rare to see that on some sectors of the front, there was a gun every five meters...Annah had not at her disposition such firepower, far from it, but she used what she had in a similar way...

The heavy weapons avaiable for her group were some mortars, some infantry AT guns, and two _Katioushas-_type weapon systems, towed by trucks. Annah had put them all together...they were making up the heavy support group. Those weapons were under heavy wood cover, almost next to her command post. When Vassili gave them the order, after hearing the first tanks coming, they began firing...Targeting moving targets in the middle of the night was not exactly easy. It did not matter ;the Soviets gunners did not even had to target : all they had was to fire everything on the killing zone, on pre-calculated firing vectors. On a fairly innacurate way, an hailstorm of mortar shells and _Katioushas_, fired from less than a kilometer away,fell on the path of the Nazi armored group...And it took at good an half minute for the crews to realize what was happening, the column _moved _upward into the killing zone...Despite the innacuracy, this volley had devastating effects on the convoy-it did not disabled many vehicles-it destroyed, however, two halftracks, that blew up-but it damaged many...But the most important effect was the small firestorm started by the _Katioushas _rockets and the hulks of the vehicles...it provided a nice illumination for the tanks guns, who were even closer to the road. At an almost optimal range, the shells bursted throught the armor of a Tiger and a Panther. Two kills in the first minutes of the battle. Pretty good !

The _Katioushas _and the mortars fired a last salvo, whose effect was much more limited, as the Nazis had began to disperse. They began to pack up, to withdrawn...The flash of the muzzles of the AT guns that were continuing to fire, killing another Panther, were indicating the positions of the guns to the Nazis remaining armor, who moved to silence them...It was now the time for Annah's own act, for providing the time required for the AT guns to pull out.

Annah's personnal tank opened fire on the ennemy armoured detachement, helped for the targeting by the firestorm...The gunners of her group were quite good ; the second shell impacted on the tracks of one Tiger that had began to shell the AT position, paralyzing it. On the other side of the road, Helene's tank exploited the situation, targeting the Tiger, blowing it out...In enthousiasm, Annah made a victory sign, at the attention of the other crew, that would have been hard to spot in broad daylight (so, in the darkness they were in...)

The two T-34s started to move immediatly after...With something that was beyond audacity (seriously bordering to madness...) the Soviet tanks moved _in _the armoured column, firing on every target that presented itself. The crew of the _panzers, _dazzled by the surprise attack, did not reacted in time, when the Russians were moving toward them. Once the tanks were in the column, firing on them risked to hit their own vehicles much more than the Russians...

In tank warfare, mobility was the essence. The tanks did not stopped, did not made another attack run-they made a ninety degrees turn, and continued in _front _of the tank group...This manoeuver was, technically speaking, insane, at it was exposing the vulnerable rear areas of the T-34s to the Nazis guns, without allowing the Russians to counter-fire. This was deliberate, to push the Nazis to give pursuit to the handful of tanks that had dared to attack them...Now, it was the time to finish to push them in the trap-the hamlet..As planned, there was several explosions southward. The foward element, the tanks of Kovolenko and Nikolai, had let themselves been bypassed by the convoy...Now, they were moving to the attack, firing on the unarmored trucks that were making the second part of the convoy...As no one could believe that a commander could be insane enough to fight against _ten _panzers with only two T-34s, the Nazis had the impression that a much larger force was behind...

The final touch was when the Russians in the village started to fire infantry weapons-in the air...But for the Nazi commander, if there was guns firings in the hamlet, that it's meant that there was still places holding there. Maybe the convoy could break throught the Russians lines, and with the support of the garrison, resist long enough for reinforcement of arrive (The overuse by the Nazis of imaginary units was playing against them...On paper, the garrison of the hamlet was made by a SS _company _and a whole batallion of the Volkstrum !)

On the command halftrack, hit a couple of time but still more or less working, the major was trying to reorganize it's group, that had stopped. He sent the remaining tanks against the Russian, while keeping command of the halftacks. One of the assistants of Kakuzawa asked what was happening, especially concerned about the data...who was in one of the destroyed vehicles ! The files were now burning, and there was nothing they could do about it. The assistants were very nervous ; the Professor had kill many people for much less.

"Those f... _Ivans _are attacking us", replied a NCO from one of the destroyed vehicles, who was nearby, trying desperatly to secure a ride onboard one of the remaining vehicles...

The tanks sent foward were not encountering resistance, and the Soviet artillery had stopped to fire...What had attacked them was probably, thought the major, a meager group, badly supplied...The group that was on their rear, that had already destroyed most of their trucks, was a much more serious threat. The reorganization of the group achieved, he ordered to move foward. The vehicles had taken up as many passengers as they could, but it was obvious that many would be left behind...including the NCO that had talked to the assistant.

"Oh, thank you, I could not have guessed it alone", said sarcastically Kakuzawa at the attention of the man...He was thinking that his decision to go work in Germany was maybe bad idea-of course, because it was dangerous now...He needed to pass his rage on someone...

He had an idea, about this...He made a gesture at the intention of the NCO, and said to his assistants to make some place for him, as the vehicles were restarting. The man eagerly accepted the offer, knowing that his chances of survival had just risen-up...

"Thanks for the lift ! "he said in a very bad German...This raised-briefly-Kakuzawa's interest.

"You are one of those foreign volonteers the convoy picked up, I think..."

"Yes, sir ! My name is Valot...I'm from France-ex-LVF, and I fight with my SS comrades for the European New-Order ! (traduction : I'm an extremist and a traitor to my own country, who found normal to fight alongside the former occupants of the said country)

Kakuzawa smirked. He did not know much about the Wermacht and the SS units, but was well aware that the _LVF _combat record was not exactly outstanding. Even by Nazis standards, they had conducted themselves in a monstruous manner against Russian civilians. This point alone would not have been seen too badly, but the "soldiers" of the _LVF _had performed in a rather abysmal way against partisans...(There was even a tragi-comedic thing about a very botched operation in the area of Briansk...) And for leader, those "vanguards of the New Order", who were a mix of criminals, hotheads, bigots and extremists, had a somewhat fitting figure : General de Bourmont. Many French nobles pretended, more or less seriously, to have family ties up to Charlemagne, or more modestly to people that had gone crusading. A running joke about Bourmont was that he had probably a much older family, and that he had almost certainly in his ancestors Judas...as there was in his family almost pathological traitors...The most known of his ancestors had started his career as counter-revolutionner in France, then betrayed and switched side to Napoleon. After, he betrayed Napoleon in favor of the Restauration...a move that was followed less than a year after by a return to the side of Napoléon...And finally, he betrayed Napoleon one more time on the eve of Waterloo...Frankly, a fitting family for the current Bourmont, an impressive traitor...

Valot continued his tirade, in the hopes of impressing the SS major with his Nazi zeal...

"We must continue the fight until, thanks to the Leader genius, we will emerge victorious ! We will at least purge Europe from all those Slavs, all those who are inferior to us !

This phrase was sickeningly racist, but also sickeningly _stupid. _It was not exactly the kind of thing to say in front of a _Japanese _officer (or rather _appearing _to be Japanese...)

"Err, sorry, sir, I hope you did not take it personnal", the NCO said rather ackwardly...

"No, do not worry...it did not changed, at all, the opinion I had on you..."

The professor was sincere...he did not cared. Japanese, Germans, French, Russians...for him, it was pretty much the same...Primates bound for destruction. It was so easy to play with them...This was making the whole business with the test subject so...ironical...

Kakuzawa waited until the halftrack was moving at a sufficient speed to made his move...

The NCO was "mysteriously" pushed away from the halftrack, falling on the ground. This little distraction was greeted with joy by the assistants. He would not pass his rage on them...

"Professor," said one of them..,"you knew that the Soviets were bound to attack us ?"

The assistant was speaking in Japanese, knowing very well that no Nazi her could understand him...To spy on them, the SS had sent at the fortress various officers that could speak Japanese, but "strangely", all of them had little accidents with the test subject...

"Of course" lied without shame Kakuzawa...The best way to assure the loyalty of his assitants was to show them the "Gift" he had received, as often as he could...For instance, like he had done minutes ago with the NCO. Kakuzawa invented ont the spot a story about how this done on purpose, to reduce the number of their escort, in case they needed to flee...

The major, meanwhile, did not say a word of protest about Kakuzawa's amusement-he was a VIP, after all...And those French fascists they had picked up at Koenisberg were not exactly a prime fighting force-they had been took only to "plug" some holes in the manpower of the armoured unit...So, to lose a soldier this way or to the ennemy, it was pretty much the same.

He had much more to worry. Unsurprisingly, the two T-34s had not been hit a single time ; they were raising behind them a real snowstorm, that was making hard to target them...And as it had been showed a lot of time on the East Front, T-34s were able to handle difficult terrain like snow quite willl...As a result, the T-34 s had take quite a lead on the tanks...

As the Russians had destroyed another Panther during their mad charge, the armour of the group was now down to two Tigers and three Panthers...More than enough to succeed. Unless...unless the worst case confirmed. A tank driver had reported that one of the tanks had on it's turret the number _241 _sketched by the crew...Of course, it could be a tentative of the Russians to impress the ennemy. It's could be also that they were faced by _the _241...And the way that the Soviets were fighting up to this point was quite in the style of the Red Valkyrie.

The major heard a report from the tanks. Damn. They could no longer move foward, and the ennemy was heavily pressing on the rear...This could lead to major trouble.

"Hmm...there is some problem ahead", he said at the attention of Kakuzawa. "The Soviets tanks have met up with some of their infantry on a wooden hill...we will need an infantry assault to clear them up. Do not worry...It's a question of minutes before we reach the hamlet, when the garrison will be going to help us...And the airbase garrison is coming..."

The said hill had rather gentle slopes, but it was nonetheless a very good position to defend. It was heavily wooded, however. Good thing ; the trees were going to provide cover,

When the tanks had arrived, a section of Russian infantry was doing something in the snow...There was badly buried mines plainly visible-probably the best the Russians could have done with the ground deeply frozen, hard as a rock. There could be others mines, however...this was why an infantry assault was going to be needed...The tanks, at maximum range, were exchanging shells, without results...SS soldiers carrying those damned _panzerfausts _jumped from the halftracks, ready to engage the T-34s with their anti-tank weapons. They met some return fire, fairly innacurate because of the range, and the fact that they were not very obvious targets. The Russian infantry that was with the tanks fired some flares, but that was all...The SS deployed themselves for an overwhelming assault on the tanks. A single, well-placed, _panzerfaust _round could kill a T-34, and the SS were fourty...

Annah, who had jumped out of her tank, was surveying the situation with Pietr, who was in charge of the infantry. Things were proceeding as she had planned...She sighted. What was going to follow...would not be exactly pretty. It would be awful, even...Like all warfare...

Her opinion change, however, when she spotted a soldier, under the flash of a flare...

"They have some patches on their uniforms..They are..._Waffen SS ! _NO MERCY ! "

Annah shouted, as loud as she could, something in Russian at the attention of the Nazis...

"_SMERT FASCHISKOI GADINE ! _DEATH TO THE FASCIST BEAST ! "

As every soldier on the hill repeated it, it had a certain psychological effect on the Nazis...

"Capitain, just a word...There is maybe some...some _Vlassovs_ among them...And...we are going to need, sooner or later, to interrogate one of them, to know...where _he _could be...

"Shut up, Pietr...this is a subject I don't want to talk about...It's...it's too...

"Capitain...what are we going to do if we meet him ?This could happen, you know..."

Only Vassili and Pietr knew the truth about what had happened in Briansk...about the traitor...This subject was very touchy with Annah. But they neeed to talk over the question...

"What would you think, Pietr, if you were in front of traitors from of the Vichy regime ?"

"Pietr" was only a warname-Annah knew his real name, but prefered to use _Pietr, _as this was for her a sign of affection...(friendly affection). He was not native of Soviet Union-he was rather from France...He had been fighting with the Republicans in Spain. Initially, he had no great love for the Soviet Union, who had furnished war material to the Republic in a very limited way...but his hate for Nazi Germany was much greater. Like many foreign soldiers that had assisted the Republicans, he had to go in France when Barcelone had fall. Ater the Battle of France, in which the unit he was in had been rather _mauled _then _engaged _(the French High Command had blamed the troops for their defeat...but the problem was also with the leadership. "Incompetence" was an euphemism), he had been taken as a POW in Germany (to be honest, the detentions conditions were not too bad-Nazis tried to maintain a decency look when dealing with prisonners from western Europe...) "Pietr" had evaded, toward the closest border : the Soviet one. Usually, the NKVD disliked a lot such initiatives, but Pietr had rather well chosen his moment ; two months after his arrival, the Nazis launched their attack...As he volonteered to fight against them, "Pietr" had been incorporated in the Red Army. (It was likely that, after the war, the NKVD would resume it's questionning. But Annah, aware of the situation, had assured him that with her connectons, he would avoid trouble...)

Pietr was not bloodthirsty..Except against for one kind of opponents : some of his compatriots...the French facists. Those traitors had tried to destroy the French Republic before the war, had sabotaged (politically) the help to the Republicans...They were already crawling at the feet of the Nazis _before _the war...To take the words of one of their leaders, Déat, "they did not wanted to die for Dantzig"-the Polish city that had been pretext to the Nazis agression.

It was _very _ironic that some of those Fascists were going to _actually _die for Dantzig...

Anyway, Annah's choice of sentence was not very lucky, as there was among the Nazis some of those traitors : Pietr heard some words in French...And his reply was quite energetic. French was an awesome language for insults, and Pietr showcased it perfectly...

"Pietr ! I...I did not know...I just that...I just don't know what to do ! For what happened to Natalya, he should have an horrible death...but...I can't...I just can't do that to...

Pietr and Vassili had basically reached the following conclusion : the best was to kill this bastard on the spot. This would spare the capitain an agonzing moral dilemna...

But this question would be settled later...The ennemy was here. Time to thin their ranks.

The T-34s stopped to fire at the tanks, to began to fire in the direction of the soldiers encircling the hill. Their shells were way too high to hit the soldiers ; they impacted a good ten meters above the ground, in the pines trees..The little problem was that fragments from pines trees were as deadly for soldiers on foot than shell fragments, especially on soldiers that hwere crawling on the ground, which augmented a lot the exposed surface...

This gruesome tactic (that had been discovered by several Red Army units in the course of the war...for her part, Annah had thought of that in relation to some of her experience at Stalingrad and as a partisan) worked quite well : it forced the infantry to withdraw, with a lot of casualties and fatalities. After this, however, the tanks resumed their withdrawal toward the hamlet, the infantry scattering in the woods. Surprised, the Nazis hesitated for a moment...and decided that the Soviets must had been scared by the attacks. They continued the pursuit, forgeting caution ; if they proceed too slowly, the Soviet would have time to lay another trap.

This assured that they did not take precautions when they entering the hamlet-no scouting party...The Soviet T-34s arrived in the village, were greeted by the firing of them of several machine-guns (one more time, just a deception...) The _panzers _followed, and...

There was several huge detonations. Annah had placed a large stack of antitank mines next to the first house of the village , both Soviet and ones that had been "liberated" in the supplies of the Wermacht after battles. A speciality of the Red Army was it's skill with dissimulation/camouflage, and the way the mines had been placed showcased it : dropped on the ground, the snow covering them had been meticously put back...As Annah had _deliberatly _passed almost over them with the two T-34s, but not _on _them thanks to some disguised marks, the Nazis following her in hot pursuit had rolled right on them. The first Tiger made explode two mines at the same time, which reduced him to a burning hulk. The second one promptly veered away from this path...only to hit another mine in the tracks. The crew was about to use it as a fixed turret, when AT grenades, fired from a nearby house (the defense element) pierced it's armor Now, there was "just" three Panthers left. Afraid of mines, they were no longer pursuing the two Russian tanks...which gave far enough time for the T-34s to turn, and engage them in conventional tank-battle. What was left of the support infantry of the _panzers, _tried to support them-but they met heavy fire from the Soviet solders garrisoning the houses. In desperation, the major ressorted to a last ditch tactic : avoiding the village, despite the horrible roads, and try to link up with the airbase reinforcement. But before doing that,they had to neutralize those two T-34s, that risked to destroy the halftracks...The Nazis moved east, the three Panthers acting as a shield for what was left of the convoy. This was the only other path avaible, passing next to the manor...the Russians were prepared here too. Trees had been chopped down, to slow down movement. With the necessity to check for mines (some had been put there, just to keep Nazis nervous) the progression of the convoy was heavily impaired...Fortunately, the Soviets probably did not had garrisoned the manor itself-when the convoy passed next to it, there was no return fire at all...It was then that the killing blow was landed...The two T-34s came back, circling about the almost immobile column, forcing the Panthers to always fend out their attack-firing most of their ammo, that was in more and more short supply (the shells were carried into the trucks that had been blown up !) Finally, as one T-34 was "amusing" them in the front, the other attacked from behind, destroying another tank, met only by inneffective machine gun-fire from the halftracks. This was enough ; keeping the two remaining tanks for it's protection, the major ordered to break the convoy formation. As the convoy was bound to be destroyed anyway, it was better to try something.

The Russians tanks, now reinforced by the two T-34s that had been deceiving the Nazis on the rear, moved for the kill : they were like sharks against fishes compared to halftrack-the only risk was to be hit from _panzerfausts _rounds, and Olga was there to care for that. Most of the surviving halftracks were destroyed rather quickly, but the infantry onboard them had jumped, and had took cover in the park...It was then that the Russians in the manor revaled themselves, with devastating results for the ennemy, who took the manor undefended...As usual, the one that distinguished herself the most was Olga, who was on the roof of the manor...As a sniper, she was really deadly...and, as she was enjoying to make her ennemies see death coming, she was not above deliberatly missing a foe to make him turn, and see the flash from her riffle. Annah could hardly blame her for that ; Olga was from Leningrad...

The city had been bessieged _900 days _by the Wermacht...and Olga, who was young when it had began (was young ? She had barely nineteen right now, still quick young. Annah was almost the oldest one in the whole group...)...it had really traumatized her deeply...

The infantry being mowed down, what was left was the moping up. Annah took care personally of the last tanks, and the halftrack they were covering. The Panthers put out some fight, but as they were almost out ammo, they did not lasted very long...The last halftrack could now be attacked without trouble...but this would be useless, as it had been abandonned by it's crew...Olga and the troops in the manor could not track everything ; many Nazis had managed to take shelter...And now, time was really running out.

The battle was calming down. Vassili, who had fought with the troops in the hamlet, came to report the overall situation to Annah, whose was breathing heavily, leaned on the hull of her T-34...this had been a victory, but a pretty close one, and rather exhausting too...

"Capitain, we have casualties, but no fatalities. Some battle damage on the vehicles, but nothing serious. Short of individual weapons, I don't think we are going to salvage much from the ennemy-we have been quite throughout with the destruction of their gear...We thinned their ranks a lot...but Valentine's group is reporting that another force is moving toward us : the garrison from the airbase. They have ten Panthers, AT guns, and they know we are here."

Annah hesitated...a _lot. _She had no proofs that Kakuzawa was there...could she risk the life of one of her subordinate for a personnal matter ? (this train of thought was quite unusual for an officer, even more for a Soviet officer...) Asked in those terms, the answer was quite clear...

"...Well, do as planned...Evacuate. We cannot prepare a second ambush-we are dispersed, we could be defeated. Valentine's group will delay them a little, without taking risks. We will regroup and attack them later...this airbase could be stormable, after all...(A pause) I'm worried that Valentine will do to much...I'll go with her group, and withdraw with them.

The evacuation proceeded rather nicely. A little time later, the Soviet detachement was leaving the village southward, two T-34s closing the march, to pick up Valentine and the capitain-as they were the delaying element, the ennemy was bound to be close to them...

Finally, they arrived, running. Valentine and the little group of volonteers she had under her command had successfully delayed for several minutes the second Nazi force. Damage had been pretty light (two or three Wermacht soldiers killed, maybe ?) but the Nazis were now sure that a large Russian force was about to ambush them-they had then slowed...

Vassili saw at once that there was a serious problem-the capitain was not with them...

Valentine said that Annah had helped them, then said that she was returning with Vassili.

Both Russians said, almost at the same time, almost identical sentences...

"Oh, damn, she did it _again..._" (presentable version of the sentences, without profanities...)

Kakuzawa had bunkered down in a building in the large park of the manor...The old stables, distant from the main building from around two three kilometers. Rather strange configuration, probably related to the prior existence of a smaller manor house (whose fundations were the basis of the stables), built before the current one. Those stables had been partly reconverted in the last decades. It was a decent position ; the ground was relatively cleared around it ; the armoured vehicles from the airbase could approach this position and evacuate Kakuzawa without fearing an ambush...The reconversion had been rather interesting Part of the place was now a sort of greenhouse ; the roof had been partly replaced with glass panels. The walls, however, were made in an extremly sturdy stone masonry, that was likely to resist to anything short of siege artillery shells. As this was a greenhouse, there was windows, of course, and rather large ones...that had been covered with planks for the winter. This was just a matter of holding out...The major had managed to gather around him about ten soldiers, with _panzerfausts _and infantry weapons. It was certainly possible to hold the building long enough for the reinforcements to arrive, especially considering that the Russians were slowly pulling out. At least, the major thought, the VIPs were still alive...

The only Soviet that was still in the hamlet was watching with attention the building, after having followed the footsteps in the snow...She was glad that she had ordered the rest of her group to pull out...This kind of attack on last-ditch positions could turn ugly. Now, well, it was just _her _life that was at risk. The attention of the ennemy was turned to the withdrawing of the Soviets...perfect. There was not outdoor sentinels-this would have pinpointed the building to the Red Army...The Nazis were not enough to cover all angles, and they were not excepting a single ennemy to attack them. Annah managed to climb on the roof without trouble...To have a minimal light, from the moon and the stars, the ennemy were mostly located in a area just below one of the glass panels-Annah could see them clearly, between the wooden planks. They were quite close. The basic idea would be to drop grenades at them, but they would heard hear breaking the glass and removing the wood...and they would take cover. No, better find something else...and quick, as time was running out. The second Nazi group would not advance so slowly forever...If Annah did not hurry, she would be trapped...

And then, she saw him...Kakuzawa. He was a little appart. He looked even more...disturbed...than six years ago. This vision boosted the speed Annah's brain was working-now that had seen him with her own eyes, she was not going to let him flee, and restart his little business somewhere else...like, in fact, he had done the last time...

A little time later, the ennemy heard noise on the roof...Someone was trying to remove the wood panels. The reaction was immediate. The major screamed to Kakuzawa to take cover, while everyone raised his weapon to fire in the area, to kill the Soviet before he/she could throw grenades in the room. They did not killed the lone assaliants, but their weapons litteraly chewed appart in the wood and the glass-a good part of the roof collapsed...They realized, of course, but too late, that among what fell (almost harmlessly on them, there was two AP grenades. Armed. Annah had placed them before running away...and it was the Nazis that had assured that those grenades would fall on them, by destroying the roof...Ouch.

The following explosions killed the major and most of the SS. Only three, more or less wounded, remained. The assistants, that had been handed weapons to help with the defense, were dead to...While the SS were climbing back to their feet, Annah, who had took cover previously, made her entry, thanks to the "door" that had been opened by the Nazis. The fall was a little too high-she heard her ankles "snap" when she hit the ground. But short of that...

She noticed with interest that, after all, the major was not dead...yet. She could not resist.

"This is coming from the _241..._(The informal name of Annah's group was just "the 241", in hommage to the ill-fated 241th Brigade she had founded, at Briansk...Ill fated ? 60 of the members-granted, it was meaning three persons...were still fighting in the Red Army, which was awesome compared to the fate of many partisans groups) You heard about us ?"

Judging by his face...he had. Annah finished him with a shot from her pistol. Now, she was faced with "just" three SS with automatic weapons, while equipeed with a pistol...doable.

Then, to the astonishement of Kakuzawa and the SS, Annah started to speak in Chinese, a language that Kakuzawa knew, but none of the SS...Her Chinese was as good as her Russian ; after all, she had knew the two languages from her youngest age (altought, ahem, her Chinese was kinda…not literary. After all, her education had been rather...peculiar)

As she was speaking with Kakuzawa, the SS, always following orders, did not fire. And Kauzawa, surprised, did not thought that he could end the matter with her quickly...

"I knew it was you in this convoy, but I never hoped to met you face to face, Kakuzawa"...

"You are very, very annoying, _Ivan..._You had been sent to secure my ressearch ? (always the paranoia...Of course, like all others officers, Annah had orders to secure technology-including some kind of mineral, the saturnium, jupiterium...something like that, a planet name, anyway-usable by the Soviet Union, but not the demential projects of Kakuzawa...) You will not find anything...until it's too late...What you have was not really of critical importance (Kakuzawa was clutching in his hands a couple of vial filled with blood samples)

"Your ressarch disgust me, you sicko, it's does not interest me...I have seen enough...Because, we found stuff about your work...Very important stuff. Quite alive and sane, unfortunately for you...She survived to whatever you unleashed back at the fortress..."

Kakuzawa was so startled by the statement of Annah-that her group had met Sarah and were still alive to tell the tale-that he never realized a fact that was quite puzzling :

How the hell Annah was knowing his name and could associate it with him (granted, he was the only Japanese alive. But this was not explaining why she was knowing him...)

"Ah...so, she is alive", bluffed Kakuzawa. "I knew it...You taken her prisonner ?"

Kakuzawa was not very good at bluffing. Annah had, by this time, realized that she had made a mistake, and a critical one, by mentionning the fact that Sarah was still alive...She promised to herself to try to help the girl-the Nazis would maybe attempt to recapture her...

"Oh, she is completly out of our reach."(Quite untrue : she was probably within twenty kilomters of the fortress...But the Nazis in the area had others thing to do than find her...) But this point is not important...What is important is...you, Kakuzawa...This is very sweet..."

Puzzled, Kakuzawa looked at her. He had seen her probably, but _where _and _how _? Fortunately for him, Annah answered his unformulated question in the following seconds...

"I was at Harbin, in 1939, with the _maquisards_...I saw everything...I have saw a lot since the Invasion...Nazism is truly the darkest side of Humanity, but _you _are a very special case..."

Kakuzawa looked at her more closely, and then recognized her. Like Annah had thought, this realization made him lose his temper...What followed was unspeakable insults. Seeing the face of the three SS, who had not the slighest idea of what was going on, was funny...

"Why are you struggling ? It's over...We will replace you, sooner or later..._You are all over. _

"Oh, oh, oh, I'm scared ! It's a little late to say that, don't you think ? We were not believing you back in '41, we will certainly give up right now, when your f... Reich is a ruin..."

How Annah could have guessed that the _we _part in Kakuzawa tirade was not including the Nazis, but that the _us _part included both her and the Nazis ? All Humans in fact ?

"I may consider surrendering to your side...but I need to receive some guaratees..."

Subtility was really not a core trait for Kakuzawa...He was trying to buy time

"Hey, this trick is a little too old...I would have prefered to hand you over to the NVKD, where they would have _gladly _helped you to remember things you had forgotten, but-"

Annah was not completly sincere with this...she feared that Kakuzawa could find a deal with the NVKD, and save his life. She was going to saver Russia a major moral dilemma...

She stopped mid-sentence, and jumped for cover, startling the three SS...

While jumping, Annah raised her handgun, and fired a single shot...Her chances of survival were quite limited, even if her action somewhat surprised the Nazis-sure, they kinda excepted her to try something, but not to try to take them on such a direct way. Annah had merely thought that she had chances to die, while she was almost assured of killing Kakuzawa.

She had then fired toward the Major. At least than twenty meters away, she did not even wondered if she was going to hit him-she had managed, with pistols, to hit targets at a much greater distances during the War…she was much more worried about finding good cover.

Thus she was rather astonished, as were the SS, when Kakuzawa started to laugh in a way that was not exactly normal...He was unwounded...Well, not exactly. He had a wound that was bleeding a little, on the forehead. And this was complety irrationnal. Either Annah had hit him, which was almost sure, and in this case, he would have been dead or dying-a handgun projectile at such a short distance was certainly lethal ! Or either she had missed him completly, and he would not have been wounded at all...The SS, too, were rather surprised by this, as they had seen Kakuzawa shudder under the impact...they were not firing-not yet-at Annah. The Russian took more carefully aim, and fired a second time. This time, she _saw _her bullet connect with him...and fall harmlessly after that, like if it had hit a concrete wall...

Annah looked in complete disbelief at Kakuzawa...He had...he had _deflected _her bullets ? This was already a bad thing, but for her, it was much worse...This was areal nightmare...a nightmare she knew...For one dark corner of her mind, an terrible image crawled..

It was her firing with nothing less than frenesy, in a dark hallway, against a...thing...(she had seen it quite clearly...and hoped to be able to forget it completly one day...It was a twisted thing, that she had overhead Kakuzawa said it was a failure) that was moving toward her, while scything, hacking everything that was on it's path. The worse was her...her...

Thankfully, Annah's mind was bring back to the present by the firing of a machine gun. The SS had just been told that the Japanese scientist was developping a kind of secret weapon...and for them, what Kakuzawa had done was a proof that those ressearchs were working, and that they must escort him back to Berlin. After all, things were not that bad, thought Kakuzawa. Granted, this very precious European specimenwas gone, and the Soviets had jut blewed up years of ressearch...But he was going to get vengeance for Harbin...this girl was the last survivor of the _maquisards, _after all. They had all pay...except her..Maybe he could use his capacities to teach her a little lesson ? This would be enjoyable.

Kakuzawa's deflection capacity was far inferior to the one of Sarah...it was inferior in fact to the capacities that a very young Diclonius would have. He was barely able to deflect small rounds, that were not fired at him in large quantities...It was because of the centuries that had pass since his family had been Chosen to receive the power to eradicate Humankind-they had not used this power, and in conscequence, it have been slowly removed from them...

This was the theological explanation. The actual explanation, that Kakuzawa was somewhat aware of, was that despite the very strict endogamy that had been the rule in their family since centuries, the Diclonius part of them had slowly waned...(in some decades, he was going to be able to put a scientifical word on that : DNA...) Not to mention a rather annoying detail .; for describing the potential future Diclonius society, Kakuzawa had gone for using Hive-like terms...Queen, Princess, Drones...The killing point was this : there was males for ants or bees, but, ahem, their social fonctions were somewhat reduced. Like it was very likely to be the case for the Diclonius...This was why Kakuzawa was very agressive toward the female Diclonius (either the handful of ones remaining from his family, that had been killed in an horrible way, for a not less horrible goal, Sarah...and in fact, any one he was going to encounter) he was "putting them in their place", one more time according to his madness.

Kakuzawa had been the first of his line and gender in generation from to receive from it's Diclonius side something more than the mental instability (the mental instability...it was not sure that it was really a trait of the Diclonius. After all, Sarah had pretty managed to "hold" without going insane, and have a pretty much Human behaviour-if she had given up this Human side, it was because of what she had to endure...Kakuzawa had saw this just as a weakness, interesting to know for further studies...), the agressivity and the horns...

"What you see...is just a example of the power that have been granted to Us by the Gods ! "

Annah reply, in a mix of Russian, German and Chinese, to be sure that everyone could understood, was mostly about where Kakuzawa could put his divine power...

As Annah was out of his meager range, he screamed to the guards to finish her...

The SS opened fire, but Annah had took cover. Not only she came out unscratched, but her return fire, much more precise, dropped to the ground one of the SS.

This was way too much for Kakuzawa, who never accepted incomptence (except from himself...) Those "allies" had just been a source of trouble up to this point. They had failed him. They need to die...The guard that was next to him was...hacked appart, while Kakuzawa was laughing in an insane manner. Annah took this scene _relatively _well, for two reasons...She somewhat excepted this...and it was one ennemy down, after all.

"Way to go, fascist ! Thanks for saving me work ! ", she said, while trying to hit the last SS...who, in fact, did not needed, at all, this new source of trouble...

The remaining SS, more than a little shocked by the fate of his colleague (understandable) realized at this point that he was jammed between Kakuzawa and the Soviet...At least, the Soviet was Human, while this Kakuzawa and his strange capacities (it was funny that it took such a situation for a SS to recognize that an Slav was as Human as a German...)

Kakuzawa killed him in a...more conventional way-he had a pistol, too...What was rather unusual was that he emptied his whole magazine into the corpse...lack of self control.

Sweat was beginning to run on Annah's front. She was down to...five bullets, and there was no way to harm. this guy. Things were bleak, very bleak. She considered trying to secure one of the Nazis weapons, but decided to go against it-she was not familiar of them, and many of them were buried under rubble...It was at this time that she found a possibility, judging by were Kakuzawa was standing. Thankfully, he did not rushed to finish her, visibly enjoying to the deepest level the current situation. He did not accorded much attention when Annah emptied her handgun...she was panicked, now, her shots were not even in his general area...

Annah had not targeted him. She had targeteted the weakened wood/glass planels...The panels that were standing just above him. The result of the operation was quite clear...

With a very satisfying noise, the whole huge window collapsed on Kakuzawa...Ah, damn, not directly on him-somehow, he managed to push away. However, when the panels from the greenhouse touched the ground ahead on him, it worked more or less like she had hoped...But what Annah got this night was certainly of the luckiest shot in Human history...

A single, fist-sized but razor sharp, glass fragment nailed Kakuzawa right between the eyes.

The speed of the fragment was sufficient to slightly pierce the bones of his forehead, not to go very deeply...Not even a centimeter deep. But it had an effect on Kakuzawa that she was completly unaware...Annah had severly maimed his epiphyse, the pineal gland.

For Humans, the epiphyse was a rather small gland, the pineal one, that in some decades would be identified as secreting the melatonin, a substance regulating many biological fonctions. So of course, crippling it would have rather bad conscequences on the long term...that were not however not as drastic for Humans as for Diclonius as the epiphyse/pineal gland was the area of the brain that was related to the Vectors !

Annah Sovorov had just "robbed" Kakuzawa of his powers granted by the Heavens...

And judging by his screams, it was affecting him a _lot..._

"THEY...THEY...ARE GONE ! HOW DID YOU KNOW ! HOW DID YOU KNOW ! GIVE THEM BACK TO ME, F... HUMAN ! GIVE THEM BACK !

It took a lot to scare Annah, but this outburst would have worried anyone-especially combined by the noise of several Nazis tank engines just outside the building...This time, it was really over...she just had the time to flee. After all, the assault on the base was still possible.

The soldiers were too concerned about the VIP they had to secure to actually track Annah...and she decided immediatly to not make a speech about how formal orders had to be obeyed when she saw that Vassili had sent back one T-34 for pick her up, in the hamlet...

About four hours later, with an advance party made out of her, some soldiers and Vassili, Annah was studying with binoculars the airbase. Hmm. It was strange that the transport planes-old Junkers, as classical as it could be-had not taken off during the night, when the risk of interception was low. They were waiting for the escort, probably...day-fighters. The dawn was rising slowly...they were going to arrive probably within the hour. Time was pressing...

"Hmm, we have etablished some foward bases...I think that we are still in the range for Yaks and LaaGs...A flight of them to escort some of our tactical bombers is all we need...

Back at the position were the group was concentrated, Vassili called the High Command, for air support, insisting on the urgenct part. His request was granted. Just in time : the escort was coming. Soviet soliders looked themselves. What kind of airplane could make that noise ?

Annah listened too, with sheer horror, to the screaming-like noise...

"Cancel _immediatly _the request for air support...THEY HAVE ME-262s FOR COVER !"

**February 1945...An Waffen SS position between Dantzig and Koenisberg...**

More than six years ago, the Wermacht had crossed the Polish border, officially to take Dantzig and the Corridor...Now, the remnants of the armies of the Fascist Beast were being methodically driven from Poland...several zones in Germany proper had been already been seized. Since 1870, it was the first time that German territory was invaded...the previous wars inspired by the Prussian militarism were lead in foreign countries...It was thus easy to make neat sentences about how "war is the greatest test of civilization" since Germany was never exposed to the nasty side effects of the said test (this lack of empathy before feeling the effects of war on itself was not limited, far from it, to Germans...) The harbours of the Baltic were well on the way of being bessieged by the Red Army-troops were in retreat everywhere.

One group, made of rather exhausted soldiers, who had walked for more than two days and one night in the snow, finally arrived at an army base, that looked abandoned-probably evacuated because of the progression of the Red Army in the area...

This group was made from survivors of a Soviet attack-most of them had basically survived because...because they had _fled. _Their convoy had been ambushed by at least a full brigade of T-34s, a day ago, as they were esccorting a VIP back to an airbase near Koenisberg (well, that was what they were going to put in the report when they would see an officer...) The VIP had survived but most of the unit had been rather mauled down. They did not know how the whole affair had ended, but it was likely that this would turn bad for them.

Those SS were quite unlucky. They had escaped one kind of danger...only to be exposed to a very different danger, as deadly. They noticed at once that something was wrong-the mutilated corpses was a good clue...There was discarded ammo everywhere-the struggle had been rather ferocious.A single person was still alive...And what she was doing was rather surprising. She was trying to sleep, in a dormitory with three bodies in it. Trying to sleep. Sarah had been unable to do it, her mind being too much tormented. Sarah had not shed a tear when she had maimed, killed the SS that were there-they had said so much time that her kind was a threat to the Reich...Now, she was proving that herself, at the very least, was a critical threat, indeed. Her face and hands were meticously clean (she had cleaned herself the best she could, with snow) but the Red Army uniform, way too large for her, that she had was covered with blood...The SS mostly thought that they were going to have the occasion to "amuse" themselves-until the girl opened wide her bloodred eyes, and looked at them...

What happened was becoming usual to Sarah-she did not even needed to think about it.

The view of one of his comrade being whacked on a wall by an invisible force pushed one SS to say something, while making, one more time, an hasty strategic retreat...

"Oh, no, not AGAIN..." (he was thinking to his expulsion of an halftack..."

Sarah let him fled...If he come back with reinforcement, there was two possible solutions, each as good as the other. If she killed all of them, perfect. It they killed her...it would be over...(Sarah's detention experience had been so traumatic, both for her and the...other...that she refused to even consider the possibility of being captured yet again...)

When the silence had come back, Sarah tried to think about what she was going to do in the next days...The...darkness...within her was truly frightening Sarah. If her whole life was just going to be such killings, from now on...what...what was going to be left of her ?

_(I'm becoming like that voice says...And...a part of me is liking it...It's horrible, but I like it... I could have saved Myriam, if I had accepted it earlier...Even if this had been a tiny possibility, one out of a million, I would have done it...I was sincere, when I said to Myriam that nothing mattered out for me more than her...I would have even have gave my soul..._

Sarah nervously touched the sides of her head...They...were already coming back...That strange Russian girl, that had wanted to touch them...It's looked like she had see them...

Impossible of course. But the more Sarah was thinking about it, the more it worried her...


	11. Eleven : Sakura or 14 ? Ext POV

(External Point of View...)

**Several years ago, Kamakura**…

Shirakawaze came back to see Kurama and the second son of Kakuzawa. She had in her hands only one thing...a sheet of paper. And what was on this sheet was going to break the lives of several persons, she was completly aware of it. This jerk of Kakuzawa always gave her to Kurama or her the worst jobs...And this time, it was her turn to do it...She shivered at the thought. She had some experience in those matters, but each time it was awful.

"I got the results...Diclonius Carrier, it's confirmed. Very healthy specimen, by the way..."

She handed the sheet about the blood analysis of the newborn. It was just a confirmation, anyway. The child had all the physical traits of Diclonius ; pale skin, unusal hair and eyes color. And, of course, the horns...Her fate had been sealed since her case had been reported.

The newborn was now in separate room of the hospital, in top-secret conditions (no contact) a room whose only exit was watched by security guards. As secured as it could be...

As the Director was often saying sarcastically, the Diclonius that were at the facility had the "advantage" of not having much trouble to choose what they wanted to do. Their lives was determined at birth : it was either a life of detention at the facilty...or immediate euthanasia. And as the previous Number Fourteen had been terminated recently, this very interesting specimen was going to be shuttled at the facility tomorrow morning, to take her place.

Kurama looked at the sheet, his face not showing the slighest expression. Then he picked a folio, and began to fill the papers that were in it. The official paperwork, for declaring the official death of the new Fourteen. In a few minutes, this was going to be processed, and this girl woud been removed for Human society forever...almost has she had never existed.

"Shirakawze, I can do it, if you wish..." he said, while he began working on his laptop…

Shiakawaze said no-her colleague had enough problems recently-and headed for the room where the parents of the Diclonius were. She had to confirm to them the situation (fortunately, the protocols established at the facility stated that the "bad news" had to be divided in too. Tell them about the situation of the Diclonius first-then tell them, some days latter, about the little operation they would have to underwent. In this case, this would not pos much problems, as this couple was well on his late thirties-they could not had another children, anyway…

Like in many cases, the parents took it relatively well. They did not ask much question about what would be done with "it" (they were no longer using the word daughter to describe her…) at the facility. They were…relieved, in a sense. No problems from this side ; they would sign the required paperwork without much trouble. Shirakawaze was mildly worried about the mother, however. She had been more affected-it would maybe require medication…

After she had left them, Shirakawaze saw, next to the room where the parents were, that there was a girl, around twelve, that was on a chair, clearly crying. The other daughter, She had not take it as easily…She had even tried something almost pathetical earlier-she had removed some breakers and started a fire alarm, in an attempt to reach the room where Fourteen was. She had been arrested on the spot by the guards…who had almost immediately released her, per direct order of Kurama, who could understood what she had done. As soon as she saw Shirakawze, her eyes flared with anger. Understandable ; because for this…Miyuki, if she was correct, Kurama and Shirakawaze were taking away what she _thought _was her little sister.

"Listen", tried Shirakawaze, this if for your own good. "You can't live with her…She have a very, very dangerous disease…It's very probable that she would have ended killing you…"

Miyuki did not answered anything first…The only question she asked would have been much more appropriate in the mouth of her mother of her father, who had however preferred to not ask questions for getting answers that could disturb their…flexibles…consciences.

"…What are you going to do to her ? Don't tell me it's for her sake, with all the weapons your guys have with them…You have not gave _them _(her parents, probably) that much money if you were just going to heal her…(at this moment, there was an hint of hope in her voice..)

She hoped that Shirakawaze would say that Sakura could be released a day (Miyuki insisted on calling her sister this name…and had quite shocked when she realized that her parents and the scientists treated her like a thing. If she had knew that the Diclonius was now, for all her life, Number Fourteen and nothing else…) Shirakawaze was still a…decent person, after all. She feel-rightly-that this would be very cheap to give this false hope to the girl.

"You...should not think too much about it, honestly. It's will be harder for you...I...suggest that you already consider that she is dead. It's going to help you cope with the problem. And anyway...I'm sorry to say that this disease is very powerful…She…will be dead soon."

What Shirakawaze had said was true. The missing part was it was the fact that the Diclonius taken at birth usually go insane within a few years, requiring their quick termination…

"…you really think that it's by saying such things that you are going to convince. I don't care a bit about your c… ! AT ALL. Sakura is not a monster, she is my little sister ! She is-"

Shirakawaze thought that the girl had suddenly calmed herself, when she saw the reason why Myuki had so suddenly shut up…On a nearby window, she was seeing clearly the helipad…The dawn was rising, and the helicopter carrying Fourteen was about to take off…

For a moment, Shirakawaze feared that Miyuki was going to defenestrate herself. But no…

Since her own parents had abandoned Sakura, she had to live…to do something….

In a nearby alley, two girls, slightly below twelve, whose clothes were in a rather awful shape, watched the helicopter prepare to take off. One of the girls found those events interesting.

"Hey, did you saw all the soldiers there was onboard ? I wonder what is going on ? "

This kind of question was actually a quite good one. The thing was, no one dared to ask it in Kamakura-the mind of Humans is often a very selective one, to say the least….

"I'm more worried about where we are going to sleep next night", said quietly the second girl, who had a longer experience of living in the streets. Unlike the other, she was aware that it was much better to...lay low, in Kamakura, especially for people in their situation...

"Don't look so down ! The place we found last night was not _that _bad !"

The other girl was about to say something about the place in question-an unheated warehouse whose roof was leaking. But she decided to not say it-everything was relative, after all. Maybe their physical conditions of living, or rather of surviving, were awful...However, if those "details" we neglected, both considered that their lives were quite acceptable...

Indeed, what was happening next to the hospial was rather peculiar...It was five of the morning, and there was not one, but two craft, guarded by military-looking men. The first one finally took of, and headed away.This was not looking to be just a med-evac. The first girl left the alley, to see thescene from closer. The second one quietly grabbed her by the arm.

"C'mon, let's come closer ! I want to see what is happening, Lucy ! Please, _please..._?"

Lucy tried to say to Natsume that this was likely to turn ugly quite fast, but it was to not avail.

"I don't see why you found that this is such a bad idea !" continued Natsume. "After all, you are the one that get here, after waking us so early this morning...And...Lucy ? I must say that you did not look well...at all, today. You were woken up by a nightmare, I guess..."

This sentence troubled Lucy to the highest point. It was true...they were there because of one those...impressions...that she got sometimes in dreams, that were extremly disturbing. But it was not a dream, or rather a nightmare, as she was having those impressions now, awake.How to qualify those impressions ? It was impossible to put words on them-it's just that she had got the...feeling...to go in that direction...It had grow stronger as they were getting closer (Natsume had followed without saying a word...), to be almost unbearable until...

Until recently Now, it was receding rather quickly (if this had not been so strange, so unreal, those impressions, Lucy would have almost certainly put this receding in correlation with the take-off of the helicopter...) However, Lucy also felt something else right now ; a strange impression that she had arrived her just a little too late...Even stranger. So, Lucy rather questionned Natsume on why she thought she had a nightmare this night...

"Hmm ? Err...(a very long hesitation)...it's just that you kicked me in the ribs, that's all."

Lucy life had been as messed as it could be, and she did not always had a clear perception of what was normal, acceptable, and what was not. So, she simply did not made connection...

"Natsume, I don't it's good idea...at all. I agree that there is something going on, but why care about it ? (Lucy had been a curious child...but her life had kinda killed this curiosity. She did not wanted to know anything else about herself, for instance...About both her capacities, and her origins. She did not wanted to know for certain that she had been abandoned...)

"C'mon, it's going to be interesting", Lucy (she was insisting so much that Lucy gave up)

"It's not that we have a very busy planning for today, hmm ? There or somewhere else..."

Natsume did not wanted to have trouble...She probably just wanted, for a moment, to have a little thrill making her forget how awful was her life now. But for her, it was not _that _awful ; with Lucy...

No one tried to stop them when they approched the hospital-but some bystanders did looked at them in a peculiar way. Both Lucy and Natsume tried to kept their clothes clean and in a good state, but they were still in a state that gave a clear hint about where they were living. Natsume find it quite humiliating-she did not want them to think that of her...

"It's going to be over soon", said Lucy to cheer her a little. "Your mother is coming..."

"...yes...It will be over for you too, Lucy, I promise it. I will find a way to convince her to-"

"Natsume, you are kind, you are very kind...but please stop say that. You know like me this is not going to happen. We are not in a fairy tale...Your mother will take care of you, not of..."

"I'm...I'm very serious, when I say that Lucy. I...I will not let you there, while I'm having a good life...I will find something…She will take you too, or else I will not…I will not…."

Lucy was not actually listening, and this pained Natsume. She was going to find, a day, a way to prove to Lucy that she was sincere, that this was not just small talk to impress her…

They entered the place without trouble…Natsume was visibly quite nervous, and the way she tried to make jokes with Lucy made her realize that the "Oh, there is something there, let's go see it'', which was _incredibly _stupid, was probably just a cover to something else…

"Natsume", said quietly Lucy, "we are not here for your curiosity, I'm sure of it…"

"….no…You see, Lucy…I had been there, here, after…one time that was worse than the others. _He _said to the doctors that this was an accident….And (her voice broke…)

"…you are here for seeing if you can deal the memory, or something like that ? (Natsume nodded) You could have chosen a day where this place was not crawling with paramilitary" said quickly Lucy, to prevent herself to think too much on how Kouta was dealing with…

"…I just exploited the situation. It's…it's the first time that I go in this area of Kamakura with you, Lucy…and….and I don't fear this as much, with you around, because-"

Saying that this sentence was clumsy was a total understatement, and even Lucy, with her very limited social skills, realized it plainly. Fortunately for both of them, an event spared them explanations. Two "grunts" were moving down the hallway. Bad thing…the Human and the Diclonius hide in the only room that was both (apparently) empty and whose door was unlocked….They were in the library room of the hospital, filled with various medical books. The room was very functionnal, and had it was not overused, it was probably used as a kind of meeting rooms-there was cups filled of cold coffee in the table. And, at thing that raised Lucy's interest to the highest level, there was several coats put on chairs. Army-style vests, lab-coats...it did not mattered to Lucy, who was much more interest to the content of the pockets-wallets and watches, for instance. Lucy was quite open about stealing, but money to buy stuff was often useful. Natsume tried to say something about Lucy's actions, but she did not insisted. Lucy's idea was probably much more rationnal than her own...The library was made in fact of several rooms, that had been previously used for other goals. She decided to go check for..."loot"...too, in another room...In the third room, she found something too-another serie of lab-coats. She decided to do her part for their survival…Honestly, it would have been almost impossible for Natsume to notice that those coats were lacking the badge of the hospital

But if she had been a little more cautious, she would have noticed that the coffee that there was on this table was still hot...And in the next room, that had been used to install some laptops and gear to analyze the blood samples of Number Fourteen, there was still some scientists and technicians of the island, that were finishing to pick up their equipment.

Who, of course, chose the moment at which Natsume was checking the content of the pockets of one of the coats to come back to this room...Natsume was caught completly red-handed, the wallet of the man in her hands-she could even have his name, at she was starring at both his face and his passport right now. Kakuzawa...And neither vision was very reassuring...

Natsume would have been in _major _trouble with almost anyone, but with Kakuzawa, it was almost as bad she had put herself on a silver platter...She was frozen with surprise...And when she made a movement to leave, the man and the two military-style guy that were with him had moved around the table to block her. Natsume was about to call Lucy's for help-but she realized quickly that the only thing this would do would to put Lucy in trouble too...

"I'm sorry, sir, this is a terrible mistake ! I assure you that I saw nothing..."

Natsume mind's was confused with stress...She thought that those guys were about to accuse her of having seen confidential papers, or something like that. This fear increased tenfold when she realized that Kakuzawa did not gave a damn about the fact that she had just trying to steal his wallet, by the way he was watching her. It was a look that she knew...

"Well, look at the little rat. You are lucky. You want money ? You will get money, if..."

What followed was rather obvious. Natsume was a really, quiet, soft even, girl. It took a lot to anger her. Kakuzawa had however managed to do it, triggering a very agressive reaction.

A completly justified reaction, of course. But she could not do much against him...What she said, in a very panicked voice, was that she was not going to let him do that to her...

"And what are you going to do against it ? You are completly powerless compared to me. I could kill here, right now, and get out of this unscathed...Want me to try it ?"

He take the gun of one his escorts (guys that he could trust completly, very good for various clean-up jobs, both related to their direct boss and the facility in general) and putted it just below Natsume's chin. Natsume remained relatively calm, but her eyes showed pure fear...

"More cooperative,now ? I know what you done (Complete bluff. He was just trying to mess with Natsume's mind, to distress her...He had just guessed-rightly-that she was in the streets, and down to stealing for some reaon...) No one care for you. You will be dead...and this would make no difference for anyone. The best you can hope is getting out of this alive..."

Natsume made a movement to leave the room, but one of the guards, quite used to similar situations, pressed on her shoulders to force her to sit on a chair...The Human girl was...was not going to let something like that happen to her, without doing anything. Not again.

She turned her head and actually _bited _the hands of the security grunt. He left her, for two seconds-before viciously pushing her away. Her head banged against one of the bookcase, in metal. She felt so dizzy that she had almost fainted. Kakuzawa came next to her...

"You are really a little rat-down to the teeths...Down to the "trapped" part too...

"Bastard...bastard ! Leave her, NOW ! "...It was Lucy's voice...She had come to try to help Natsume. Despite her rather dreadful situation, Natsume felt horrible for having dragged her friend into this whole mess...She had been with Lucy for less than a month, but...she was closer, much closer to her than all the friends she ever had, because Lucy was...

"You are not alone, I see….well, what a nice attention. Two instead of one-"

One of Kakuzawa personnal guard collapsed like a ragdoll, hit by a reference book that Natsume had took, and throwed at them, in an attempt of desperate self-defense. It was that made Kakuzawa's stop his sentence. Sure, desperation gave strenght, but at this point ? And suddenly, Kakuzawa realized something. Natsume had been looking toward the newcomer when the book had been thrown-not at the grunt...It was _possible _that she had threw the book, but...somewhat unlikely. While the newcomer, judging by her eyes and hair color, her very pale skin...The killing point was that she was wearing an hat-and did the little bulges that he could spot around the sides of the head were an optical illusion, or something else ? The problem what that, with only one guard, a Diclonius at this age could easily slice him appart. Then, it was maybe not a good idea to try to verify her identity. And, anyway, she was not behaving like a Diclonius...a Diclonius would never have tried to help an Human...But, as his precious life was in danger, he was going to take the path that posed the less risk...So, Kakuzawa motionned the other guard to do nothing...Her head still turning, Natsume climbed back to her feet, and almost collapsed in the arms of Lucy, who half-carried her away...

"Thanks...thanks so much...How...did you know that I was in trouble ?" said Natsume.

"I...well, we will talk about it later, hmm (one more time, one of those "impressions")

"Hey, Lucy" continued Natsume in a weak voice. "I think I...How to say it, I think that I..."

Natsume speech was very embarassed-she had almost suffered a concussion. She was bleeding, even...A part of Lucy wanted to return in the room and...deal...with those individuals, for what they had done to Natsume-and especially what they had wanted to do to her. She had the means of doing it...it would take some seconds. But she had swore to herself to never use again her Vectors for killing, after she had, in her madness, killed Kanae...

"Natsume, do you think you can run ? I don't think he will let us go so easily..."

The Human nodded slowly, as her and Lucy were back into the hallways. Natsume managed to walk more or less normally but she was still bleeding a little, which raised some attention.

Two minutes after leaving the room, Lucy and Natsume heard a message on the intercom...The content was not very surprising : it said something about that everyone seeing two apparently homeless girls shoud report them to security...It was hinted in the message that is was for their own safety (which was quite shocking with the probable intent of the man) And the message was aired while they were in a hallway full of bystanders. Incuding two soldiers that were from the island, with weapons. Those bystanders were already looking suspicously at the girls. The message make them the center of attention of every single Human in the hallways….Lucy was decent at hiding emotions-if those boys had the orphanage had managed to make her cry openly each time they humiliated her, she would not have been able to stand it...Not Natsume. Her cheeks turned red, and she froze in the hallway. Highlighting her even more...If someone had doubts about them, those doubts were gone...

Lucy had an extremely bad opinons on Humans (with some exceptions. Just two exceptions, in fact. Natsume and Kouta), which was quite understandable with her rather wrecked life. She did not even considered the possibility of explaining the situation to someone. Those Humans were going to return without any hesitation Natsume to Kakuzawa...She grabbed Natsume's arm very thighly. To the hell about discretion and keeping a low profile !

She said a single word to Natsume, which was hardly surprising. "RUN !"

Now that he was in safety, Kakuzawa's did not hesitate to order to try to secure them (both for their silence-there was some limits to what friendship with police could cover-and for check the remote possibility that the second girl was a Diclonius) If the girl was indeed not Human, this would be a very depleasant surprise for the personnel of the hospital, not him...

In the hallways, Lucy and Natsume suddenly began to run away, as fast as possible...

What followed was rather hectic. The guards could not use their weapons in such a public place, and the bystanders were surprised by what was happening-so much that they did not reacted much. The guards did run after them however, and Lucy heard them warn their colleagues on their radio...Her and Natsume were going to be cornered very soon...

Cornered in two senses...the most obvious one, but also that Lucy was maybe going to be reduced to use her Vectors on the pursuers...a thing she tried to avoid at any cost.

But...she could use her Vectors in another way...after all, her gift could serve to protect, not only to destroy...if she was only born to destruction...how the heck she could cope with it ?

She tried to calm down...if the...dark part of her kicked in, this would end horribly…

And...she did not wanted to fall back to this level...If she ever saw Kouta again, she _had _to prove him that she was able to do something else that bring tragedy and despair...

She had to think to something...not a cheap thing like making objects collapse in the wake of the guards-in the handful of movies she had saw at the orphanage, this kind of plan was usually failing in spectacular way, but something that could "lose" them...

They had some "advance" on their pursuers, but it was unlikely that they would be able to shake them until they managed to corner them. For avoid a potential intervention of bystanders, Lucy tried to use hallways that were almost empty-it was unfortunately also places were those grunts could act a lot more freely. But Lucy was not much worried. Her...gift...could protect her from firearms, she had experimented them a couple of time in the past years. But could it protect Natsume ? She did not wanted to test it...

They managed, to get a little rest, to hide into a service room-it would not last long, as the grunts were checking every single room. Lucy was...despaired. If they were truly cornered, she would _have _to use her Vectors directly on them. And she was not not sure, at all, that she was going to be able to control herself, and not end up killing them...

"I have an idea", tried Natsume "Lucy, when I was there, I...I tried to escape too, but he was watching over me too closely, to be sure that I would not say anything...Still, I managed one time to leave my room, to reach the lower floors. Lucy, the security staircases are narrow, almost without lights...and the access door are not locked. Maybe we could try to…"

Lucy thought about it for some time...and then, had a genuine "flash". Yes, this could work. She explained quickly her little plan to Natsume, who did not looked very confident...

"You will see, this is going to work", replied Lucy. "I can do...special things...remember ?"

Natsume remembered, very well. Lucy had...saved her life, this way, after all...How she could do this...this "magic" ? (Natsume was a fan of the _Lord of the Rings_ and similar things)

Some time after, the security grunts were startled to see their two targets bolt from one the rooms that they still had not checked. They were exhausted, judging by their breath, and would not last much longer. Still, they gained a little advance, enough time for reach one of the evacuation staircases...When the grunts had reached it, Lucy and Natsume did not had the time to go very far. They were hidden, rather ackwardly, _below _the metal staircase, grabbing as best as they could the stairs, the handrail...They were plainly obvious...The guards would have spotted them quite easily, when they would pass below them ; as their legs was dangling...(this would have led to a kind of decency problem, that was very secondary to this pursuit problem, but still, it's would be _very _humiliating if they were catched while they were in this position...Lucy would not really care, but Natsume...) Moroever, their breathing (quite ragged) would have pinpointed them...However, as the security officers entered the staircase, the door to the floor below, who had been opened, snapped shut (this made Natsume eyes grow wild. Lucy, to be sure that she would not say something in surprise, put one of her hands-of her reals hands-on her mouth) Thus, those guys thought that their targets had just escaped throught this door. Accordingly, they quickened again their pace-a little too quick for their own safety...The switch of the light for the staircase, who was just next to the door of the upper floor was snapped off while the guards were running in the staircase...What followed was rather previsible. Lucy heard them curse in a lot of expressive ways, as they were falling in the stairs, badly injuring themselves Judging by the noise, one of them had probably broke something. Natsume and Lucy let themselves drop on the lower stairs, and carefully walked back on the lower hospital floor. They just had managed to lost the pursuit. They walked much more slowly, quietly and thus, they drawed a lot less attention...There was not enough security officers from the island to watch all the sensible points-an hospital was a civilian buliding, not a fortress ! And moreover, the administrative personnel of the hospital was finding more and more their hosts annoying : a fire-alarm this night, followed by an electrical failure, and now there was grunts running and toting weapons in the hallways,

So, they reported the situation to Kurama, who was with the general director of the hospital, to thank him for his cooperation. When he heard about the events-that Kakuzawa had gave orders to arrest two girls, he did not hesitated for long. He immediatly issued counter-orders, to orders all personnel to stand down, and made a cell-phone call to Kakuzawa, to summoning him for explanations... The rather incoherent explanations of the son of the Director conforted Kurama in his (correct) hypothesis : it was again related to the "tastes" of this...repulsing...man (that he was unfortunately forced to work with…) Kakuzawa had completely dropped, at this time, his idea that he had about this girl being a Diclonius-if this had been the case, there would have been at least some people killed by Vectors during the pursuit; He did not even mentionned this hypothesis to Kurama, finding it ridiculous…

Helped by this withdrawal of the security grunts, Lucy and Natsume managed to left the hospital by a secondary exit, without other trouble...Natsume felt terribly sorry for this...while Lucy, for one time, really felt that she could use her Vectors for decent things, not mayhem...

They headed at once toward a place they knew was more or less safe for them-the abandoned buildings in the area of the beach. There, Lucy tried to tend the wound of Natsume. Fortunately, it was not critical, as Lucy was much better at making wounds than treating them. They remained there for much of the day, to let matters calm down...Natsume, when she had...left...her home had took some things with her, that they had hidden in the area-they could not carry them constantly. Among those things, there was what she planned to give to her mother, but also an handful of books-which was their only real distraction. They spend much of the day this way-what Lucy was reading was rather interesting, it was a book about a man betrayed and sent to an hellish island-_The Count of Monte-Cristo _(within some weeks, Lucy was about to experiment a detention that was making the one depicted in the book look lame in comparison...) Lucy also checked what they had "snatched" at the hospital...

The loot was not terrible. Lucy had snatched four wallets and two watches. The later two items were cheap copies, as Lucy learned when she tried to sell them-and the guy was probably trying to exploit her (he came closer to have a work accident when he threatened to turn Lucy to the police than during all his dealings with organized crime...) From the wallets, they get mostly...credit cards. Without the codes, completly useless. The little genuine money they found was clearly insufficient compared to all the trouble they had to get it...

Still, they had enough to pay for a little treat, for both of them...Four servings of hot ramen, with some ice cream for dessert. The street vendor looked at them very suspiciously when they passed their order, but since they were paying with cash, he did not raised comment. Lucy and Natsume ate it with delight, next to the area of the shrines, on a park bench. Lucy noticed that Natsume looked a little less depressed now. Good thing, as she would have been lost about how raise the moral of her friend. But Natsume was talking less than usual, like she had thinking about something...She tried to say it at least two times, before fumbling in her words and say that it was nothing, after all...She had not say it yet when their meal was over.

"It was good, hmm", said Lucy ? "It's nice to have an hot meal from time to time...Well ! I think it's going to be the time to search for some place to spend the night...it's already late..."

True. Nightfall had arrived. Lucy's raised from the bench. Natsume followed her, more slowly, very hesitant about she was about to do...They were completly alone now, and Lucy, for one time, looked to be in a quite good mood, even relatively cheerful. Natsume took a depth breath, and placed herself in front of Lucy, which slightly startled the later.

"...Hey, Lucy...for all you done, today and the other days. I think I really, really...thank you. But...this is going to look...weird.." (Lucy did not know where this was going, but Natsume certainly looked to take this matter very seriously, judging by how she was shaking...)

Lucy was about to say that there was she was herself ill placed to make comment about weird things when Natsume decided to make her "move", in a way that was as clear as possible

It made Lucy hearbeat go quite wild….Natsume had just kissed her on the lips...


	12. Chapter Twelve : Kate, Part One

**Present time, somewhere in sea near Kamakura...**

"I don't believe it...I just don't believe it...we are attacking a fortress island with _Zodiacs !"_

"Hey, at least we don't have, yet, to swim to the target..." said lightly Tatso. "And it's the two of us that conceived this plan...It's the only way short of all full-fledged assault..."

The commando was carried on three _Zodiacs_-type boats, extremly stable on water, but that were going to be as resistant as paper if they were fired upon. Each craft carried four persons, which make, as someone had to pilot them back, a commando with an effective of nine (most of them that were not going to participate to the operation proper..) It did not make much for raiding a facility so heavily defended-even if Kakuzawa had apparently sent several teams on Kamakura, for something that was not very clear ; it would make the task slightly easier.

"Take it on the good side", continued Tatso, "it's more stealthy than an attack fleet..."

"...Yeah. And I guess that as no one on the island thinks that someone is insane enough to try something like this...If they knew our numbers, they would find it even more unbelievable..."

"See ! I have a good influence on you, you are beginning to think like me..."

"It's sure that there is an influence, but I wonder if there is actually a good one..."

At least, the lights of the facilty made the island relatively easy to spot. When they were still kilometers away, the Zodiacs reduced their speed ; engines at full speed made noises. However, they had well chose the night for the attack. : there was heavy rain, tonight. The noise of the rain covered quite well the approch of the three craft...Navigating in almost total darkness was not easy, and finding the opened "back-door" was not easy.When they were next to the island, they completly cut of the engines, and the tiny vessels proceeded on oars, searching for the tiny beach. Finding it was not too hard. Now, the fun could began...

It took them almost one hour to retrieve the two ends of the hope, only guided by the faint phosphorescence of the disks that Tatso had dropped. And as much time to slowly put into position the cable that was going to be used to scale the cliffs. Even with this help, it was going to be quite a feat. The cliff was _worse _than vertical ; the top of this section of the island was a good two, three meters wider than the base. Not mentionning that if a guard spotted a climber, it would be an sitting duck (altought, at least, the cliff was going to offer some cover)

When eveything was ready, the Zodiacs left, heading for a quiet sector, to wait how things would turn. If the commando managed to make a stealthy insertion in the facility, the boats would return to pick them up. If, like this was probable, something did not worked, there was several back up plans prepared. Awaiting the zero hour (one o'clock), Tatso and Xu dropped the life-saving vests for something that was going to be more useful-light Kevlar vests for giving them some protection against firearms (In both case, however, they concealed it, to avoid the temptation of an eventual ennemy to use head-shots against them...) For obvious reasons, no one was in anything that could ressemble to an military uniform-Tatso and Xu were more or less in civilian clothes, with gear that could not indicate a Chinese origin. For the same obvious reasons, everyone had received formal orders to communicate in Engish (altought it was likely that if someone was hit, he/she was going to scream in it's native language...) All this was in the hope of preventing Kakuzawa to blame someone in case of failure...According to forecasts, the rain was going to intensify soon...Forecasts were, for one time, accurate. Thirty minutes before the assault, the rain intensified, likely driving to cover the guards in the area of the landing bad that were still doing patrols. Then, five minutes before one o'clock, after cheking one last time that the cable was anchored correctly, Tatso began her climb. It was rather excruciating, but there was no incidents. As soon as she was up, she secured the cable in a safer way, and tugged it to the others, to signal them to began their own ascencions. Meanwhile, she watched with attention the landing pad. There was several lights piercing the darkness, but fortunately none in their sector. Tatso was especially happy when she spotted that there was helicopters on the landing pad, but almost no guards.

Xu was the second one on the top of the cliff, and as soon as she was up there, she began to "work" on the chosen point of entry in the electical fence, which was twenty meters away, in a place completly uncovered by lights. As they had hoped, it was currently unpowered (it would have cost way too much to maintain the fence charged all time) On the other hand, the electrification could be triggered at the touch of a button, and she was almost sure that there was alarm hidden in the fence. Thus, her attention was heavily focused on neutralizing the little wires running on the fence...To the point that she did not noticed until it was too late that a guard was coming. It was hard to say who of the two was most startled first-hand...

According to stereotypes, Xu, at this point, would have attacked the grunt with complex Chinese martial arts. She did something a _lot _cheaper, but as efficient-she made him trip over her leg-making him fell over the cliff, to his certain death. The whole thing lasted not more than an half-minute-he only began to scream as he was about ten meters above the sea. Accordingly, the scream was not very audible, and did not lasted long. No one from the facility heard it. But when this guard would not return for his patrol, they would realize that something was not working. Thus, the commando had no longer the time for carefully sneaking into the facility. They would have to go for Plan B...A kind of assault...

Xu was...shaking a little bit. She disliked doing this. It was one thing to fire at someone, something else to do something like that. It was inhuman, like...she shook her head, and tried, as usual, to act confident, cold, rational. She spoke to Tatso who had come next to her.

"You don't find strange that someone looks...looks _relieved _to be attacked by a commando ?"

"To my regret, I did not had the time to question him about his work experiences, as he was passing really too quickly. But I see your point. We will know thr truth soon enough..."

Soon after, the fence was finally breached, and the two females began to crawl toward the entrance of the complex, carefully avoiding lights. Guards were minimal-the one they had spot was a very zealous guy. There was however four-five of them covering the main entrance. A little too much for only two persons without the slighest cover...

The soldiers were taking care to _look _alert-standing guard on the landing pad was a reward, as it was a lot less dangerous that guarding the interior of the facility. The bosses did not cared if patrols were actually made (everyone was aware that it was more or less useful. They did the strict minimum. In addition to the newbie that had been sent to make a round outside the perimeter, there was two teams of two guards outside, which was not much...) but they did cared about guards drinking or gambling while on duty. Accordingly, they reacted rather quicky when the fence alarm began to ring. Quickly, but not with much concern...they had a pretty good idea of what was happening. According to procedure, searching lights were pointed on the breach point, and the fence quickly electified. But soon, orders were gave to cancel everything-the alarm had been caused by a branch (there was some trees on the island...) being flinged there by the wind. It happened relatively often... As almost all the guards on the landing pad, cursing about the rain, were making the required patrol to check the fence (the actual entry hole had been disguised, the fence being carefully putted back in position, and it was moreover at ground level, hard to see. And there was no longer any signe of the commando, the cable having been removed. But when they were passing next (and this ouf of sight from the facility) to one of the helicopters, two guards from a patrol had an unfortunate accident...A minute later, as the outdoor alert was over, no one paid particular attention to the two figures slowly walking inside. There was no female security personnel, but trenchcoats were great to hide features. When she entered, Xu had the same feeling of dread that she had the first time, especially considering that the guards were no longer "playing" a role. And Tatso had a quite similar impression. Both fortunately and unfortunately, the place was almost empty right now, as there was no one except some guards (Fortunately, because it made insertion a lot easier...Unfortunately, because chatter was one of the best ways to learn something, and this was going to be denied from them...)

They were right now in what could be called the "administrative quarters" of the facility, the ground level. Tatso saw with interest that there was a map on the floor, but it was not very instructive. They were not going to write in big letters "Secret bio-weapon lab". There was some useful indications, however. All the zones labelled _restricted, _for instance. And the localisation of the elevators...The layout was simple : the level below this one was for security, the ones above mostly for living quarters. And there was only some levels below Security, which was an obvious lie. This meant that the labs were there. Which meant that they were off-limit to them-crossing one time an level filled with guards was playing with the devil, doing it twice was insane. Then, Tatso saw something. At the level devoted to security, there was a large area dubbed as "restricted". This was the one closest to them, and it looked to be of a pretty easy access : on this map, she easily saw four different exit. An armory, maybe ? (it was surrounded by several rooms. If this was an armory, it would be very interesting to blow it up...) Tatso was right-this was indeed a room designed to be of very easy access for security, but she was wrong too ; it was not, at all, for the reason she had imagined.

But this would wait...There was a priority operation; neutralizing most of the weapon systems, especially the radar dome. The localization of the control room was likely to be related to the dome itself-on the upper levels ! Walking normally, not talking (there was probably security cameras) Tatso and Xu took this direction, after dropping the trenchcoats. The fact that the elevators that were going down were the ones requiring key cards was signficative...

Before doing this delicate operation, it was better to make a little diversion...

On any facilty researching on potentially dangerous things, there was one command that had to be of easy access: the one for raising the alarm. If there was a breach in the security system, people needed to know about it, really fast. Here, there were triggers for this function at every twenty meters. Tatso walked to the closest, and triggered it, slamming the command for preventing it to be shutdown...Immediately, the alert sirens began to scream. Alarms _inside _were always considered much more seriously than outside ones, and every single Human inside the facility was soon awake...The basic plan was to exploit the confusion to perform the mission : no one could thought that a commando that had managed to enter the facility undectected would blow this advantage by raising itself the alarm. What helped a _lot _Tatso and Xu was the fact that Four's termination was bound to begain this night...in few minutes, even. Almost everyone on the island had heard about it...and almost everyone too had thought that Four was not going to let herself be killed this way without a fight.

And, with Lucy's little actions some weeks ago (not to mention the countless Diclonius that had gone on rampage...but Lucy had truly been the deadliest), no one was especially eager to be in the path of Four while Security was subduing her. Frankly, tracking two Humans was the least of the priority of the guards right now, who were busy trying to figure out what was happening. Accordingly, no one tried to stop Tatso and Xu, whose moves were eased by the fact that no one was monitoring in real time the output of the security cameras from the no-detention level. The top level was the one of the executives (the one farthest from the detention levels...) As it was currently empty, there was not much surveillance. However, the elevator could not go there directly-they had to take a specific one, in one of the living area levels...There was only one way to go to all the levels without switching elevators : the central elevator, whose access was only granted to Director Kakuzawa, thanks to an impressive array of security systems. With that, he could go where he want, without raising attention...for there was areas in the island even deeper than the detention cells, even deeper than Lucy's former cell...Not as worse as the Diclonius cells-it was hard to be worse, but certainly as horrible...

This prized possession had to be defended...And it was next to the path of Tatso and Xu.

They were currently running in the higher living area, devoted to the top scientists-and since Shirakawaze and Kurama were dead, it was quite empty. The pair quickly checked the rooms, and found nothing interesting-there was not even computers remaining there...

The first incident of the operation happened at this time. The two intruders crossed the path of a trio of soldiers who were about to take positions near the central elevator. When each group spotted the other, weapons were raised and...In normal circumstances, it would have been hard to see who would have won. Tatso and Xu were not bad with firearms, but not experts, far from it. The grunts were trained, not more. What gave to the attackers a clear advantage was the fact that those soldiers were not excepting to be attacked by Humans with firearms, but by Diclonius with Vectors. And they had took weapons fitted for the situation

Tatso and Xu saw briefly that two of the guards were with...unusual...weapons (they did not have the time to see much more), while the third was with a military battle riffle (either from the stocks of the Self Defense Forces or from American origin). He had not time to fire-Tatso and Xu killed him first, as they were seeing him as the priority target. Kevlar vests or not, the return fire of the two survivors would have been painful, for sure. But, to the utter amazement of the Russian and the Chinese, the ennemy did not used firearms. Two very large projectiles, more shells than bullets, were fired from the two mysterious weapons. The things followed insane trajectories, before falling harmlessly some meters in front of the bemused intruders...who quickly recovered their senses and use their own weapons to kill the survivors, before the grunts use their regular pistols. It's only after that they had time to look closer at those strange weapons, who bemused them. The weapon themselves was based on the gauss accelerator-meaning, projectiles were propulsed by a electro-magnetic coil.

The process was well known, and gave tremendous velocity to projectile, but it was not the most efficient thing with current technology. For instance, the weapons (who looked as strange cross between a weapon from a FPS, and a Wookie bowcaster in _Starwars_) were extremly bulky, and the energy cells could only last for some uses before being changed. The need for such an unusual propulsion was somewhat explained when looking closer at the projectiles, made out of two distinc things : an piece looking like an "egg", and another one looking like an cylinder. It's looked furiously like grenades, but the whole system looked awfully complicated for such a basic thing, especially while thiking to the trajectories...

Logic commanded that the front part was the weapon. Accordingly, Xu removed the "heads" (which was easy, at it was planned in the design of the weapon to reuse the back part, but not the head), to avoid accident, and fired two rounds, to see how this thing was working. Results were more than puzzling...The first part of the projectile was what could be labelled as a "launcher". It was the size of a can, and fitted with miniaturized rocket-style ports, on every side. The system would start, almost continously and on a random pattern, some of those ports, for tiny bursts that changed slightly the trajectory of the projectiles. But, the momentum of those bursts was not very important compared to strenght of the foward acceleration from the "barrel"of the main weapon-which meant that the projectile remained aimed roughly on the same overall trajectory, especially considering that there was a guiding mecanism inside, that assured that the bursts did not put the projectile completly out of path. This was a somewhatcostly system, that remained affordable as many of the "launchers" could be reused after, even if the slighest hit could disrupt the cheap components of the guiding mechanism. And it was not very precise too (on the other hand, it was just excepted to hit, anywhere, an Human-sized target at short range...) What this complex systeme achieved, however, was a sort of randomness-most Diclonius were unable to use their Vectors to shield themselves against such projectiles, whose trajectory could change. The "launcher" was just a way to deliver the second part of the system-the actual weapon mecanism...the "egg".

"The path is...almost aleatory...But the impact point is much the same...It's certainly interesting, but why they gave themselves all this trouble ? It's senseless", said Xu.

"And the range is awful. Ten meters at best...Now, there is the question of the weapon..."

Tatso picked carefully one of the dropped projectile.. A black sphere, big as an orange, whose surface was somewhat elastic (maybe for rebounding on walls ?) It _could _have been something like a rubber bullet, but here, it would have been surprising to see people using such (relatively speaking) "soft" weapon. And anyway, there was a trigger on this sphere-obviously a kind of arming system for the weapon, because on the unused projectiles they had found on the bodies of the guards, the said trigger was not visible. Tatso tried to push back the trigger. It was jammed. The system was armed...There was probably a kind of firing mecanism that did not started. She deciced to make a test-better to know now what those weapons were supposed to do...She threw with great strenght the ball toward a wall.

What happened deeply shocked her and Xu. The strenght of the impact transformed the ball into a hedgehog : dozens of razors blades shredded appart the rubber protection...And considering that this weapon was supposed to hit a living body, it was somewhat easy to see what this mecanism could do. Probably not kill, as the blades were not very long. But certainly cause abominable pain. The absolute horror was the fact that, in fact, the blades were not "mere" razor blades-they had a rather sinuous form, and were designed to break easily from the sphere after they had come out. This meant that they were supposed to stay in the body of the victim...A truly monstruous weapon, on par with the helmet they had found...

After a minute at starring at this thing, that looked more like a torture device that a modern weapon, Tatso managed to say something, trying to think as rationally as possible.

"The spikes are almost certainly not lethal. It's "only" incapacitating...Could...could this be like a...taser gun ? Not usable for battle, but rather for controlling...prisonners"

Tatso's hypothesis was not far from the truth. This weapon had been designated for stopping without "damaging" her too much a Diclonius attempting to escape (technically, it was not true. Diclonius did not tried to escape-their priority was to kill as much Humans as possible), making it's function quite close of a Taser gun. They had been tried several times on test subjects, and they seemed to work quite well. Now, however, it have been proved that those weapons were maybe a little too much specialized. For instance, they were grossly inefficient against Humans, as the range was far inferior to a regular firearm (those weapons were designed to be out of the range of Vectors, after all) Tatso continued her sentence...

"If those guys were not already dead, I would have a tentation to try this on them..."

As after three minutes, no one had come to get them, they supposed that this battle had gone unnoticed-they then drawed the corpses in a nearby room, and continued to the last level...As planned, there was finally interesting stuff. Of course, some of the rooms were heavily locked-especially one that looked like a lavish office, but others were not. Including several rooms with powered down computers (unfortunately, as they were to discover later, filled with data about the personnel, not the ressearchs...) They proceeded with the gather of data as quickly as they could, using a somewhat crude method : each time they saw a computer, they removed the hard drives, and take them away with them. Sure, on the terabytes of data they "liberated" there was probably not much useful files. But it was _impossible _that there was not something useful for Intelligence in all this...They also found the radar control area-staffed by some grunts, that were so startled (they were thinking in the lines of _Those idiots underground...we are safe here...)_ that they did not opposed resistance at all...The command systeme for the heavier weapons was also there-good thing. They proceeded to disable everything. Xu was not sure, at all, of the efficiency of the method used by Tatso, however...

This room also served as a secondary security rooms-there was monitors feeds for many levels (not the detention levels, unfortunately...) There was a note pinned next to a monitor, that they read-and they immediatly left the room after. They could not let _that _happen...

The note was quite clear : _Termination for 4 and 28 tonight ! Record the feed in HD..._

Of course, 4 and 28 could have been monkeys, mices...but according to some of the horrible qualitatives (bi..., wh...) that the writer had added to his note, this looked unlikely...

Especially while considering that the room showed by the monitor on which the note was pinned showed sinister-looking operations tables indiscutably sized for Human beings.

Several levels below, indeed, a certain operation was about to began...The twin termination, on very different modalities, of Numbers Twenty-Eight and Twenty-Four…As Arakawa had refused to play Kakuzawa's game, things were proceeding as planned ; Four was going to be "only" vivisectionned, while Twenty-Eight would have something even worse….(The son of Kakuzawa had come see her, before her transfer, to tell her, for the sake of cruelty, what was going to happen to her, telling her that she was finally going to be useful…The Diclonius had started to wept, but did not reacted much. To the profound dislike of Kakuzawa, she had not even protested when he had fired two shots of the antiDiclonius weapon at point blank range, as a final test-he was doing this of course for sadism, not because of "science")

The termination procedure was conducted with very strict measures. The labs for this task were isolated from the rest of the detention levels, but _not _of the upper levels, for getting reinforcements as fast as possible (thus the reason why they were located on the level devoted to security, including the various armory) Tonight procedures were somewhat special….

Data on the capacities of Diclonius against another Diclonius was quite limited (Lucy dealings with Nana and Mariko were not very representative, as those two were under orders to bring her back at the facility) They have done very interesting experiences with Seven and Three in the past, but now, it was lacking...In normal situation, did a Diclonius would talk with another, or try to kill her ? Would they cooperate to gain freedom ? It would be a shame (well, according to the scientists…) to not make experimentation on this matter.

Four had managed to kill a guard and seriously wound another as the injection unit for the new sedative was put into place. But those were her last ones. Right now, she could twitch a finger, even if she was unrestrained. She posed a minimal threat. She was, how to say, the "bait" for Twenty-Eight…who posed minimal threat anyway. It was just to know how two Diclonius would react in front of each other…She was already restrained on the wall by the ankles and wrists in one of the side of the room when the team transporting Four arrived, and the other Diclonius was put in an identical position, just in face of her…The termination room was not a single piece ; in two "sides" of the square made by it, there was a operation theatre-this is where the actual process took place. Both Diclonius were within meters of the last door they were going to cross (more or less true for Twenty-Eight) and they remained in this position for two hours. Monstruous. As experiences were, it was quite disappointing. Twenty-Eight continued to cry….and Four could say nothing, with her "sensorial isolation…"

The code name for the helmet designated to isolate the most dangerous Diclonius.

Finally, around one o'clock, the team for the "preparation" of Twenty Eight was ready...The procedure proper would not began until the Director gave the signal, as they needed to keep Twenty-Eight alive as long as possible-better to delay the operation as much as possible. Until then, she would stay in…stand-by (a neutral term for saying that she would be on the operation table, fully conscious, until the order arrived. It was an unspeakable torture, as everything was in the room right now…In medieval time, a form of torture was to _show _the instruments to the victim. Twenty-Eight would stare at them for very, very long hours)

Four remained alone…and the guards, as asked by Turner, proceeded to "punish" her…

"It's time to pay for everything you done, b...said one guard while approaching her very, very carefully. When he saw the Vectors were not dismembering him, he was more "courageous"….and began to beat her, in an extremely vicious manner…Kicks, slaps…After a few minutes, Four began to let out screams of pain-giving reasons to the guard to continue...

"You are all are a bunch of freaks….But you look quite normalwhen you are that way !Don't complain, someone will have considered you as an Human before your death…(The guard was thinking to do the worst humiliationthatcould be done on someone…Not actual rape, as he still feared her too much, but something clearly in the range of molestation. That the two guys that were with him were laughing at the idea showed quite well the quality of the personnel here…)

"Oh, what a nice scene…Need a hand over there ? " said someone with an ice-cold voice…

One guard said machinally yes...while one other realized that this voice was not from an known member of the personnel. While the third one was still focused on Four, the two others looked at themselves in a way that would have been comical in other situations...

They slowly turned to face Tatso and Xu, whose weapons were drawed on them. There had been _some _opposition on the way to this room (that the intruders had localized thanks to logic-there was a camera feed for covering each of it's four exit, and not many rooms here had this configuration), but as the trouble was excepted to be coming _from _this room, and not from outside, they had the advantage of surprise. But even if the first thing Tatso done while entering was to shot the cameras, the ennemy would known within minutes the nature of the attackers. She did not cared much about that-right now, her attention was drawn to this "4" or "28" that was sentenced to die (and also, judging by the note, to have an entertaining death...)

Two things were really obvious while seeing : that she was a female human (not a feat to realize that...) and she was wearing this dreadful helmet that the Intel had retrieved...

Tatso did not waited for long explanations (honestly, the situations was crystal clear for her...she had saw three jerks beating a defenseless, restrained girl, completly naked...and one of them was in a rather suspicious position...) The grunt that was closer to Four was shot by her on the spot...The two surviving soldiers turned white when they saw that their colleague, in collapsing, had grabbed the injector unit...which had been teared appart from the Diclonius.

They were caught between two fires. However, one side had chances to be slightly less agressive than the other-even if right now, they did not seemed to be in a very good mood...

"You are better have a _very good _explanation for all of this..." said aggressively Tatso..."

"We surrender ! WE SURRENDER ! " screamed one of them. "BUT KILL THIS FREAK" !

The second survivor was so panicked at the idea of Four breaking free that he forgot about the presence of the two Humans. He picked his weapon, and pointed it on the Diclonius. The result was rather obvious : he was almost immediatly shot down. His colleague was then reinforced in his feelings that it was better to strike a deal with the two attackers...

He had not considered two things. First, that it was hard to explain such a complicated situation quickly, especially when fear was fogging his mind. Second, that Tatso and Xu were newcomers, and that for them, _he _was the threat, and Four the victim, which make them very suspicious about anything he was saying (this point of view, anyway, was not completly false) Finally, as he was not posing much threat, Xu ordered him to drop his weapon, put his hands on his head, and kneel down in a corner of the room. She then began to question him about the weapon programs that were being ressearched here, the effectives...According to Xu, he was not very cooperative...The fact that this guy did not knew, at all, what she was speaking about did not helped for conversation to start. Conversation ? It was not exactly a good word. The guard kept screaming stuff that looked a little strange to Xu ("You don't understand...you don't understand" followed by something in the line of "We are dead, we are all dead"), and even if the room was sound-proof, this could not last forever-someone was going to hear him (and then, Xu realized with dread that Tatso had killed the _visual _feed, not the _audio _feed...They were about to have trouble, quite serious and quite fast...)

"Trying to play innocent, hmm ? I bet you know noting about the "home video" part..."

"It was Turner that requested that ! AND YOU HAVE TO KILL HER ! KILL HER !"

As the guy continued to speak about the necessity of killing the prisonner, Xu began to seriously consider the possibility that he was insane. She decided to add a little threat,

"We don't really need you, you know ? We are going to ask her what is going on there-I'm sure she is going to tell us very interesting stuff...you are better to tell us your version now..."

It's this sentence that made the guy lose completly his head. Forgetting completly the orders of Xu, he turned to see what she was meaning by this-and his worst fears were realized...

The second intruder, the Russian, was doing what was logical to her : free Number Four.


	13. Chapter Twelve : Kate, Part Two

The second intruder, the Russian, was doing what was logical to her : free Number Four.

A few seconds ago, Tatso had come next to the vertical stretcher, seeing the girl feebly trying to kick, to move her limbs. She was trying to disengage from the wall-Four was still very dizzy from the sedatives, and could not use her Vectors..._yet. _Thus, she had not succeeded, and was still restrained, spear-eagled, unable to do anything. Tatso had the impression of being in front of a medieval torture rack rather than in a ultra-modern medical facility..

"Hang-on, hang on ! ", said Tatso in English (simply because it was a language that this girl could know) "You are going to hurt yourself...Wait a little, this is over..."

Tatso had not to get very close to see that the...breasts...of the poor girl had scarlet marks. And the origin of those marks was very obvious. She kicked the body of the first guard, in rage. That's the problem of being impulsive. She could have shot him in more creative ways...

The survivor guard started to scream even louder. Tatso shouted back to Xu to make him shut-up, not caring about what this...was thinking. She heard a loud THUD and, indeed, the individual shutted up, allowing Tatso to go on. The girl had heard her-she stopped to move...

It was not that Four thought that this was "rescue". They were Humans-they were her enemies. That said, Four was maybe isolated, but she was not stupid-far from it...It was _obvious _that those two were not on the side of the guards. It will be very counter-productive to kill them. This could wait later. And anyway, there was something that Four wanted to check...

Four was maybe in total darkness, but she perceived quite well the approach of one of the Human females, who was saying things to her…she was switching constantly languages, to try to reassure her (Tatso was trying to figure out the language spoken by the girl…)

Tatso was acting, without thinking too much...She had excepted a lot of things, but not _that.._.

The restraints were in metal, so thick that forcing them outright was impossible. There was no locks proper-Tatso had to pry them open with her knife (standard issue equipment. The guys that designed those combat packages apparently thought that this was useful in combat. Tatso, very pragmatic, had always thought that close combat was not the smartest thing to do...)

The Russian did what she could, but as she was releasing the left ankle restraint, she did a little...overkill. Her blade get too deep, and made a deep wound on the leg of Four. Blood began to flow. If Four's Vectors had been usable, Tatso would have been dead by now, simply by reflex (honestly, this was just a scratch compared to many experiences...)

...She tried to excuse herself. Four did not understood what the Human said, but she perceived quite well the general meaning of this...She associated this tone with hypocrisy. The Human was saying that she was sorry. Sorry like this Shirakawaze, who had told Four so many times that they needed her for a little experience ? (and it was only during her first year there. After, they had not even bothered to say thoses lies) Sorry like when they were sending one of her kind to the termination room...where Twenty Eight was right now ? She really did not need this kind of feelings from Humans. She did not needed _anything _froms Humans, and-

...And, her train of thoughts suddenly stopped, because she fell down. The Human had removed all the restraints, and Four had felt down on her, rather ackwardly. She had not moved on her own for more than _ten years, _and even if her muscles have been kept alive by electrical stimulation (just to keep her body in working order), she was not in a state to use them. She could not coordinate her actions-the sedatives were not helping, of course.

Tatso, with as much care as possible under the current situation (time was the essence), placed Four against a wall, still trying to calm her down. Up to this point, the Diclonius was sure that those Humans were mostly trying to "steal" her, to secure her for further tests. Her opinion somewhat changed when she realized what the Human was trying to do now….

Tatso was currently checking if there was some kind of opening mechanism for the helmet…and what she was make her feel sick. This thing had been clearly conceived to _grow _with the wearer-for how many years this girl had it on her ? She looked so young…The worst part was the explosive device hidden within the release mechanism, whose goal was very obvious. Finally, she found how to open it without blowing up herself and Four….

After neutralizing the device, Tatso began by pulling the frontal part-then dropped it, shocked.

The face of girl she saw was younger than anything she had thought-fourteen at the very best (quite pretty, too, but this point was very secondary) The expression of her eyes was so hateful that it took Tatso a good minute to see the horns on the sides of the head.

It was a euphemism that this girl had a…peculiar…appearance. Her eyes, for instance, were almost orange, with shades of dark red. But, of course, the killing point was those crests…

Four saw only an very blurred image at first…seeing the clearly Human woman looking at her, visibly troubled. From what she recalled, Humans acted often like that when they saw Diclonius horns. Well, this was just the first step. She would soon scream that Four was a freak, or try to kill her. The expression of the girl did not changed when Tatso violently pushed her violently to the ground, and picked her weapon. Number Four had excepted this...She was about to unleash her Vectors on Tatso when the latter pressed the trigger.

The expression of the Diclonius did changed, however, when the man from Security that was coming from behind Four was shot down by Tatso. Reinforcements were coming. The other Human had trouble on her own, as Security was coming from her side too. The first Human said something to Four, to the effect of staying at cover…Four did not really understood the sentence ; and anyway, she preferred to check if her use of Vectors was coming back

The grunts from Security had received rather unclear instructions about the current crisis. Some had been told that there was an Human commando, some had been told that there was another Diclonius rampage. Both were serious threats. But seeing the _two _threats combined was a real nightmare, especially considering that Four was not doing what she was supposed to do, hacking apart the Humans. Accordingly, some of the guards thought, at first that she was still under the effects of the sedative…One of them realized in a rather harsh way that he was wrong when Four looked at him in a very hostile way. This individual was previously trying to flank Xu, by passing by one of the access door…Xu did not saw much-only that this guy had somehow managed to crash his windpipe with a riffle. She thought of an accident-unlike the guard that was coming after this unlucky person, she had not seen the riffle literally fly from the floor, and she did not saw too the disturbing grin that Four had right now.

Using Vectors was apparently much easier with eyesight. Interesting to know…

This wave of Security was not enough to deal with Tatso and Xu…But this was only the first. Tatso quickly glanced at her watche…Hmm. Fifteen minutes left…

"My instructors once said to me that when you draw a weapon, it's a sign that your mission have failed…It's both philosophical (Xu was making reference to the idea, present in both Chinese and Japanese cultures, that a real warrior did not needed to use weapons-his presence was doing the job) and rational-when you start killing, it's no longer very stealthy…." (She looked at the carnage…) I agree, we had to do this-we could no let that happen-but can we say that, in this optic, the mission have pretty much failed a this point ?"

"Hey, they asked for proofs-we _got _a real _living _proof….(Tatso was looking, while saying this, toward the girl. Living proof ? With all the blood she had on herself, it was almost incredible that she was still alive. What…what they had done to her, in this place ?)

"I was rather thinking to the fact that we are going to have trouble escaping…."

"Ah, it's maybe an issue, yes. We are outgunned to…what…1 against 50, best case ?"

"Kinda…But I don't understand why they is _relatively _so few enemies sent against us…"

(The reason for this very relative lack of enemies was that the detention levels were the priority. Even in the current situation, a good quarter of the effectives remained there…)

"The question that remains is the other prisoner mentioned on this note…Xu, please wake-up our friend here, there is some questions that I want to ask him….quickly…

The guard that Xu had stunned was very energetically put back to his sense…and if Tatso had not slapped him, he would have fainted upon seeing Four looking at him with interest…

"I will say it one time…Convince the guys behind this door to release the other, or…."

Tatso had not forgot about the note mentioning _two _victims. And where the second was obvious...There was two…operating...rooms (what was in the one whose door was open was bound to give nightmares to Tatso…) in this area, one with the door very hermetically sealed. The conclusion was somewhat obvious. The guard kept screaming things about Four (so, this girl was probably this number. The other would be Twenty-Eight ?)…and Tatso realized that this was leading nowhere. There was no way of opening this door. It was heart-breaking, but the other prisoner was out of their reach, if she was not dead by now…(And she did not seriously considered the possibility that the scientists that were there would try to comply to save the live of the guard…She had just hoped that he had a way to open the door…)

Tatso pushed the guard to the ground, in rage. Then, she pointed her gun toward him…

"I don't know what it's going there, but you should die here, like the others ! "

The guard thought that Tatso was about to shoot him...It was not what she had in mind.

"Help her. And watch where your hands go, hmm ? Accidents happen so fast..."

She was talking about Four….She was unable to walk, and they needed to carry her away. This guy would have been useful in this optic. For some reason, he apparently disliked the idea…a lot. To the point that he rushed toward Tatso, to grab her weapon…

Still sat against a wall, Four watched with interest the humans fighting for the weapon….The guard was killed, which was not surprising. What those Humans wanted, exactly ? Honestly, Four would have been unable to answer to this question concerning herself….A few minutes ago, her future was very bleak (like all her life)…Now…now she had really a lot of opportunities. She did not even thought seriously about freedom-a concept too hard for her to imagine. She did think, however, to 28…who was still going to have this horrible fate…As soon as she had been released, Four had wanted to help her…especially if this involved killing Humans. She had realized now that this was not going to work. Four was too weakened by the sedatives to fight on her own. She was going to rely on those two. It would not have been too bad...if there was not 28, just one door away, awaiting a fate worse than death...Four was..."seeing" her, watching the door to this room with. Twenty-Eight had never had the slighest hope. When she realized that Four was "seeing" her, her feelings...changed. To jealousy…It was quite understandable. Why, why Four, who had killed, maimed, destroyed, had a chance to receive freedom, while Twenty Eight, who had done nothing, was about to end this way? Twenty-Eight thought she had the answer. She had...she had broken the promise she made to Shirakawaze. It was because of her sin that those things were happening (mental conceptions of Diclonius, because of isolation, could be quite…strange…)

Four…could not let that happen. Not that she liked Twenty-Eight (how could she like her ? They had never met, never talked. They had sensed each other, but that was all…) Scientists at the facility would have said that she wanted to save Twenty-Eight because they were both Diclonius…Someone could have also said that it was the tiny Human part left in her that was motivating her-because she had pity for her, because she knew that their fates were alike…

But there was something that Twenty-Eight could do…if she killed the Humans on her side….there was maybe still a way, especially considering that she was not as heavily restrained as Four had been…But she did nothing. Unlike Seven, to which she was often compared, her spirit had been destroyed long ago…No hope. No motivation. Nothing.

This puzzled, despaired Four…What _angered _her was the scientists next to Twenty-Eight, cowering in fear, but sure that they were going to get out of this alive, as there was no way the two Humans could enter here…Four hoped to see them in different conditions another day…

One of the Humans, the one that had freed Four, was screaming something to the attention of the scientists in the vivisection room. Four did not understood the words or the meaning, but judging by the tone…it was probably not exactly kind words at their attention. On her part, Tatso doubted that the girl was able to speak, but she could listen…And, somehow, Tatso was sure that this "Four" was understanding more or less the current situation….

"I'm…sorry about the other. We…we cannot do anything. But _you _are out of this-"

Tatso stopped because, for the first time , she saw closer the wounds of Four. Some were fairly recent, related to what the guard was doing when he was interrupted. But there was countless others…..It took a while for Tatso to finish her sentence…."living hell"

"Xu ! We are going out ! Help me transport her...this is almost suicide, but..."

Xu was thinking it _was _suicide, but...she followed Tatso. She remembered very well the almost incredible addendum that the Colonel had added to her instructions : _Follow her instructions/suggestions, even if this seems to contradict your writen orders.,_

They picked as much weapons as possible, and picked each an arm of the girl, carrying her between them (oh, this was going to be easy to fight waves of ennemies this way...)

There was a trivial issue to be settled before going...The girl was completly naked. They could not carry her this way ! They finally found something they could use...A small room used a living quarters by grunts. With beds...Tatso picked a sheet, ant put it on the shoulders of the girl. Hmm. For covering her...privacy...it was not best thing, especially while moving. She had an idea, however, that Xu approved...She torn appart a piece of the sheet, to make a rough scarf...that she put around the head of Number Four, to hide her most startling feature.

There was maybe a "mole" among the other operatives...Better to be safe than sorry...

In the next few minutes, they managed to fight their way back to the surface. Now, everyone had figured out the source of the alarm, but resistance was not very efficient-Xu had the very dispiritng impression that it was just a delaying action, to prepare something...

The only serious opposition came as they were about to take the elevator back to the first level. A group, coordinated by what seemed to be an officer (obviously American, judging by his racist insults..._Chink, Popov..._) was there. Two soldiers were gunned down, the third one had an spectacular and mysterious "accident" (that was of course not accidental at all...)

Remained the officer, who had took cover. Tatso disliked _fachiskoys..._She had an idea...one of her morally dubious one, she had to admit. Quite fitting, however.

A few seconds later, Turner saw a grenade rebounding on the wall in front of him...

Turner smirked, finding this strategy way too obvious. Without thinking, he hit the grenade mid-air, flinging with his arm to propel it back in the hallway...and he began to scream, as part of his arm was torn away. Tatso had throwed at him the second black sphere, that she had kept for analysis...He was not dead, apparently, but finishing him would be quite risky...

Four was somehwat glad of the situation. She would be able to kill Turner herself, after all.

Back on the first floor, they had another encounter...Their path briefly crossed the one of a group of scientists and their escort-a young woman with glasses, and a man the Humans did not saw clearly. Arakawa and Kakuzawa, going for the command post...By sheer reflex, the Japanese scientist pulled Kakuzawa to cover-and regretted her action almost immediately-she had lost a golden chance...When Tatso and Xu reached the last hallway before the main entry, they were not surprised to realize that the door had shut down, and the said hallway was filled with Security troops with heavy weapons set up...This is why resistance had been relatively light-as the commando _had _to leave by this passage, why bother try to stop them below, where a nice trap could be settled up ? The two Human merely waited a little more, to be sure that there had been enough time. Meanwhile, Tatso continued to attempt to talk with Four, trying different languages...No reaction. Except when she tried French...When she said a few words in this language, the eyes of Four, for a short while, looked less hostile...

"Hey ! You understood what I said ? ", continued Tatso in French ?

Four genuinely, this time, tried to understand what the Human was saying. Something trying to communicate with her, to the point of using the only languag she knew...was...was really new, for her. She tried to say some words on her own, but failed. If her control on her limbs was already increasing, for her lips and tongue, it would take a while...a good while.

Pleased to have a way to communicate with the girl, Tato said to Xu that is was now the time.

Xu gave a single command with her portable. _Go. Plan AIR. _The exit door of the facility blew up, hit by several antitank rockets of the largest calibre. This was not the best target for those weapons, but it worked quite well. Before the Security had time to recover, a second volley of four rockets was fired. Three missed the target, and impacted outside. The fourth one entered and hit the roof three meters before the principal concentration of grunts. When the smoke was gone, there was one or two dizzied soldiers in battle condition. Tatso and Xu made a final dash for the exit, firing at them...The last thing of one the wounded guard saw was Number Four realizing that she was still alive. She "corrected" rather quickly this situation, with a metal piece. One more time, Tatso and Xu did not had the leisure to see what happened,.

The other members of the commando had hidden in the small forest (forest ? ten trees...) up to this point, waiting for this moment. They provided all the required cover for the escape of Tatso and Xu. When guards rushed in their pursuit, they switched to sniper rifles...As most guards on the landing pad had been summoned inside, this area was now almost secure...

To lure the ennemy about their intention, Tatso put some flares on the ground-like she was marking a landing area for a craft, as the two helicopters on the pad were blowed up. More exactly, one was destroyed. One was rather the theme of a nice pyrotechnic display...

When the people from the facility realized that the commando intented to fly away with one of their own helicopters (they had merely put some smoke emitting cannisters near the second...) they had lost precious seconds. The orders coming from Kakuzawa were not very clear-he seemed to be in one of it's fits of rage. Well, if everything else did not worked, they had the "security" device installed in each craft of the facility, at least...Tatso and Xu, as well as the support team, ran to the craft, who, unknown to the people of the facility, had been under their control for a while, allowing for a discret preparation. In addition to the two operatives listening on the radio channels (who had heard a few minutes ago an SOS at the attention of Yokosuka, stating that _terrorists, presumably from Al-Quaida _(sic) _are raiding us..._What a subtle way of asking for American support...) Also, there was onboard an interesting prize : the two stunned guards whose trenchcoats had been borrowed...

They did not have much time left. Xu remained in the cargo hold, to coordinate the fire of the Chinese operatives. Tatso took the commands, performing a very shortened check-up...She had installed Four the best she could, in the copilot seat (better not let the others see the ex-prisonner too much...) Now, either her disbabling had work, or it would never work...)

The explosive specialist of the team, who had come to report her that the charges hidden in the craft had been removed/neutralized (Director Kakuzawa was not a very good employer, to say the leastt...), asked her what they would do for escape the firing of the guns (the former plan had been to try to sabotage them directly, which was almost to do, and had not even been attempted. The current plan had been implemented on the run, during the raid...)

"No problem, I laid out a Russian deathtrap in that room. It should have gone off now..."

The Chinese operatives looked each other. Granted, the PLA was not exactly high-tech, but with the current state of the Russian armed forces, "Russian deathtrap" was maybe not always a phrase very reassuring for people whose live heavily depended on a device…

Xu was a little more confident. She had participated in the conception of the device (a rather short conception-three minutes at the very best ? But necessity is the mother of invention…) and, well, it could work, if they were lucky….It was the best they could do, anyway.

"Still", she murmured to Tatso, "we should have done it the conventional way, I think…"

"Don't worry, there is crazier stuff...My grand-mother, back in the War, managed one time to escape from a full company of SS, in snow up to the knees and in an evening gown...(Period, as Tatso was seeing that Xu was looking at her, clearly dubious) True story, I swear ! Granted, those guys were a little dumb, but those ones are not Nobel prizes too ! "

"Miss", said politely one operative as he was firing in direction of Security, "may I ask you if you have a sort of back-up plan if what you and the Lieutenant had done fail ?"

"Well, if it failed, we are going to be transformed in a huge fireball as soon as we take off...I'm not sure that we can say that this is a back-up plan, but this what will happen…"

After this encouraging sentence, Tatso started the engine...And the weapons on the facility remained mute ! There was just to deal with the guards crawling on the landing pad...But with the fire coming from the cargo hold, they would be away before most damage had been done…The Russian, as she was taking off, watched one more time her "copilot"…

Tatso found that the girl looked ill at ease. Maybe she was disturbed by the events, or disliked flying (and the style of flight from Tatso was...energetic, which was not going to help.)

In fact, Four was recalling her arrival here, from an helicopter too...Not exactly a good memory, which explained her even darker look. Four did realize, however, that she was treated in a very different way...and this was began to puzzle her. Usually, when she made a move (most of the time, it was limited, because of the restraints, to moving her toes or fingers) she received shocks, beatings, or sedatives. This Human obviously did not care…Why…Four had to admit that this was strange-many things were strange about those Humans. And not only in the way they behaved toward her…There was also-

Back in the facility, Kakuzawa, still followed by Arakawa, after his close meet with the commando, had headed for the radar room, to neutralize the intruders in total safety...

On the way, Arakawa saw very well that Kakuzawa was very, very worried. He had reasons for it ; his performance as a controller this night was rather horrible, and he was going to be seriously blamed by the Director. An intruder attack was bad...If they told in addition that they managed to get away (not very far, probably..) with a Diclonius, this level of incomptence would be much ; the professor was going to think it was deliberate...

Arakawa decided to try something...She an occassion to try "divide and conquer..."

"Professor, I suggest that we...take a low profile. Your father is going to take it badly...I mean, your brother made Lucy evade! What is he going to think of this ? That you had betrayed him...I honestly fear that his paternal affection will be badly shaken up by this..."

"It's going to be hard, for sure...Maybe we...we could say that Four was terminated before the attack ? That the commando found nothing...and so on. Most people that see them are dead, anyway...This kind of story could stick. You just have to present it well to the Director..."

The idea of Arakawa was very simple. She did not knew how the members of this commando planned to flee, bu their chance of survival was quite low, despite their skill. However, fleeing was not all...They had to survive in Kamakura too ! If the _Director _was not trying to track Four, their survival chances augmented slightly. And also, she was "proving" to Kakuzawa (the son) that she was a reliable, "loyal" member of his team...Priceless !

And the best thing was that she would have a chance to play the son against the father,

Arakawa saw that she had moved Kakuzawa-like his father, his scheme were not overly complicated, and somewhat basic. He apparently did not find what she said suspicious...

With their escort of Security forces, they arrived in the radar room...and were greeted by the four bodies of the technicians. "Fortunately", the son of Kakuzawa had thought to this, and following him were of couple of technicians, who quickly staffed the stations. It was at this moment that a report concerning the capture by the commando of an helicopter...

The son of Kakuzawa hesitated for a short time. Helicopters costed _a lot_ more than mercenaries, and a _limitless _fund add always a limit, after all. Maybe it would be better to try to _capture _the commando (for "interrogation" and limiting the damage to the material...)

As the battle of the landing pad had showed, this strategy had been rather disastrous, with the methodes employed...In rage, Kakuzawa ordered to destroy the aircraft, without caring for the expense of ammunition, either with the "infantry" or using the "big gear"...

"We cannot use the main weapons on them", replied a tech, "they are too low, the roof is blocking…And Security is not faring very well in their engagement toward them-they snipe our soldiers as soon as they exit the facility…I cannot even join Turner to give him orders…"

"This idiot is probably lying drunk in an hallway, as usual ! (he was indeed lying in all hallway, but…) As soon as this craft take off, forget caution ! Use the main weapons on it ! "

The main weapons of the facility were a couple of _Phalanx _guns, camouflaged as water tanks. Those weapons, used by the American navy, were designed to shot down incoming cruise missiles. As missiles were hard to hit target, it was better to fire a lot of shots to have a decent chance of scoring a hit. Accordingly, Phalanx hads a astonishing rate of fire-several thousands shells per minute. The Director had got them from his "friends", for a safeguard in case of Washington learning about his real ressearchs...Those guns were going to be extremly useful for shot down a helicopter. In a little overkill way, for sure, but Kakuzawa found that fun...

Anyway, there was also conventionnal AA guns and two missiles batteries on the roof, also commanded from this room, as they needed radar feed. The craft would be blown up before have climb five meters. And the commando knew it-they had passed in this room !

Arakawa was wondering why those intruders had not took the time to put out of condition the terminals, which could have been done very simply, with for instance some bullets in the screens. On the other hand, there was a back-up control room, that could have been put online...Arakawa suddenly understood. This is why they had waited before moving out-a bomb had been placed there ! Sure, being blown up was a bad thing, but if Kakuzawa was within the blast, this would not be too bad...Unfortunately, he was not _that _stupid. The team that came with him was with explosives "sniffers" (device to detect chemical components from explosives...But they found nothing. There was no explosives in the room...but there was indeed a detonator, with an one hour minutery. It was linked to a mere matche. The electical discharge lighted it, and in turn, the flame lighted the paper sheet in which it was wrapped...a sheet in the middle of a paper bin. The fire was insignifiant. But the bin had been viciously placed just below the fire detector. Results were almost immediate...

On such confined rooms as the ones of the facility, any fire could have an devastating effect. There was accordingly an adequate antifire system in every single room, including of course this one. Sprinklers started in the room, drowning the computers under high pressure water. The screens went black with an impressive display of fireworks and smoke.

Kakuzawa, after a few seconds expressed very clearly his opinion about this turn of fate...

Arakawa could not refrain herself for smiling-just a little bit. She realized quickly that this was a very bad idea-Kakuzawa had seen it, and was looking at her quite darkly…

He screamed to the technicians to fire visually the _Phalanx _guns-a total waste of ammunition- and turned back to Arakawa. She had indeed proved useful, loyal, tonight, but…

"I will definitely take your suggestion of covering this up, Arakawa...But, we should not let those unfortunate events impede with work. We still have Twenty-Eight, after all. Maybe you should assist to the procedure-it's going to be very, very instructing, I assure you..."

Arakawa legs went weak at the idea. It was not a "suggestion", of course. She could not refuse...A part of her was thinking that, at least, she would offer some support to Twenty-Eight, who was going to need it badly for her last days (and another part of Arakawa thought that it would take more than a couple of nice words to help Twenty-Eight to cope with her fate...) At least, she had now some hopes...She did not think that this commando was going to able to survive for long, despite her suggestions for covering up the whole matter…But at least, this showed that someone had an idea of what was occurring on the island

Back on the landing pad, Tatso was now sure that the radar was down, as she was not dead yet…Accordingly, the firing of the _Phalanx _guns was rather erratic, and the helicopter came out of this almost unscathed. Almost. As soon as the craft had climbed some meters, Tatso made a sharp dive, in the hopes that if she flew _below _the island, she was going to be able to avoid most of the light defense fire (machine guns, portable missile launchers...) The craft fled from the island at barely two meters above water, headed for Japan proper at top speed.

Tatso checked the direction they were headed, the speed, and her watch. Hmm. Two minutes.

Xu, meanwhile, had headed for the cargo hold, to tell the soldiers to brace for the imminent impact. Some of the operatives rushed to see her, as they had imporeant things to told her...

"The prisonners should not regain conscience in less than five hours, Lieutenant !"

"Message from one of our agents at Yokosuka proper ! Two aircraft from the Self-Defense Forces had just took off...And American aircrafts are also being readied..."

"They are fast...It's going to be even narrower that what we had planned..."

Tatso, five seconds ahead of the planned point (she just had to follow a certain direction at a certain speed for a certain time...) saw three lights forming a triangle flash...

The _Zodiacs _were at the rendez-vous point, and they were hearing her coming...

The helicopter crash "landed" on the sea, in a relatively controlled manner, almost in the middle of the triangle. Long before it had sunk, the crew had evacuated it on the Zodiacs, the grunts taken prisonners being carried in a rather rough manner, while Number Four, still havint trouble to walk, was helped by Tatso and Xu to climb into the first ship. They then found a prextext to send the pilot on another Zodiac, to avoid raising too much attention,

The tiny ships scattered quickly, heading for different points of the coast in the area of Kamakura, as fast as possible, for two reasons. First one was avoiding the forces, naval and airbone that would come seek them. The second reason was that demolition charges had been set up in the helicopter, to assure that they would not be too much wreckage to examine. The flash from the explosion also assured that the attention of the two jets from the Self Defense Forces that were patrolling the area between Kamakura and the island, who had briefly spotted the craft radar echo. The Humans in the Zodiacs clearly head them pass above, way too fast to have spotted them...By the time the wreckage would have been retrieved and could be analyszed, the commando would have all the time required to cover all their tracks.

After a while, Tatso removed the rough scarf she had put around Four's head...Her and Xu watched the horned girl for a moment. And then settled for asking questions when they could have thinked rationally about all this. This mission had bringed more questions than answers.

Staring like this at this girl was quite ackward (the fact that she was almost completly naked, and apparently found this quite normal, was not helping) Tatso thought that the sheet was not going to be warm enough. Fortunately, there was Thermos of coffee on the Zodiac...

"Hey. Take that ! You are going to need to heat yourself up !" she said in French while passing to the girl the cup...She did not react, and looked even more puzzled than before...

Tatso kindly put the hands of Four around the cup, and motionned her to drink. The Diclonius did nothing. Tatso then lifted her arms, as softly as possible, thinking the girl was too shocked to react. It tookquite a while to make her accept to drink...and, at the very least, it looked to please her(her feelings were quite hard to interpret, as she was not saying a word...)

Tatso was trying to make the girl feel better, by treating her like an Human, not a thing...

"I think we are going to call you, for the time being...Kate ! Would you like that ?"

Tatso had thought to this by a rather basic mental process. The soldiers had called the girl Four. Four was translated in French by _Quatre. _Quatre, Quat...Kate….(It had also the advantage of being a diminutive usable in a lot of languages, from the Russian _Katia _to the French _Catherine_) Four/Kate more or less understood the meaning of the sentence, helped by the very expressive and visual gestures of Tatso, who pointed herself while saying her name, then Four saying _Kate_...Visual gestures...She had almost forgotten what it was to _see _things-except for the last event her eyes had registered, before Humans had sentenced her to eternal darkness. Kurama staring at her emotionless, as something was lowered on her face...

Tatso thought that the thin smile there was on the lips of the Diclonius was a sign that she was happy of having been freed of this livng hell...It was of course not the complete truth...Of course, the Diclonius was somewhat glad of her change of situation, to have escaped vivisection...But "Kate" was rather thinking to the sweet, sweet revenge she was soon going to have on Humans, who had made of her existence such a nightmare...


	14. Thirteen : You killed me long ago

**Former Polish Corridor, February 1945….**

Things had been catastrophic for the Wermacht on the Eastern Front for years. Now, it was beyond that. Red Army units were moving at full speed toward the Oder, frozen at this time. It was quite likely that the Soviets would have crossed it by a matter of weeks, if not days.

And once the Oder, the last obstacle, would have been crossed...there was only fifty kilometers remaining to reach the core, the heart of the "Fascist Beast": Berlin.

For years, both Allies and Soviets had knew that this was going to be ultimate target. After the First World War, the Germans could pretend that they had "backstabbed", that in fact, they had _won, _if the civilians had not given up (a complete lie, of course, invented by the General Staff) With Soviet tanks rolling in the streets of the capitol, this kind of attitude was going to be harder... The cityhalf destroyed already by years of Allied strategic bombings would be a very appropriate funeral pyre, in all the senses of the word, for the Nazi ideoology...

Between the Oder and Berlin, there was _nothing _that could stop the Soviets ; no troops, no weapons, no landscape adequate for defense, short of some elevation…Basically, the Russians had fought from Stalingrad to here ; in some places, the distance between the farthest Nazi advances in Russia and the current front was well within the thousand of kilometres range-despite what the Nazi propaganda was frantically saying, the Red Army was not going to break now….This does not means, far from it, that making those last fifty kilometres, ridiculous compared to the distance already crossed was going to be easy. And Berlin was not an "easy" target. Soviets had realized it first-hand at Stalingrad, urban warfare could be deadly for mechanized forces. This fact, combined to the large numbers of _panzerfausts _available to Nazis, as well as the somewhat average level of training from many Soviet tank units, meant that this was going to be a quite bloody battle, even for this war standards. Soviet and Allied Intelligences had rather imprecise idea of the effectives stationed at Berlin-the Nazi pratice of inflating units was now completely unchecked-now, units were outright _invented. _But thanks to the Leader "inspired command" (opus citato from Nazi propaganda. Numerous where the people, from all sides, were asking themselves "Inspired by _who _?...), the Nazis had not even gathered their forces for the last ditch defense of the Oder-there was very sizable forces on the Pomeranian/Prussian coastline : the Wermacht High Command followed without real discussion (they always ended doing it) clearly insane orders of standing to the last man in positions long ago bypassed by the Red Army.

The commanders of those units could pretend, without outright lying, that they were defending the German civilians in those areas ; it was an euphemism to say that in several places, units of the Red Army had behaved quite badly toward civilians (the said civilians had however not showed outright concern for the fates of Russians or Poles when the Wermacht was moving foward. For instance, some of the civilians now fleeing had received the lands of expropriated Poles) What the Nazis had done in Russia was not morally justifying what the Red Army was doing now, for sure...but it was certainly explaining a good part of it.

The main reason was, however, was they did not dared to disobey the Leader, justifying themselves by thinking that what they were doing was just their "duty".

Anyway, as units of the Red Army were rushing toward the Oder, others moved for the "cleaning up" of Prussia and Pomerania, where the fighting was concentrated around the cities…And it was in the middle of all this that Sarah was making her way...

Now that she had a better idea of how the war was going on, Sarah had at least a general idea of what to do. As the Red Army had smashed the Nazis east of Koenisberg...she had to go _west, _to express to the Nazis her opinion about them. This involved crossing battlelines. Sarah was doing her possible to avoid Soviet columns moving for the coast...she did not wanted to test if the papers Annah had gave her were working. She did not want to kill Soviet soldiers if things turned ugly...She was very sincere about this, but she was also not very eager to know if she would indeed be able to control herself, and not kill every single Human in sight...

For leaving Koenisberg for regions still under Nazi control, there was two terrestrial ways : a very long and narrow sandbar leading more or less directly toward Dantzig. The second way was by land proper, near the Vistula lagoon...Sarah had been briefly detained at Koenisberg before being sent to the fortress-it was there that the "questions" had been the harshest...it was also there that she had received the final demotion ; from a sub-human, a "vermin", she was now for the Nazis something between a guinea pig and a biological weapon.

Sarah could take pain...but not this kind. She prefered to avoid Koenisberg, to never see again this wretched place The sandbar was accordingly not an option : she would have to go toward the old Prussian citadel, to reach Pillau, the entrance of it. She had to take the coastal path, avoiding anything that could look like an settled area : roads and railroads, hamlets…

There was a good one hundred kilometers between Koenisberg and Dantzig this way-and yet, Sarah, exhausted, had made it in less than a few days. Technically, it was possible, but very surprising for a warzone, and especially from someone who had been treated as badly as she was. Sure, she was at the fortress fed a little better than at Ravensbruck (not hard or showing outright concern for Sarah herself : the Nazis intended to kept her alive at the fortress, not a Ravensbruck. The way they were feeding her was a proof of that-awful, to say the least)

The fact that Sarah could...slice...throught opposition was no foreign to her fast progression despite ennemy forces. On this point, Nazis troops in the area had heard, over the past days, their share of troubling news...General Chernachoivksy, one of the best and brighest (and also most implacable) commanders of the Red Army, was rumoured to have been put into charge of the siege of Koenisberg-this was a devastating new in itself. They had also heard about the presence, among Chernachoivksy troops, of the 241th elite tank force. What the average _landser _(trooper) in the area heard about the 241th recent actions was at the least disturbing. Apparently, this Soviet unit had attacked head on an airbase near Pillau with inferior forces..._and had succesfully stormed it in less than a hour ! _(This was bad sign about what this unit was going to do when supported by other Soviet forces, and would be in a situation of dramatic material superiority instead of inferiority...) The most disturbing rumors were the ones concerning Sarah-Nazis knew that several units had been ambushed, destroyed completly, in a manner highly unusual. But since there was almost none Nazi that has _saw _Sarah and could live to tell it, the Nazis of course did not know about Sarah appearance.

There was probably some hours remaining before nightfall (Sarah was still badly used to night/days cycles, so she tried to get her few hour of sleep at night), but the visibility was very variable : there was light snow falling down, and wind. The latest burst of wind made the corners of the map flip. Without even thinking about it, Sarah used one Vector to hold it (they was some minors, innocent advantages, of being able to use those things, after all…)

Sarah was currently trying to figure out where she was with her map...Not easy. She thought she had almost reached the Vistula, a large Polish river...but she would have the confirmation only when she would cross it. She folded the map, and resumed walking quickly. At least, what the Soviets had gave her was somewhat warm...The fact that she was a Diclonius made her extremly resistant-it did not mean that she found cold a pleasant situation. She had really appreciated the attention from this Soviet officer, this Annah Sovorov. She sincerely hoped that this Russian would survive the war (this giving her another justification to kill more Nazis…) But there was many things that puzzled the Diclonius about this encounter-like the obvious fact that the interest of the woman had been dramatically raised when Sarah had mentioned Kakuzawa…Not to mention the other Russian girl, the…peculiar…one…

As she walked, she had to cope with the conscequences of the experiences. For instance, the last experience, the one with the sniper rifle-her stomach and abdomen still hurt about it (this said, suffering from a bruise on the stomach was still a very light wound when thinking that she had been fired at such a close distance…) And this was just an example…

Her legs and feet were hurting, too, for a very pratical reason : the boots she had received from the Soviets were too big for her (a very minor problem…but an annoying one)

She had slept and eat only a little after leaving the fortress-this, combined with her other problems, made that she was seriously bordering exhaustion, Diclonius resistance or not…Still, she continued to walk...Her anger, hatred was literally fueling her….

Sarah estimations from her map were basically right. She was now very close of Dantzig…

A few kilometres away from her, a Wermacht unit was trying to settle up on a defensive position _before _the Vistula, which was a completely insane thing. First of all, the Red Army had crossed the Vistula long ago at different point : they were likely to be encircled any minute. And, anyway, the good place to set-up a defensive position was probably not in front of a river, but _behind _it….But the leadership was quite frantic on the "held ground at any cost" order. At least, this time, they had received what could be interpreted as delaying orders-once they had slowed down the Red Army long enough, they could withdrawn toward Dantzig (a soldier had however said, quite logically, that Dantzig was certainly better than nothing, but it was going to be a deathtrap too…) Everyone was quite nervous, so it was not really a surprise when one of the handful of snipers available (most of them were hidden the best they could in the local elevations-the roof of a barn, a tree, this kind of thing) shouted, during a short moment where the wind was calming down (and thus, the snow stopped to move) that he had saw an "Ivan" approaching the position…As the wind picked up again shortly after that, the sniper could not retrace the "Ivan". To check the situation, a patrol of some infantry, led by NCO, was sent in the low density wood where the Russian had been seen, several kilometres away from the position…Morale was rather low, as the perspective of being ambushed by overwhelming Soviet forces was not exactly a merry one. Fortunately, this seemed to be, at first, a false alarm…and then someone saw Sarah, who had realized (with her sixth sense) that Nazis were coming…and had awaited them, in a place that was out of the sight of the snipers back at the main position (that she had more or less localized thanks to her sixth sense too…she just had to look in the direction where the "danger" sign from the sniper had come, to realize that there was several Humans there. Her Diclonius capacities were not impaired by low visibility, of course) due to some elevations…

The Nazis did not fired at her-they assumed she was a Soviet deserter or lost soldier first, as she was alone. ("Tongues" had always been, for all armies, a very useful resource. And you cannot make talk a death person) Sarah remained still as the Nazis encircled her, while barking orders that she feigned to not understand. Seeing female Soviet soldiers was not unusual, but _this _young was a little peculiar, some soldiers thought (not that they would have mattered much about the age question when it would be the time to execute her…)

Not to mention, of course, that female Soviets risked another thing when captured.

The NCO looked with another kind of interest at the newcomer. There had been some instructions coming from Headquarters about securing a girl in this area. The description was quite vague-there was something about eventual wounds on the temporal areas of the head, but promise of rewards (including one implicit one of _evacuation…_which was quite interesting…) Unfortunately, this could not be checked directly, as the girl short hair was looking to have been put more in order than the rest of her clothes-if there was wounds, they were hidden by it. Well, better to capture her anyway. They would have the occasion to check if they were wounds. If she was the right girl, she was their ticked out of her. If she was not, this was fine too. She would pay, in several ways, for the whole Red Army…

The NCO, with all the scorn he could have, screamed at Sarah, what she was trying to do…

"I let you come because I am not very good with ranged weapons, simply said Sarah, who tossed the only weapon she had, a Soviet pistol took from a Russian body earlier…

She had tried to take some pot shots with it, thinking that Vectors were not always the best thing…Results had been quite average, and convinced her that this was last ditch thing…

The NCO should have considered this phrase was somewhat surprising, but he did not-he thought merely that the girl must had trouble understanding, speaking, German. Anyway, he did not bothered to try to talk to her much longer, once he spot something on her clothes.

Sarah had apparently rather haphazardly sewn on her uniform, a quite surprising sign. Not that the Nazis never saw it-it was however surprising that someone would wore it deliberatly, when having the choice. The major difference with the symbol the Nazis knew was the color.

The star was made of red lines instead of being yellow. The Nazis thought that the red color was because she was (apparently) Soviet. They did not taught that it was because it was not sewn, _but drawn. _Asking where this color was coming was really rhetorical-any place next to which Sarah passed had a lot of red "paint". She had however made it with her own blood, after a little encounter with an SS patrol that had resulted in a slight wound for her. It was not red for a very depth psychological reason, but merely because the availability of this color…

Sarah had (like, in fact, everyone in her situation) rather painful memories about this sign…She remembered, painfully, how she had to lie to her little sister about it...Myriam, in her innocence, was finding this star "pretty"-and Sarah had, to not worry her, had first comforted her in this sense. Without thinking to check her stories right with the ones her mother was telling to her little sister…Which had led to extremely ackward explanations, both from Sarah and her mother, to Myriam, about why she should not wore the said star...As they were trying to hide to Myriam the truth, it was extremely difficult to present even a very toned down version…the whole thing had been rather traumatic for the poor girl…

If Sarah had painted that on her coat, it was for a simple reason : she wanted the Nazis to _know _before dying, what was attacking them. Explaining each time the situation was…difficult (for Sarah ; it was triggering very painful memories of Myriam last moments on this cursed world…The star too, but at least, she did not had to _tell _it to the Nazis) And there was also technical aspects : usually, she could only talk to the few lastt survivors of the unit that had attacked her, after disabling them -the ones that were killed during the "action" never knew the situation. So she had found this extremely efficient method, to show to the Nazis the situation rather clearly without saying anything…There was also several advantages to this tactic: the reactions of the Nazis once they saw this sign usually (up to this point, it was rather always) destroyed the lingering doubts she could have about them,

Of course, she could not this way explain them several points of the situation, like the experiences, but they got the general idea, especially when she unleashed her Vectors…

Like she was about to do now…She was not even listening to the racist insults of the Nazis : she was kinda used to it…The first thing she done was only when one Nazi grabbed her by the shoulder. This, she could not support, and she showed it rather clearly to the man.

-Do not touch me, said very quietly Sarah. Do you know where a Lieutenant Weber is ? (She was saying this very quietly, with a voice a little cold, but in a conversation-like tone…)

Of course, the guy did not answered or moved his hand, saying very crudely that he could do what he want with (another string of racists insults, that halted some seconds later…)

The Nazi was now staring at disbelief at his severed hand (while Sarah noted with distraction that she would _really _have to try to clean a little her coat-too much is too much…) A split second later, he was staring at his arm severed at the elbow…then at nothing, as the whole arm had been cut up to the shoulder blade. Then…well, he did not see much other things, since Sarah proceeded to an last amputation : his head. All this in an eyeblink : many had the impressions that the head touched the ground about the same time than the weapon that the Nazi had been holding with is other hand. Almost instantly, the other infantry soldiers realized why Himmler wanted at any cost this girl alive. They also realized that _at any cost _included almost certainly their lives. They decided that "alive" could meant "in one piece".

As the girl was not going to be very cooperative, it was better to disable her. They targeted her legs. The girl did not even attempted to go at cover. She…stretched and smiled as they fired on her. There was no way that submachine bullets in such quantities could affect her…

Sarah was still able to have a rational behaviour. She knew that when she did things like that (killing in spectacular ways, looking not concerned when they were firing on her…) this made the moral of her ennemies take a sharp drop…The other side of her did not complained much : she _enjoyed _doing similar actions (which made the Human side feel more than a little bad…) The Nazis aimed for her legs, to paralyze her ? This gave her an idea…

Of course, she could had used a more direct method (like lashing them with Vectors), but this one would be even more surprising. Sarah moved toward a pair of soldiers, that were not too far…when they see her coming closer, they fired even more frantically than before. Sarah's Vectors then tapped slightly on the weapons barrels. Slightly for her. This meant that one of the submachine guns was disabled, but the other did what she had hoped : instead of firing a volley at her, it fired a volley in the legs of the other guard, who collapsed screaming (blood loss was going to kill him within minutes…) The other guard had not much time for curse himself , Sarah finished him as he was trying to move away from the Diclonius.

The soldiers realized, at this point, that this was hopeless-there was no way to wound her with the weapons they had in hands. One, more courageous (or more insane…and probably a mix of the two ) tried to do something else…He charged at Sarah, hoping to surprise her (he did) and to wound her with bayonets wounds (of course, he did not) He was (almost) actually split in two before reaching her. What was left of his body did reach Sarah, however-and it threw her of balance, to the ground, for a brief moment. She did recovered quickly.

The other soldiers where dismayed when they realized that even when she was off-balance, the girl continued to be quite invulnerable to small-weapon fire…Better fall back, and try to "get" her with the heavier stuff they had. As the remaining of the patrol run to the base, two soldiers remained behind, to survey the movements of the girl, while staying at a good distance (this instruction, the two soldiers would have followed it quite eagerly, orders from the NCO or not…) However, they did not managed to follow Sarah's movement for long

After she had climbed back to her feet, Sarah moved in the direction of the Nazis-who were then astonished by when they saw. Her carefully disposed hair had moved, during her fall…what she had tried to hide so hard with her hair was now plainly : on the temporal bones, there was indeed a wound, but not an usual one...There was a jagged surface, ivory white, slightly outside the cranium proper...The look of surprise on the face of the soldiers was very visible for Sarah-and it angered her even more. There was several small debris on the ground-tree branches, rocks…One soldier, his eyes still fixed on the slump, did not even saw the first projectile hit him with tremendous force. The second tried to move to cover. And failed. When a relative calm came back, Sarah nervously put her hands on the side of her head, while trying to put back her hair in position. Did it was already so visible ?

The horns, or crests, were growing back, very quickly...Sarah was now sure that it was related to her use of Vectors (she did not used, of course, this term for speaking of her gift...) After the removal of the crests by surgery immediatly after her birth, nothing had happened during years. When Sarah's Vectors had began to be functionnal, she did sometimes had little headaches after using them for menial things, but nothing dramatic. She did, however, made the link between this and what she had learn about her condition at her birth (her father, in search of cheap excuses for leaving her mother, had said that Sarah was an abomination...it was this nice sentence that had pushed her to ask questions to her mother about what her father had meant) Sarah had then thought, rather rightly, that if she used "them" too much, the horns would grow back. It was exactly what had happened after she had fled with Myriam from the appartment (the initial fear of Myriam upon seeing those crests was one of Sarah's worst memories, in a life that had been filled with awful events...Myriam's reaction after the initial surprise being one of her very few relatively happy memories) After she had...removed...them to not raise too much attention in Praha, they had not grew back until sh she had given up resisting to that voice in Ravensbruck. To that voice ? This was an...euphenism, an easy way to explain the truth. This "voice" was not reallt a split personality-it was a part of her. A part, a side, an fragment, but still _her. _Something that she could not _remove..._Something that was bound to be forever with her, for the better or for the worst. The worst was the horrible impression that she was losing her soul, everything that made her Human.The better was that this voicewas keeping her alive, after all; she had only given up to that voice only when she was really, really about to die at the camp, because of...

Afterward, it had been the fortress, the experiences. Sarah, while using the handgun after her evasion, had vaguely hoped that this thing worked in _both _directions : that without the horns, she would lose a little of her...of her bloodlust, to speak honestly. Over the last days, she had realized plainly that the horns were much more a _sympton _than a cause to her...troubles.

Now, however, there was the little matter remaining of the rest of the Nazi unit-because, of course, the survivors were going to come back with reinforcements. Still worried about the snipers (even if she was sure that, at great distance, she could deflect bullets), Sarah decided to not go for the position beeline, but rather to make a small detour, passing next to a farmhouse that had been abandoned-this would provide her some cover. As there was a road next to it, this was also where the Nazis back at the position had sent their heavier stuff…

Sarah heard the loud _clank _noises almost as soon as she sensed the danger with her sixth sense…Two _panzers. _Sarah did not know the type-she was not much in military gear. The black crosses on their turrets was the only thing she had to knew : they were Nazis tanks. That she would destroy. She had never faced combat vehicles before, but both the Human and Diclonius sides were confident that they could handle it, if they behaved smartly…

She was not especially eager to check if her Vectors could deflect shells or massive machine-gun fire-there was a limit to what she could take, and this was likely to be somewhat close to it. Accordingly, she retreated hastily when the first panzer moved toward her, the second staying behind to cover the leading one. The rather panicked messages from the infantry provoked reactions of disbelief from the tanks crews, especially considering that the reports were told by almost insane survivors... In fact, the crews of the tank believed that they were about to face Russian infantry, with maybe some tanks-certainly not a lone girl.

The crew of the first tank was very uncertain of what to do-apparently, there was not so much Russians. Yet, the battle had been very real, judging by the missing members of the patrol and the detonations they had heard at the main position…The tank had some accompanying infantry…The soldiers moved out, to search in the farm buildings-the number one place were Soviets soldiers could have take position. Initially, there was no reaction-except that when the infantry entered the main building, there was clearly audible screams in German….

To give them support, and in the hopes of frighten the defenders, the tank began to shell the farmhouse, stopping very close, within meters without meeting the slightest defense fire. What the heck was happening ? The soldier in the turret of the tank then saw something on the roof of the farmhouse-fearing a soldier with anti-tank weapons, he was about to fire when the person on the roof moved with a speed that was more than astonishing.

The tank crew heard a light noise, as Sarah jumped from the roof on the turret of the tank. The crewman in the turret reacted relatively calmly-he turned to face her with his submachine gun. He had not completed his turn when Sarah had recovered from her fall and looked at him...When the rest of the crew saw what was left of the soldier collapse inside the turrets, they probably thought that the infantry was somewhat right about this girl and her capacities.

Amazingly, one other crewman managed to close the turret the hatch before something nasty happened...This was because Sarah did not cared. For her, metal or stone...that was the same thing. The tank engine roared back to life-did those idiots hoped to make her fall ?

Maybe. But the main plan was also to move within the range of the other tank machine gun, to either kill her or force her to abandon her position. Bullets began to rain around her. Having a "ride" was nice, but she did not planned to use it for a very long moment...

The crew from the tank, sweating from fear (it was completly justified...) heard a kind of chuckle, as Sarah was talking to them, in a voice that was quite muffled by the steel layers...

They had the same impression that many "ennemies of the Reich" had when they were hearing the officer about to order the firing squad to fire...That this voice meant death.

Sarah's voice was so cold, so...that it was unbelievable that it was a fourteen years old girl speaking-and for some reasons, the Nazis were _almost _fearing this girl more for this icy voice than for the guy that was in the turret (that was now both _in _and _out _the tank...)

"You are feeling safe, down there, Nazis ? You think that you will escape with your life ? Your fate is now what was mine: THERE IS NO PLACE FOR YOU IN THIS WORLD !

The hatch, despite the lock, was opened violently. Paralyzed with fear, one of the crewman did not reacted when the grenades that were fixed at his belt were started to lift in the air...Sarah picked them with her actual hands, dropped the armeds pins deliberatly inside the turret-and then casually let the grenades too fell down, as she was closing back the hatch with her Vectors. The reflexes of the crew were not bad, Sarah had to admit. She was jumping from the tank when the hatch lifted again, as one Nazi was frantically trying to throw back the grenades. It was not sure that he would have succeeded (it would have maybe a better idea to throw them away via one of the targeting slits) Without really thinking about it, she used of her Vector to cut his hand : the grenade fall back in the tank with it…The twin explosions killed of course the crew-and also ignited the ammunition and the fuel reserve of the tank...The war machine blew up shortly after...a little too early for Sarah,who had not put enough distance between her and the tank. A piece of metal had slightly wounded Sarah on the cheek, which was rather light when thinking of the destruction that she had caused. It was useful, however, for recalling her that she was _not _invincible-her Diclonius side cooled down considerably upon realizing that. Which was better, as her troubles where not over.

The second tank came charging at her, firing it's main cannon. Diclonius reflexes were notably quicker than Humans ones-Sarah jumped to cover, as the first shell zipped past her head. The tank began to shell the area…then withdrawed toward the main position, aware that this was more than they could hope to handle. Sarah followed, on foot…

The "main" position was not very impressive : some barbed wire, less than twenty soldiers, some mines, some heavy weapons…and the tank. A lot for a single person, but…

There was some forward sentries. They did not lasted long-just long enough for screaming for assistance, which was hastily provided from the tank. The _panzer _left the relative security of the main position to move toward Sarah a second time, the hatch closed to avoid the fate of the first vehicle (as it was unbelievable that someone could open a locked hatch with no tools, they had thought that Sarah had dropped grenades because of an already opened hatch…)

All tanks produced during the war, from all nations, functioned much better with the turret hatch open. The tanks, already very "crowded" when someone was in the turret, took a large penalty to efficiency when operating this way. Especially while trying to track a small target.

Those guys were not as stupid as the first ones. They were staying in a relatively open area, where Sarah would be unable to get under cover. She was however pretty safe, as despite threats of executions, the NCO was unable to convince soldiers go finish her-the firing squad or the rope looked like a easy exit compared to what she had done to the soldiers trying to apprehend her...Still, the situation was not exactly a confortable one-the Nazis also had some mortars, that they began to use on her, or rather on her general position…Sooner or later, one shell was going to hit her, Vectors or not. She saw on the ground what would get out of trouble…_panzerfausts _from the sentries she had dispatched. This weapon, brilliant on a technical point of view, was basically a single use anti-tank grenade launcher, very efficient _if _used correctly. And if Sarah had a general idea of how the thing work, she did not had at hands the technical manual. The tank crew was not worried when they finally saw Sarah move out of her hiding place, this weapon in hands…_Panzerfausts _had a limited range (this girl was well outside it) and it needed some training to use it correctly. Projectiles began to fall on her, but her Vectors could shield her for a moment…Sarah had found one thing : the arming mechanism. She clenched it, and fired the weapon…At her manner. Using her Vectors to propel it, she slammed the whole weapon, well outside the maximum range of _Panzerfausts_, in the turret of the tank. It was not this way that the weapon was conceived to work, but it blew up the tank in a most satisfying manner…She then moved for finish the little infantry force that was covering the mortars, and the mortars servant. Very easy for her.

From now on, with artillery of any kind…it was over, for the remaining soldiers at the main position, that were anyway not very numerous (and knew that if they abandoned their remaining heavy weapons, they were as good as dead…And as the radios were in both tanks, there was not hope of support…The snipers, now that they had a much clearer shot at Sarah, tried to target her. As she was very conscious of the situation, she should shield herself accordingly-it was just an annoyance, causing wounds similar to bee stings…The machine guns were also firing at her with frenesy (but not accuracy) Sarah just…waited. That they had exhausted the very limited ammo they had at their disposition, which took a few minutes. After…she just moved in the main position, well aware of the mines-the morale of the Wermacht personnel took a final dive when they saw the anti-personal mines flew from the ground straight toward them….What followed was, thankfully for the survivors rather quick. The NCO that had been the informal commander of the unit actually died cursing her

Hmm, some people were not dead…yet…but with the wounds they had, they would certainly not pass the hour. Sarah did used the occasion to try to secure some info about "Weber". Not that she actually hoped to find him. She just wanted to be sure to not lose any chances…

One soldier screamed back at her that he was going to kill her. Sarah, almost sighing, sliced his arm before her could arm the grenade to blow himself (and Sarah, hopefully…) up.

"To kill me ? It's already been done. You killed me long ago...Well, a part of me, rather. But for what's left of me...Ravensbruck have not been enough to kill it, so I don't think you will…So, I will ask one last time, nicely…Do you know where is a lieutenant Weber ?

Of course, the guy was even less in talking mood than before. He screamed something that could have been interpreted as "what she wanted with Weber"…profanities removed…

"Oh, He took "care" of my little sister. I want to give him back the favour, that's all..."

_Take care of him…or to anyone like him, to be honest...I could not do anything to save Myriam…I saw her going to her death, crying…worried about ME…But I will make you pay._

Sarah left soon after the place…After a walk of few minutes on the road, she reached a little hill. From her position, Sarah could now see clearly the Vistula...she was now probably relatively close of Dantzig, which was likely to be a very, very hot-spot in the following days. What to do ? Going to this place or another, it was all the same for her-she no longer have a place to return, an home...(for her, an "home" was anything with Myriam) She was not a fatalist, far from it (well…before the fortress, that is…) ; she was not much more for following her "fate"…She would decide later. As she was crossing the icy Vistula, a machine-gun nest, northward and on the other bank of the river, opened up on her. Well, this settled the matter definitely. Grinning, she moved to silence it…toward Dantzig.

Sarah knew, from her map, that Dantzig was relatively close to Koenisberg. Only a few minutes of flight, in fact. She did not knew, however, that an aircraft, a _Junker_ for instance, taking off for a terrain near Koenisberg in a rather hectic circumstances (like elite Soviet forces storming the terrain) an aircraft heavily damaged as his escort was blown out of the sky, would be forced to land in Dantzig area. Currently, Kakuzawa was near Gyndia (a port built by the Poles between the Wars), in a submarine base, whose name was ironic: Hel...


	15. Chapter Fourteen : Quipropos

**Kamakura, present time, at dawn...**

Nana was woken up by the sun rays slowly coming over her head-one more thing she enjoyed about the Kaede...She stretched herself, thinking about what she would do today. Continue to improve her reading skills ? Cook a little ? Just take a nice walk around the garden of the Kaede ? Playing a card or board game with Mayu ? She also wondered what she was going to eat today...she had overheard, yesterday, they had bough ice cream of a yet different flavour.

It was the possibility of making all those little decisions _alone _that was making Nana so enthusiast about living at the Kaede. Back at her other home, she could not decide anything…

Last night had not been terrible. She had not slept much, and she had made a rather awful nightmare. It was the kind she was making often since a certain day. It was related to the lose of her limbs. A rather traumatic event, to say the least, that was haunting her nights. The usual dream was simply a recollection of the events of this day-Lucy disabling her without pity...This time, however, there had been a difference-she had been strapped on one operation table, back at Home-and it was Lucy that had cut her legs and arms-but rather things that were whirling...Thankfully, she had snapped out of this dream when her first limb was half sectionned. Most people would have been traumatized by such experience. Not Nana. She had merely go back to sleep, troubled by this, but only because there was some unusual things about this, that were worrying her…The thought of the vacations that had been promised by Yuka was compensating for this. And, anyway, Nana could cope quite well with dreams : the worst nightmare was usually not as bad as what had been her reality, after all…

Before anything else, there was something she wanted to check. Nyu ! She had returned almost two days ago, now. She was recovering quite well (quite well for a Diclonius. For Humans standards, it was rather _miracle_), and she would probably woke up anytime…

Nyu had been lodged back into her former room of the Kaede…She looked to be stil inconscient. Nana was about to return to her room when she noticed that Nyu was now moving slightly...Of course, this had for result of making Nana come closer…

Nana noted with a real concern the sudden grin that appeared on Nyu's face. Very quickly (in a way showing that recovery was very she rose and grabbed Nana by the shoulders…

For a short moment, she thought that Lucy was back. The last words that Lucy had said to her were rather kind, but Lucy had always a rather...explosive...behaviour, so…

Nana had heard/read somewhere that you could had a good opinion on what people were about to do when looking in their eyes. It was sometimes true, like right now. It's gave to Nana a much needed fore-warning about what was coming-allowing her to brace herself..

A minute later she bursted in frantics laughs, as _Nyu _started to tickle her (for now, actual tickle, not the "tickle" that was making Yuka make hostile comments about indecency…)

"It's really you, Nyu...You are really back", said Nana, while trying to catch her breath.

Nyu was now kissing her on the cheeks, obviously very happy to see Nana again. She had "trapped" Nana against the wall, who did not much else that making token protests-the joy of seeing that Nyu was recovering quite well was making her accept the little inconvenient of the situation (not mentioning that she was founding this…rather pleasant, to say the least…)

Nana tried to ask to Nyu how she was feeling, if she was recovering well, but it's was to no use, and it was getting harder and harder for Nana to speak coherently, because of Nyu's action, who had switched to ticking to, ahem, "tickling"…Currently, she was kissing Nana on her breasts, and as a results both of them were giggling with all their hearts. Nana merely found that "fun", while Nyu, basically, was laughing because Nana was happy.

The younger Diclonius was trying, feebly mockingly, to push Nyu away. Bah, it was useless. When Nyu was like that, she was usually beyond speaking. Nana relaxed, and looked at Nyu from closer. As she was not wearing much (a two pieces thing for sleeping, coming from Yuka. As Yuka had lesss…forms…than Nyu, it was more than a little tight by places…) her body was quite visible, and Nana was seeing plainly that, indeed, things were going rather well. The wounds from the battles she had fought as Lucy were already receding…What really surprised Nana was that the horns were not growing back, at least for now…

Nyu was still a little weak, however-she had trouble to stand on her legs. Accordingly, Nana's did not voiced much protest when both of them ended on the bed, the "tickling" continuing.

Nana's stopped to laugh suddenly, as she had just felt a very, very slight pain…

"Hey, you almost bite me, Nyu ! Calm down a little" said Nana half-jokingly…

Nyu understood that she had done something bad…and did something to try to excuse herself. She moved a little the left strap of Nana's nightshirt, to expose her left breast (As inadequate as it could be, but neither her or Nana find this abnormal...), and she did noticed that there was an area that was slightly red. Feeling terribly sorry for "hurting" Nana (Nyu would have been rather distressed if she knew what Lucy had done to Nana. Or maybe Nyu was trying, without being conscious of it, to compensate for what Lucy had done…Impossible to know) Nyu did what she thought was the best thing for healing it : she started licking the said breast…

Nana _did _start to actually complain after, as it was making her feel a little strange (not unpleasant, at all, but really, really strange) and, to her credit, Nyu immediately stopped. She looked very distressed : the only thing she wanted was to please, not to hurt….

"C'mon, Nyu", said Nana, "don't goes down like that…You should rest, anyway…"

Nyu understood the meaning of the phrase…and saw in it a rather nice opportunity…

Nyu was very innocent (in the positive sense of the word) but also extremely straightfoward (in all the senses of the word) She pointed with her finger Nana's lips, then her ones, and repeated the gesture several time, each time pleading with frantic "Nyyyuuu ?"

"You want me too..." (a slight pause...then Nana smiled) "I guess it's payback time..."

This sentence trigerred something within Nana. _Payback. _Concerning Lucy...or Nyu. She knew that the two were not the same persons, but still…Nana would have many things to ask, payback wise, concerning Lucy-even if she had to admit that Lucy's saving her life when the scientist was about to shoot her was a point in her favour. She chased the thought…

Nana licked her lips. She _did _felt a little...dizzy...about that. Not dizzy like when they were giving her sedatives at the facility. Another kind of dizzy, much, much more pleasant.

Nana had, of course, realized that people that liked each other (she did have a little trouble with making the difference between love and like...) did things like that. So, she felt perfectly right doing this with Nyu-they were not harming anyone, no ? This would make two happy people…(She was mildly worried about Yuka, however, who looked to be more hostile. She had not taken it too well when Nyu had kissed her, last time they were bathing…)

Nana dizziness prevented her for noticing something critical…Lucy... !

For a very, very short moment, she came back. Because of what was happening-it was triggering very harsh memories within her (and within Nyu too)…Memories that were for her as threatening as any foe (in fact, this was not true, since Lucy could have make short work of a foe, but memories remained, and hurt her, no matter how many years had passed.) Lucy thought of Natsume, and even saw Natsume in tears, saying to Lucy that she was serious, that she needed her, that she…During that brief time, Lucy also, in a flash, made an association between Nana and Natsume. Both were girls who had harsh lives (although Nana's life had been unspeakable, Natsume's life had been pretty bad too), who had been tricked, fooled by their fathers (real or surrogate)….What especially pained Lucy was to think that she had done all this to the poor Nana just to harm Kurama…because he was partly responsible of the death of Natsume. Nyu too had made this association, at an obviously much more basic level (and easier to live with too…) Natsume (like Kouta) had been nice with her. "She" (or rather Lucy, but Nyu was not making the distinction) had not been nice enough with Natsume (like for Kouta too). It had ended in bad things for Natsume. She was dead. To be friend with Nana, she had to be nice with her. This reasonement was rationnal, but rather childish. What was not childish was the means used by Nyu to be "nice" (but this was much more because of her limited knowledge than anything else : the best proof of how her mind was working was the seashell thing, when she had arrived at the Kaede. Kouta is sad while holding a seashell ? Break it. He is sad because he no longer have the seashell ? Find another one for him…)

The hint of Lucy's presence vanished quickly…It was Nyu that let out a long, long "Nyuuuu !" of delight as Nana's lips touched her own. Nana, for her part, had to admit that this "kissing" thing was very, very, very interesting to perform, after all….

It was at this rather delicate moment that Yuka, woken up by some "Nyus" appeared in the doorway, rather startled by what she was seeing. Living with Diclonius was full of surprises…Yuka was very surprised, pleased, to see that Nyu, despite her wounds, was so cheerful. She was a lot less pleased while thinking how she was showing her cheerfulness.

For a Human, this situation was as ackward as it could be. Regarless of opinions on...personnal orientation (Yuka was, like most people, more or less open on the question...Right now, she was probably less open than more open), it was an euphemism that Yuka had not exactly arrived at a good time. Honestly, Yuka could be proud of the way she handled the situation. While merely staying to Nyu that she should rest herself a little, she said to Nana that it was a little early, and both of them were going to wake up every one in the Kaede (it was certainly a diplomatic way to separate both of them quickly…)

Nyu manifest her disapoitment by a rather dispirited "Nyu-Nyu ! ". But she did complied, and returned to sleep…for about five minutes. Thinking, for one time, to put some clothes on her, she hurriedly left for outside, her mind focused on a single thing. _Find Kouta…._

Meanwhile, Yuka had gone in the kitchen with Nana, trying hard to look perfectly natural Nana did realized that something was not right…and it saddened her terribly. What kind of gross mistake she had done again ? (she just hoped that this would not beat the time she had literally burned money away, or the time she had gave food to Wanta in a fine china plate…)

In a depressed voice, she asked if she had disappointed Nana with doing "bad things"….

"Of course not, I'm a not disappointed about you, Nana", replied the Human girl. "It's just that…errr…I'm a little surprised…of seeing you and Nyu this way, that's all…"

Yuka, honestly, would have not minded if Nana had a certain kind of orientation. Even herself had to admit (the mere thought was making her cheeks turn red…) that this does not looked unpleasant, thanks to the couple of time Nyu had showed her affection toward Yuka…The issue was that she was not sure, at all, that Nana understood fully the situation. She decided to go for an constructive approach, and asked to Nana why she thought this was wrong…

"Because…because you tell me that this is wrong" tried in an unconvinced voice Nana ?

"Nana, something is not right or wrong because someone tell you it is so", said kindly Yuka, while thinking about all the lies that Nana had heard when she was detained at the facility. "You are a smart girl-you can think by yourself. They said to you that the only life you could hope for was locked up in a cell on this island…Look at all you are able to do right now. ! "

This sentence pleased Nana tremendously. Think by herself…she liked to be able to that. She had trusted her Daddy back at the facility-she had done everything he asked, whatever the cost for her. She still thought sincerely that Professor Kurama had been very nice with her. The difference was that, now, Nana would no longer follows blindly the orders of someone-even of her Daddy. Not just because they had lied to them, but because she knew, now, that she could have a normal life, or to take her own words, be a "nice girl". They were wrong to say that Diclonius were all monsters-even Lucy had a softer side, after all…

Yuka had said this for motivate Nana…But this had a consequence she had not thought : Nana tried to figure out, by herself, what she could have done that Yuka thought wrong.

Good idea, but the way Nana expressed her findings could have been a lot better….

"Then, is this wrong…because I ended up…(Nana looked ill at ease…) all wet ?"

Nana had heard on the TV several times an expression that had puzzled her. "It was like he had been thunderstruck". Thunder, that she understood. It was probably a special sort of electricity-the thing they used to keep the food cold, or to warm it, or to light the Kaede…

At a completly different level, Nana was also very aware that electricty was not a good thing to touch-there had been a lot of experiences at the facility to see if Taser-type weapons could be effective against Diclonius. The basic procedure was to see how much a Diclonius could take before fainting or her life being threatened-Nana had accepted those tests with her usual goodwill, genuinely trusting that this was really the thing to do, taking them as just another bad moment to pass...She had realized plainly that the longer she kept reacting, the most powerful were the charges she received...But it would have been a bad thing to fake being inconscious-the scientists and Daddy were always saying that those experiences were very important (in this case, Nana had thought several times, why they were always starting them again ? But she had of course never voiced this objection...) Lying to them would have been a very bad thing. Like for everything else, Nana had managed to accept it, seeking tiny compensations for her cooperation elsewhere... After all, sometimes, Daddy in person came to check her health status before, and ask her some questions after-that was worthing it alone !

Accordingly, Nana had a pretty good idea of what happened to someone just hit by electricity-it was usually very painful, and you had trouble to move, both your limbs and Vectors, for a good while. And also to speak, to look...And sometimes there were burns too, especially where the Taser or the electrodes were too close, both outside and inside the skin...

But what they said on TV did not had sense at all ! First of all, people that were supposed to be thunderstruck were most of the time not even hit by thunder ! Well, excepting for that strange movie (that Nana had however liked a lot...) where an ederly, evil guy that looked almost as bad as the Director (Nana had seen the Director couple of time, and was sincerly thinking her that Kurama was protecting her from him. On this point, two observations could be made. The first one was that, for one time, there was some minimal truth behind this, as Kurama had disobeyed a termination order...The second observation was that Kakuzawa had certainly an eerie look too, to frighten a Diclonius whose life had been incredibly harsh...) was shooting beams of thunders from his hands toward another guy-and then, a thing that Nana had liked a lot, the Daddy of the character hit by the thunder had came to save him ! Even if he was trying to kill his son five minutes ago-that whole battle with swords that looked like the Vectors (in the optic : they cut everything…) must had been a fake one! Anyway, it was very obvious, even for Nana, that those bolts were not real...

The real problem, for Nana, was that, all the other times she had heard this expression, it was in circumstances that were not related to lighting _at all. _For instance, why a lady that looked to be a little too much enthusiast over a vacuum cleaner should say that she was thundestruck by it's incredibly low price ? (Maybe she had took a discharge while connecting it ? That would have explained the frozen face she had...) Or why they were saying this sentence as they were speaking about the reactions to a strange sort of bubble that had apparently burst and made people lose money, saying that the new had hit the stock market like a thunderbolt ? (Nana had gone some times to the _market, _and enjoyed it a lot, but apprently the stock market was much more serious thing, as they were always saying that things were bad there…)

Of course, Nana had, over the time, realized that there was some sentences whose meaning was not it seemed-this _thundestruck _thing for instant. Yuka usually explained to Nana those expressions with a lot of patience and kindness. That said, right now, Nana was kinda thinking that Yuka was certainly having the face that someone that was _thunderstruck _was supposed to have. Yuka, for calming herself down (screaming after Nana would be both injust and totally inefficient, after all…better explaining it to her coldly) was taking some water when Nana had said this as innocently as it could be…Yuka had almost choked down,

Within the next minutes, all the stuff about "I will explain it to her coldly, rationally, without saying anything that could hurt her" was completely forgotten by Yuka. Well, except for the part about trying to not hurt the feelings of Nana. Yuka had however lost all her calm…

"What…what do you mean by _that _? "I ended all wet"...How...how this happened ?"

Nana was surprised by the reaction of Yuka-she had said this thing completely at random. Well, as usual, she took it on the good side, with her undying optimism. Granted, she did not know why Yuka looked to be so embarrassed, but at least, she had found the right thing….

Nana answered with her usual complete sincerity-that was somewhat ill placed right now.

"Well, as you have see, Nyu is...is very cheerful, this morning. She wanted to tickle me. It was like usual, until she started to kiss me on the navel-she began to be more insistent..."

Nana was, legitimaly, very proud of using this somewhat complicated word. She had wanted, first hand, to say something more basic like _gentle_, but she was aware that without more adjectives, those terms displayed a truth, but were not very evocative. Unfortunately, Nana had trouble with the finer points of vocabulary. For her _insistent _merely meant _willing to continue, enthousiast. _She was not even aware that Yuka could see it very differently...

Yuka was listening to Nana, trying to keep a neutral face. She asked this question in a very rhetorical sense, without thinking about it...by sheer reflex. She did not actually wanted an answer, or the details-the position in which she had found Nyu and Nana was clear enough.

"Okay...okay...I think I can figure what happened, Nana, thank you, it's enough..."

"I don't think so-you see, she was tired, and her wounds make it hard for her to stand. So both of us (Nana was saying this merely in the sense that neither her or Nyu had voiced much opposition) ended near the bed...So she started pushing me, to make me collapse, all this while continuing to kiss me, everywhere she could but her lips on, either covered or exposed...on my forehead, on my cheeks, my neck, my arms, my breasts, my womb, my navel, my...(Nana chuckled at the thought, letting her voice trailing off...Actually, her enumeration was over, but with her formulation, Yuka could think that it was not. And according to the "top to bottom" logic of Nana, it was not bound to improve Yuka's mood...)

Yuka had always a tendency to be jammed into a passive role while in conversation-even with Nana. She did not manage to "regain the initiative"-Nana continued to tell her little story...

"So, we both ended on the bed (Nana expression was very significative. She had used _on _the bed, not _in _the bed, meaning that this word should be taken in the straitghtfoward sense...but this point completly escaped to Yuka...) She was visibly somewhat annoyed at the nightshirt-she was finding that kissing me over fabric was not the same thing as doing directly on the skin. It's sure that like that, I'm not like when we are taking a bath together...

This point was _highly _dubious, since the night-shirt was a little short for Nana-it already did not left much to the imagination in normal time. Not mentioning that right now, it was sticking quite closely to Nana's skin, because of sweat. And since this was a white and very thin fabric….In fact, right now, Nana's clothing was more a kind of tease than a protection…

Yuka herself was somewhat uncomfortable upon seeing the younger Diclonius like that. Kouta, too. But, in his case, there was something more than uncomfortable. The couple of times he had seen Nana like this at the breakfast, he had experienced sharp pain…A lot of pain, in fact. Yuka was really quick with slapping-Kouta had once said that if slapping was an Olympic competition, Yuka would markedly improve the performance of the Japanese team. Yuka had visibly liked the suggestion, since she had immediately started to train for the potential competition of "double slap of the jerk with stupid ideas" (her own words…)

"It's then", concluded Nana", that this happened. She was tickling me so much that…that I lost control, and….and, well, you guess what happened after…(Nana had not looked very concerned while saying the precedents things…but she was turning uneasy right now. Yuka thought that if she could say all this without flinching, it definitely took a _lot _to make her react this way now. And Nana clearly saw her reaction…) Did I said something wrong, Yuka ? "

"Your face is all red", she continued. "Did…did I angered you more with this ?"

"…I'm not _angered _after you, Nana, at all. It's just…I will explain later, when I will think about it a little…(She smiled a little) I really see the picture, don't continue, please…"

Nana did not understand why Yuka looked to be so upset-after all, Nana had not broke, or even damaged anything, despite her clumsiness. She did not excepted that Yuka would make such a big deal about her spilling by accident a water basin that had been put next to Nyu's bed...The basin itself had nothing: it was just that the water had gone on her nightshirt-thus Nana comment that she had ended "all wet"...Nana, personally, did not mind at all-but, after all, she had trouble with all concept related to clothes, and she knew it...Maybe the nightshirt (she was not even aware that the water was making the nightshirt almost translucent. If she had knew it, she would have barely cared-up to one month ago, she had never wore clothes...) which was a gift from Yuka, would be damaged from all of this ? Or maybe Yuka was saddened to see Nana treating this way her gifts. Still, even for Nana, it was somewhat obvious that Yuka was not overly angered about the state of this piece of clothes. Nana and Nyu were better for ruining the clothes they received than children in low age (both from misadventures that were more funny than anything else...and from things that were hardly funny : Nana's being attacked by Mariko, Lucy's being fired up by squads of grunts-thoses things had a marked tendancy to shred what they were wearing...) and Yuka had never took it badly. For instance, Yuka had only kind words when Nana had completely burned one of her skirts while trying to help with the cooking (she had been too close of the stove)...So, why make such a fuss about this issue right now ? Maybe Nana had used a bad word somewhere.

Anyway, this was really, really an accident-it was not Nana's fault if Nyu had made her fall down. It was not Nyu's fault too-this thought made Nana suddenly feel sorry for Nyu. What if Yuka blamed her for this thing ? Nana had...enjoyed...it too. A lot.

"You know", Nana tried to say shortly after, "Nyu also ended like this...

Oops. Apparently, this was not helping the matter. Yuka turned even redder…After some fumbled words from her, Nana left Yuka's room, under strict orders to at least dress up….

When Nana, after having changed herself, came in the hallway, she met Mayu, who looked a little pale because of the two nights ago ordeal, but otherwise quite fine…

"I just saw Yuka….She does seem to be in her good mood today. You know why ?"

"Oh, I don't know-it's probably about an expression that I don't undestand correctly...Hey, Mayu, by the way, do you know if speaking about a water basin is an indecent thing ?"

Mayu was used to see Nana's conversation jump from chicken to donkey, but _this time_, it beat everything she knew. Water basin + indecent ? There was a piece she was missing….

"…I guess I will understand later. Kouta and Nyu are talking outside (well, doing the thing closest to talking they could do. Kouta saying some nice phrase, and Nyu doing her best to understand them) : they will not come in for breakfast, I think. You are hungry ? "

Concerning Nana, this was a rhetorical question. When Mayu said that she would fix something for the two of them and Yuka as soon as possible, her moral climbed yet higher…

Cheerful, she was following Mayu toward the kitchen, chatting about how she was going to help her (and Mayu trying to discourage her to "help"….She was doing this mainly for Nana, as neither her or Yuka would be able to eat something for a while, thanks to Nyu's wounds…)

The chatting suddenly stopped. Nana had just had a kind of…flash. Short and shocking.

Mayu saw her friend, nervously and instinctively touch her right arm, to check if it was still here (which was of course not the case, and Nana knew it…Why she was doing this ?)

"It's a…kind of dream I made, you see. I guess it's my memories that are returning to the surface (the way Nana was holding her arm clearly indicated what this dream was about)

"But, Nana, you were wide awake…This…this cannot be just a dream ! "

"…Yeah, I thought to that too…", added slowly Nana, who was finding it more and more disturbing. Especially because of the _voice _she had heard in the "dream". _Please kill me…._

**Kamakura, in another place, same time...**

-I will ask you one more time, before losing patience. Where is your daughter ?

Bandho was not patient, but he was not above using an age-old method : interrogating someone without outright violence, but without pause too. Bandho had arrived with other individuals around nine o'oclock the last night. And, basically, had kept asking the same question since that time, with very limited variations. The couple in face of him was exhausted, their eyes red with fatigue. He had never been known for his mercy, but he did not had pity concerning those two-he had seen people like them over the years...

Bandho had been found, still alive, by the clean-up team sent by Kakuzawa to Kamakura after the confrontation with Lucy. This time, he was not exactly in position to negotiate or to refuse anything. His implants had been reconstructed...but this time, the sterilization procedure had been conducted _before _the operation. (Logically, it had not did much to improve the various behaviour "issues" of Bandho) The Director did not looked to care very much about Bandho's "desertion"-he needed qualified personnel badly, and the hatred that Bandho had for Nana and Lucy made him quite controlable (for the time being. As soon as Lucy was back under control, it was probable that there would be, one more time, an unfortunate accident)

Bandho had never been a decent cop. Too violent for the job (which was saying _a lot..._). Bandho was maybe not made for law inforcement. It did not mean that he had not believed at one time that he had to protect the public... He had, for instance, a particular dislike for indiviuals with the same profile that the man in front of him, who kept saying that his step-daughter, Mayu, had just run away. And this was not only because Bandho could beat them with impunity...This kind of crime repulsed him-the fact that he owe his life to Mayu was not helping. He was feeling a little guilty about this. It was because of his indications about Mayu, who was living with a least one Diclonius, that they had found this charming couple : the mother and step-father of Mayu. Bandho really, really hoped that this guy was going to try something "smart" (or rather stupid), that could allow him to shoot or kill this guy...

A man that was in the team received a call from his cell-phone...Very urgent.

"Bandho. The Director says to forget about public relations. Make him talk..."

There was a limit to what the Director could ask from the Kamakura police forces. They could accept to look blind to the taking of test subjects, to some accidents...but the events of the last month were really too much. They had asked to Kakuzawa to take some precautions, to prevent the "cover" to completly blow up. Accordingly, Bandho's orders had been initally to try to not use too much violence. Bandho was rather pleased by this turn of events.

Not listening to the protests of the woman, Bandho picked up her husband, to have a "talk" with him in the kitchen. Mayu's stepfather pleaded to be told what they would do to him.

"What have you done on your step-daughter, to make her run away ?" he asked.

The man nervously replied, one more time, that he had done to her nothing...

"Well, you have nothing to fear. _Nothing _will happen to you too ! "

Of course, the "nothing" that Bandho meant was in the line of "nothing happened to the prisonner ; he made an heart attack" or "we done nothing, the prisonner fell down in the stairs of our one level detention facility". Anyway, when the man saw that Bandho was not bluffing, he talked. He said everything. Including admitting what he done to Mayu. Which explained why Bandho, just to be sure, "interrogated" him nonetheless, very energically...

A few minutes later, Bandho came out of the room, with the required information...that his wife had basically given into adoption his daughter to someone she barely knew (saying this was suspicious was an understatement) She did not even had kept his adress. But there had been an administrative procedure for this. The name, adress of this guy was somewhere...the only problem was that this was in Tokyo, where Kakuzawa power was not as strong as here. It would take some days to find the information. But certainly less than a week..


	16. Chapter Fifteen : New Life

**Somewhere near Kamakura...**

Tatso had planned to return to Kamakura as soon as possible, to proceed to the analyze of data, and the interrogation of the prisonners they had made. It was only at this time that they would be able to figure out, even in a very partial manner, what was happening on this island.

It was very puzzling honestly. The presence of tests subjets was shocking of course, but hardly surprising. But those weapons…the security measures…the procedures that the two girls were about to have to endure…Tatso would shiver, for years, about thinking to what could be the fate of this poor girl. "Number 28"...What they had planned to her ? What to hope for her ? That she was dead already, in a relatively easy manner ? That she was still alive, under terrible tortures, under vivisection ? A previsible (and sickening) reaction of the guards would be to treat her even more harshly, for punish her for the evasion of the other…

While returning from the raid, Tatso and Xu had seriously considered the possibility of making a second strike...of denouncing the situation in the medias. And it was not their orders that had made them renounce to this, but an analysis of the situation. The most obvious reaction from the island personnel to a press campaign would be to be sure that there was no traces of their previous actions. Which meant a very obvious fate for the test subjects (logic commanded, by the way, that if there was a "Number 4" and a "Number 28", there was bound to have other guinea pigs…numerous other ones) As the other assault, it was completely unthinkable with their very modest means-even the most brain-dead enemy would have increased security now. Being cold and rationnal was sometimes harder than being impulsive...Especially when you remained genuinely idealist. There was no way that Tatso and Xu could have saved 28, and their was probably no way to save her too. Well, at least they had the moral consolation of having done a thing that was certainly as right as it could…

The liberation of Number Four (or rather Kate, as Tatso kept calling her) It was when she was looking at Kate that Tatso felt the least at ease...She was slowly getting used to the horns-they was maybe a normal explanation for it, after all (and they were almost invisible right now, with the makeshif bandana Tatso had made her) but a lot less to the expression she had. Well, at least, for some reason, Kate looked to "get along" better with Tatso than with Xu (big word for saying that Kate was looking at Tatso with less murderous intent that at Xu...It was better than nothing. Tatso was sure that it was because she had freed her. It was not the case)

The plan of Tatso and Xu had been to land with the Zodiac, to sabotage it to make it sink slowly, than pusch it back to sea, than proceed by feet to the nearest town, than to Kamakura to rejoin the others. They could hardly do that, however, while having in tow an girl that was almost completly naked. Tatso and Xu had considered giving her some of their own clothes, but this would have lead to problem for themselves...Minor problem, but hard to slve.

Tatso and Kate, accordingly, were waiting for Xu's return in a isolated inlet, the first trying to make the best of her leisure time...while the second, now wearing a vest (it was covering her a little, but not much) remained sitting on a rock, not moving, her feets in a puddle of sea water...Tatso was returning from a little swimming session (there was no one short than her or Kate here...better exploit the situation !) and was currently putting her clothes back...

"You don't know how to swim, hey ? I could show you...(Tatso made some gestures that would have been almost comical in other time. Of course, this did not made Kate's lips twitch...) C'mon, you must be burning...take a little dip, the water is a perfect temperature...

Tatso had tried to speak this way, in French, with the Diclonius, for more than two hours. She did not excepted an answer. She just thought that this could not harm the poor girl, to be treated like an Human, to be respected, It had apparently no effect, but she continued...

Everything they had...liberated...from their raid had been took by Xu, as well as most of their gear. For not bore herself to the death, Tatso had kept, however, a laptop computer...Xu had kindly gave her some lessons in hacking-it was the time to put them into use !

As she was working a little on her laptop, starting some decryption programs to try to gain access to the "liberated" data, she noticed that Kate was moving slightly her arms.

In fact, the Diclonius had realized that Tatso's footsteps had left marks in the sand, and she was finding this very interesting…her fingers were currently playing in the sand…

"Hmm, what are you doing…(a long pause. And then, she realized) Oh ! You're drawing...''

With marked interest, but without saying anything, Tatso moved to see, over Kate's shoulder, the figures the girl was drawing on the sand. Drawings like this were supposed to be very expressive. She knew that this was sometimes used as a test to evaluate children that had been under very harsh treatment. Of course, she was not a psychologist-she would just note on the laptop each sign, and later ask a specialist about it, or check for it in books or websites...Tatso quickly searched for a pen and a piece of paper, to keep the traces of those drawings.

When she watched closely at the signs, she immediatly decided to ditch the part about the specialists. She was deeply shocked. Sand was not a very good material for art, and even someone with better artistic skills than Kate would have obtained very dreadful results…but the girl had managed to obtain very, very visual results in a surprisingly short time (Tatso did thought that Kate had worked fast, but of course never realized that she did not had just her two hands to make them…) It was the meaning of those things that was hard to stomach….

There was several groups of drawings, that Kate had made more or less in order…The one closest to her, the first one, looked like a very usual "family" depiction-there was an little character, probably Kate (there was two triangles around her head, which helped to the identification...) with another small character larger than her (a sibling ?) and then two large figures (almost certainly the parents) All this was very, very crude-limbs were figured by mere lines. This furiously recalled to Tatso the multiple drawings that she had received from her niece, the last time she had visited her sister in Akko…There was just little differences : for instance, her niece was four years old, not fourteen. (that said, her adorable niece most traumatic experience in her whole life had been to fall down in the stairs one time. And even if Tatso had took the event very badly-she recalled, with a mix of fun and embarrassement, that she had almost made death threats to some personnel in the hospital…and her sister was saying things in the same line-it was hardly similar to what Kate had probably endured…)

But this was not really mattering. What was really awful was that her niece was making nice drawings, showing herself smiling with Tatso and her mother. While Kate...there was three large "X" on the other characters (really obvious meaning), and apparently, they had not died in a very quiet ways, judging by the drawings (Tatso tried to persuade herself by saying that this was probably how Kate _recalled _how they had died…) And they were certainly not smiling. Meanwhile, the little drawing for Kate was maybe the most horrible: she did not had even _eyes _or _mouth, _and Tatso was quite sure that this was not an artistic folly or depiction…

And this was only the first drawing...the next were apparently an attempt by Kate to depict what had been her life had the facility. And what was showed there was basically unspeakable, while depicted in a crude, childish way...(Kate's ways of expressing it was childish. The way she dealt with it was much more mature…) For instance, an "Kate" (once again, identified by the triangles on the head) spear-eagled, with spikes impaled in her hands and feet...(An experience she had to endure some years ago-something to check the regeneration of Diclonius-she was around seven-eight years old at this time, which was ch. The Direction used a "technique" of the time of Unit 731-it was to check what kind of wounds took the longer time to heal...The spikes were different to stimulate different conditions-the one shredding her left hand was red-hot, the one in her right hand freezing...Kakuzawa thought that this was a good way to have reliable results, since her left hand was, after all, very similar to her right one. She had remained in this set-up, in excruciating pain, for a whole month. It had not drove her genuinely mad, but it's had been quite close too) Tatso looked at half-dozen of similar scenes drawn in the sand, but given up her analysis attempts…

Kate was not doing this for impress the Russian. She had done this for herself-she had found that this was a way like another to live with this. It was certainly better than recall it within her mind. And Kate…liked to _see _things (even that) The absolute darkness had been the most abominable things they had done to her, at the facility...Kate noticed that the Human apparently disliked the images she had made...She briefly wondered why ; Humans at the facility were always doing things like that. Another time, a little show of hypocrisy...

Her attention took away from the sand, Kate continued to look at her surroundings...Right now, she was looking at the vest Tatso had handed her. The fabric was thin, it was quite old, and there was numerous stitches and badges on it. Including a red star, complete with the hammer and sickle. And the number _241.._(Tatso had not been insane enough to put it while performing the operation-this would have been like screamin I'M RUSSIAN ! But this was not random or dubious Soviet memorablia...that was a very personnal memorablia. Family. A memento, a good charm, exactly. After all, her grand-mother had managed to survive during all the War with this uniform vest without dying one time ! This peculiar reasonement, Tatso admitted it, was rather sophistic. It was her grand-mother that had shot down a Me-262 with a pistol, not the vest...Tatso had carried it as a kind of good charm in the Zodiac, and if she had handed it to Kate, it was because it was the only spare piece of clothing she had available)

Seeing the interest of Kate, Tatso tried to explain her about the War, in simple terms-a thing that was not obvious. Despite Tatso's pedagogical efforts, Kate was not listening...her attention was focused on the only thing she recognized, the three numbers 2...4...1...

If there was a thing that Kate understood of the Human world, it was the concept of numbers...she had made the association between what she was called, and the sign there was over the walls of her cell. Did this Human had a number too, or something like that ?

"There was a joke about this...It not _Two Hundred Fourty One.._It's _Two For One, _because of a friend she made during the War...and also (Tatso continued with explanations for a while, that Kate tried to listen a little. She did not undestood much of it, just that the Human was trying was probably trying to trick her into trusting her...Kate would not fall from it)

Anyway, her attention was drawn soon enough away from Tatso little chit-chat...

Tatso noted clearly that Kate's eyes...changed...in a way, and she got very tense. Tatso had a very bad feeling about this. In fact, she was not really surprised when, taking binoculars, she noticed that a Japanese destroyer, from the Self-Defence forces, barely visible due to the distance, was in the area. (Fortunately, _they _were hardly visible too. Some soldiers on the ship had see human shapes, but that was all…Tatso face had been seen quite clearly by many people at the faciliy. It they had her signalement, she was as good as doomed. What she did not knew is that no one had thought about that-all attention was aimed toward Kate...)

The ship was not moving, but this was not what was worrying her the most. What was worrying her was the smaller ship the destroyer had launched, who was heading straight for here. After a lot, lot, lot of inner curses, Tatso managed to calm down. It was not the first time that she was in the same situation….she had smooth-talked herself of much more delicate things. The problem was that, in those previous situations, she was not with a girl whose mere appearance would raise suspicion, who could not say a single world, and who was probably right now actively tracked down by nasty individuals. Well, no challenge,not pleasure !

In fact, her options were limited to three things. Plan one was to run away, which was possible thanks to the fact that the men from the destroyer would not be here until several minutes. There was just a minor problem : this would mark them instantly as suspect, and Tatso and Kate would be actively tracked down within minutes (the airbases around Yokosuka were crawling with helicopters, for one thing. And they were in the Greater Tokyo area, one of the most heavily settled area in the world-it was unlikely that they could found an hideout) Moreover, Kate would probably be unable to run-even if she had currently almost no trouble to walk, she had been freed for years of immobility only hours ago...

Plan two, the dumb one, was to wait those guys with firepower, kill them and escape. In addition to the problems of the first plan (since, unless Tatso wanted to make one on one the whole destroyer, she would have to flee), this one added new stuff, like the fact that Tatso was currently almost without weapons (it was a safe bet to assume that tourists in Japan were _not _carrying sub-machine guns...) : she had ditched them in the sea long ago, as well as the Kevlar vest. There was also the fact that killing Self-Defense Forces personnel would, after this thing, see her as an ennemy...which was a thing to avoid at any cost (after all, right now, neither her or Xu had done things against Japanese officials or soldiers ! They were after "irregulars", even if there was major hints of collusion between Kakuzawa and regular armed forces in the area...It was safer to continue this way, and avoid making too much foes...) Tatso also thought that she would have to protect Kate of the attack. While this was hardly the truth (Kate being quite able to defend herself...and attack), but she was unaware of it...

The third plan was to...stay low, and play something like the "lost tourists". Sure, Kate was going to look very suspicious, but a lot less that if her and Tatso started running away.

Tatso was very thankful that Kate, despite her tension (she wondered for a second how the girl coul have noticed the ship...and decided to consider it later) remained calm. The way the events were turning was not really worrying Kate. More exactly, it was not _surprising _her. As Tatso was saying to her to stay calm, that they would end up fine, she asked her something

Kate could not talk, but she made a very clear gesture. While looking at Tatso, Kate pointed the place in the sand where Tatso had buried one handgun-in case of real, real trouble. A piece of cable was tied to it, the cable itself connected to a small ring, that was reaching the surface, almost invisible. Tatso had merely to yank the cable to retrieve her weapon (well, if she was given enough time…but she could hardly conceal it on her, with her…relaxed…clothing) And then, which broke Tatso hearth, she made a very clear gesture. Pulling the trigger.

It was almost as clear as she had said it out loud, And it was frankly quite distressing.

_Could you just kill me ? I don't want to go back there. This would be a nicer thing to do to me that all the completely useless stuff you have told me since we had arrived here…._

(This was of course not what Tatso perceived exactly, but this was exactly what Kate thought, and still, Tatso managed to understood pretty much the gits of it, with Kate's expression…)

Understanding that the Human would not do it, Kate had briefly a flash of anger...but just that (she needed that Human, after all, to survive...) She did not repeated her request. She knew it would be useless. Kate had just had thought that it costed nothing to ask...

Kate was _hardly _defenceless, and, unlike Nana, she was bound to hesitate for a long time before unleashing her Vectors on opponents. She was just rational. No matter how many guards she had killed at the facility, they had always managed to overpower her. It was a safe bet that they would be able to do it this time too. Kakuzawa wanted her for his final experience-she did not wanted to live tat. If the Human just killed her, like that, this would probably a better thing. Kate was not sure, at all, that she would be able to control herself to allow to be shot-she had tried to do it a couple of time at the facility, but the survival instinct of the Diclonius part of her was just too strong-she could not commit suicide, directly or not..

Tatso tried to say some half-hearted sentences to Kate-what could be said in such circumstances ? After those attempts to boost Kate's morale, Tatso realized that this was useless...for now. This increased her resolve, however, to show to this girl that her new life was going to be very, very different than the one she had at the facility-to never see her again asking to be killed, because life was unbearable for her...It was a very motivated Tatso that greeted the three Japanese from the Self-Defense Forces that landed shortly after...

Fortunately, the sailors looked quite…civil. One of them even had waved at the attention of Tatso as his embarkation was entering the little bay, and none of them had weapons in hands.

"Sorry, miss", said one of them..."You are in a restricted zone...May I see some ID ?"

It was because they had realized, long ago, that two females waiting patiently for their arrival were very unlikely to be the target…They had not been told what to search exactly, short of a very heavily armed commando. (which, first-hand, was really not the situation here…)

Those soldiers from the Self-Defense Forces were _not _part of the conspiracy. They just had orders from their superiors to assist some guys...they had heard rumors about the island, but that was all. As the son of Kakuzawa, who was on the destroyerm, was not trusting them (or their superiors) to remain quiet about this, he had not mentioned Number Four, or even her description to them. If she was indeed hiding here, they would know about it soon enough…

Tatso moved to meet the newcomers, while giving, at low voice, a final advice to Kate...

"Kate. Do not move. Say nothing. Just stay like that. If things turn bad...well, run..."

The Diclonius did not reacted. She was not sure of what the Human was trying to do, but this would fail. Because Kakuzawa knew she was here...Since there was another Diclonius nearby, probably on the ship-this was how Kate had knew they were coming to get her...

Meanwhile, an jovial Tatso was answering to the questions of the three sailors, who were obviously very relieved to not being about to be assaulted by "radical terrorists" (there was moderate terrorists ? Kakuzawa was getting mixed in all his stories, to say the least...)

Tatso had a very large collection of identity papers. She joked sometimes about the fact that her mother must had been rather confused about her birth place : according to her various Ids pieces, she was born in Toulouse, Florence, Tel-Aviv, Valence, Dublin, Volgograd (her actual birth-place, by the way), Montreal, in the suburbs of Boston, in New-Auckland, in Praha, in Budapest, in Belgrade, and quite a score of places in Africa and Asia (those ones, for obvious reasons, where a little less credible, but still...) The amazing thing was that many of those papers where not outright fake Ids-several of them were _genuine _documents, obtained as a reward for some operations…or from what could be labelled as pure and simple blackmail.

"So," said one of them after a short look at the passport she handed him, "you are miss..._Tatiana Sovorov_, from France..."(For this fake ID, one of her favored one, she could use her actual name...it was not very suspicious. There had been a sizable Russian community in France for a long time, and Tatiana was right now a pretty international name. She had also picked it because of Kate ; since the only language Kate was understanding a little was French, it was better to say she was French too) And who is the young lady ?"

"She is my cousin. She does not speak Japanese very well. We are just in vacation here..."

"Oh...I really hope you are enjoying it ! Sagami bay is truly a natural marvel, and...(the men would have continued like this for a while, but one of the others coughed, and he realized that it was better to stick to business) Could I see her Ids pieces too, if possible ? "

"As you see, hmmm...there is a little trouble with her ! Most of her stuff-her clothes, her backpack, including her identity papers-was swept away by a wave...She is not very presentable right now-I gave her something to cover her a little,but...We will contact our embassy ASAP to get her new IDs...we were waiting that a friend came back with clothing."

This explanation was of course not perfect, but, honestly, it was a safe bet that an spy would have came out with something better ! And Tatso had said it in a very natural voice...It had also another advantage. By saying bluntly that Kate was almost naked, it's assured that they would not see her closely (and when looking at her, their attention would not be drawn toward the little bulges under the bandana...) Thankfully, Kate understood the situation (or rather, remained passive), and stayed in the same position, her knees against her chest, covering herself pretty well, looking reasonably like an Human girl in a very, very ackward situation.

"You see", continued Tatso, we found this nice place, but she had forgot to bring her swimsuit...so, ahem, she kinda got in the water...like that...putting her clothes on a rock...and, well, you see what happened. This is very humiliating-could you please not report it ?"

With this sentence, Tatso had reinforced the "tourist" impression-she feigned to be unable to make difference between police and Self-Defense Forces. The men made a very mild scold at the attention of Tatso concerning decency status...This was going rather well.

Tatso prayed that those Japanese soldiers were as good for reading familial ressemblances for non-Japanese that non-Japanese were good for doing it concerning Japanese...It was at that time that one of the men from the Self-Defence Forces saw the "drawings" Kate had made in the sand. They made his eyes go wild, but he merely thought that kids, those days, had really strange tastes….(he never thought that they were depicting an harsh reality…)

As it was normal that a girl in the position of Kate was not speaking much, they did not find her behaviour suspicious...out of respect for this delicate situation, they did not even came close to her. And, after telling Tatso that, due to the situation, she could remain here (of course, it was not really an off-limit area...it was just a prextext for an inspection) until they had managed to make Kate looks a little more decent, they left, for returning to the destroyer.

Tatso led out a sigh of relief. Another close one...She would however feel better once Kate and her would be in security, back in the Intelligence cell in Kamakura...

Kate, for her part, was genuinely relieved that this had ended rather well. The longer she was free, the better she could recover...The harsher would be her vengeance, too. And maybe she would be able to pierce the puzzle concerning this Human-it was intriguing her...

"They are reporting in", said a naval officer to the son of Kakuzawa, who was standing next to the bridge of the destroyer. "It was a couple of tourists in a delicate situation apparently..."

The commander of the ship was not complaining. It was making an exercise like another for the troops : since leaving Yokosuka at dawn, they had sent similar expeditions in every little bay of the area, to check for remains of the commando, or things like that. Nothing had been found, nothing had happened, even in this raid, that apparently had made Kakuzawa nervous.

In fact, the three men sent in patrols were...guinea pigs. The son of Kakuzawa had lost enough men last night to not waste them on useless things like a recon operation (of course, the term wasted does not mean he was really caring about the lives of the personnel. It was just that if he lost trained guards on such a situation, he would lack people to apprehend Four later on...If those men had not come back, they would have been useful anyway)

This was one of the last area to check. Maybe the commando had indeed died in the helicopter crash, but Kakuzawa was suspicious about this. He would continue to search-information concerning the "incident" of last night had to be prevented to be leaked out to his father...

"Apparently, Four is not here too..." he said at the attention of one of his guards...

"But _it _mentioned that there was a Diclonius down there", tried one scientist.

"I suppose that this wretched (curses, various unspeakable words) is completely useless…(Grin on Kakuzawa's face) But it's going to pay for make us lose valuable time…"

Pushing Self-Defence forces personnel away, Kakuzawa moved for a room that had been affected to him. Space was very narrow on a destroyer…and yet, people tried to give to this place a berth as wide as possible. Some crewmen of the destroyer saw Kakuzawa's own guards open for him the door, then close it as fast as possible, to prevent anyone from seeing what was within the room (useless. Many crewmen had seen the coffin-like object) But they could hardly prevent the sound from going out…they could just pretend to ignore it.

Kakuzawa was using everything he had to be sure that Four had not escaped (and if possible capture her alive to make her pay, very harshly, for the troubles she was putting him in) Including another pet project of his father, that was still not completely ready, but usable…

The crewman heard a very young child trying weakly to protest, saying that she was doing what she could, and…her voice was cut, by screams of pain, badly muffled by the door…

Most of the officers and crew members tried to cover it (by talking, by turning the volume of the music they were listening higher), but to no avail….This guy was frankly disgusting. And yet, short of thinking that, they did not do much. Orders were orders….


	17. Chapter Sixteen : Sui Hui Tzan

**Harbin, July 1939….**

_Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison, Kyrie Eleison…_

The latin chant, reverberated by the stone walls, had certainly a soothing effect. Likewise, the music herself was certainly very…moving. To say nothing about the words themselves…No wonder that the _ELEISON _was considered by many as a masterpiece of religious chant…

Most of the listeners (the small catholic church was half-empty right now) were either praying or listening to the chant. And, which happens with all religions, there was also some people that were dozing right now…The assistance was quite varied ; it was made of both members of the various Europeans communities of Harbin (French, Poles, for instance) and native Chinese people : there was sizable Chinese Christians communities in Harbin and other major centers in China. That said, two of the said Chinese parishioners, sat in a relatively isolated place, were having rather a polite curiosity than real devotion right now….

The younger man, who had been trying to figure out what was going on, gave up,...

"Hey, in your opinion, what the lyrics are saying exactly ? It's puzzling me "

"Dunno. I don't speak Latin or Greek. It's something about the Mercy of the Lord, I think...(A long pause...) What I did wonder is he really believe what he is saying..."

The _he _was the priest. The older Chinese was extremely sceptical toward such individuals….To prove his point, the priest, after the chant was over, launched himself in a tirade about the danger that Bolshevism posed to the world security. Most people were able to make a difference between religion and politics, and were acutely aware that right now, the main danger was rather at the opposite of the political spectrum….The tirade then continued into a praise of the regimes that were protecting civilization. This was too much for many of the parishioners, who began packing their things to leave. The ones that remained were no longer listening too much, as the priest was beginning to get really, really frantic…

To be honest, with the current…situation….in Harbin, such tirades were hard to avoid, and they were by no means limited to the Catholic Church…But it was hardly the time to have such thoughts. Both Chinese heard noise behind them…but they did not bothered to turn their heads. They were not very surprised when the newcomers started to speak to them-this was what had been planned, after all…The tone was not very friendly, to say the least…

"I never thought you would dare to come here…" (What a nice way to greet someone)

Well, at least, they were not pointing guns toward them right now. This could turn out relatively well-meaning, they would maybe listen _before _starting to shoot….

"Why not", replied in a very calm way the older Chinese, "it's a perfect meeting place…"

After all, the _last _place where someone could except to find Chinese Communists partisans was within a church, especially one with a priest with very radical opinions, during Mass. According to propaganda, Communists were a bunch of brigands at the orders of Moscow, holding knives within their teeth, whose main hobby was destroying churches and/or violently plotting for global revolution/domination. (That said, the "brigand" part was not completly false…hey, you had to get your supplies and gear somewhere. The part about the global revolution was not false too. But the current time, this was not exactly the priority: saving China was. Of course, it did not prevented to think a little about the future of the country)

That said, the church was not a monolithic organization. They had sympathizers, even here...A British Jesuit father, great admirer of Chinese civilization (and also of current day Chinese), had kindly pointed to them the church of his colleague, pointing that he would be an interesting turn of events if his colleague was arrested for helping the Chinese underground.

The current reunion was not, of course, for social matters….In desperation, the older Chinese, who had a command rank of a sizable partisan group, had tried one more time to make contact with emissaries from the KMT underground, despite the mutual mistrust (and outright hatred) that Nationalists and Communists had for each other, for a common operation….

It involved dealing with Kakuzawa and Ishi, as well as their infernal Unit 731...Of all the potential objectives that the underground could attack, this was one of the least disputed...

And it was only because of this goal that the leaders of the KMT in the area had accepted to come talking. After a lot of low-voice verbal abuse, they accepted to come out with the two Communists envoys, for the discussion proper. The four men left the church soon after….Once outside, they crossed the patrol of several soldiers. Japanese troopers, from the Imperial Army. The two first Chinese, used to clandestinity, did not do anything in peculiar…they continued walking. While the two delegates from the KMT got evidently quite nervous, to the point that if a Japanese soldier would have turned his head slightly, he would have gotten extremely suspicious. This, among others things, indicated rather clearly that the KMT either did not have much experience with guerrilla, or had not sent his brightest members to this encounter. It was probably a mix of the two things. With the tension resulting of this close encounter, the quatuor did not noticed that someone was following them...

The Japanese had been in Mandchuria for a good time, and their powerful Kwantung army (the force in charge of occupying the area) was very well deployed. Guerillas groups, determined or not, could not do much against the Kwantung, except the traditionnal raids and sabotage that were at the very best an annoyance...But right now, their effectives were concentrated more than before at the frontier, because of tensions with Soviet Union...It was because the world political situation was, right now, prone to very swift changes...

In Europe, the storm was about to be unleashed. The Third Reich had gone too far with the annexation of the whole Czekoslovakia-the Allies would make a stand for it's next victim : Poland. France and Great Britain were conducting last-hope negotiations with Soviet Union, for the upcoming war with the Reich, which was making a fraction of their public opinion, especially in France, scream about the Bolshevist threat ("strangely" many of the newspapers expressing such consideration, along with sickening editorials, where on the Nazi payroll)The total lack of trust between the Soviet and the Allies was making the said negotiations stall, as the menaces of war grew closer. (On this subject, the Allies were in a for a nasty surprise in some month)s But for China, the War had started years ago, when Imperial Japan had attacked Shangai, the prelude of an full-scale invasion-that had currently somewhat bogged down, much more because of terrain than actual resistance by the Nationalists of the Kuando-Min-Tang, Chiang Kai Chek's party. When the conflict would began in Europe, it's merely meant that the war would now be worldwide... Those news were seen with a mix of despair and hope in China. Once the war would have started, it was likely that the Allies would began to really help them...and it was very likely too that the Allies would not be able to resist to contain the Nazis in Europe and fight in Asia against the Japanese. (It was extremely likely too that the priority of the Allies would be in Europe, too) The only real "card" of the Allies against the Axis was their overwhelming industrial superiority. In China, where war conducted in an almost medieval manner, it was hard to appreciate at its full valour, but this was a master card. Especially while taking in consideration Soviet Union and United States (isolationism or not, the later would eventually join the war...and indiscutably on the side of the Allies) ; numerous people in the Japanese High Command were well aware that this was _suicide _to go to war against foes whose industrial output was incredibly superior to the one of Japan. The United States alone had a stagerring industrial potential _twenty times _larger than the one of Japan. And Soviet Union was probably not to be tackled with lightly...

This is why there was right now, in Tokyo, many talks about what do to now. China could not be completly conquered with Japan ressources, this was obvious. Secure ressources by striking South, toward Indonesia (which would lead to war with the United States), or strike North, toward Siberia, which, obviously, would result in war with Soviet Union...In both cases, the Japanese forces would be seriously strained by this new theater...

Which is why "unconventionnal" type of warfare had to be considered : Unit 731...

The group finally arrived in a remote area (the good old alley…) determined in advance for the discussion proper. The guys from the KMT started, and it looked bad for cooperation….

"Unless you are ready to accept KMT leadership, there is not much to discuss, Song Jiang…".

"This is not the question", replied the older Chinese, "Song Jian" (an obvious warname) As you might know", a sizable force under our command was ambushed/betrayed days ago nearby…From what we have gathered, the ones that survived preliminary interrogation have been sent by trucks to the old Yamen in Harbin. To Unit 731…The rest is obvious"

Song Jiang remained quite calm while saying this, despite the fact that he had a pretty good idea of _who _had exactly betrayed the unit: Nationalists partisans, who considered Chinese enemies of the KMT as a top priority, sometimes far above the Japanese trooper…(Communists were not above similar behaviour, of course, but at least, they tried, even with numerous afterthoughts, to enforce the unity idea…as long as the war lasted)

"This thing is not of our concern", replied one of the man from the KMT…

"Of course…It would not have been of _your _concern too if _your _men fell had been captured. (Song Jiang raised a hand to prevent the flow of protest) But enough chit-chat…You see, I have an operation plan for assaulting the Yamen and freeing our prisoner. A nice side-effect of this plan would be heavy damage to Unit 731-to installations, personnel and results alike."

Song Jiang exposed them briefly the plan. But, because of the precautions he had too take (hide the number of his effectives…hide the complicities he had managed to gain within the _yamen_) the plan would have been hardly convincing to favourably disposed listeners…And the two emissaries from the KMT were anything but favourable listeners, despite the fact that there was also numerous KMT prisoners that had ended as guinea pigs for 731….

The younger Communist partisan, known as Shin Jin, seeing that things were going nowhere, tried to use the master argument they had for the operation against the Yamen….

"We have reports that Major Ishi himself is in the Yamen, currently…Unfortunately, Kakuzawa is probably still at Ping-Fang-but Ishi could pay for his crimes, at least ! "

"If Ishi or Kakuzawa is at the facility, this means that security will be reinforced…This make the whole operation against last plausible-we will last valuable supplies in it…

(Typical behaviour of KMT…Right now, the priority was to _keep _material, for using it against the Communists after the war-what happened to Chinese meanwhile was irrevelant….)

"Many in the Imperial Army", replied Shin Jin, "find the dealings of Unit 731 horrible. I'm sure that at least some officers will turn a blind eye on the operation, if not more…"

Song Jiang almost sighed when he heard that. He could understand that Shin Jin was saying that-and he was not completely wrong, but this comment looked seemed quite peculiar….

The Nationalists left soon after. It was impossible to secure from them even a vague promise of thinking about an eventual cooperation. This blow was depressing Shin Jin…."

"They are not looking to be very enthusiast about working with us, to say the least..."

"I guess they are even considering selling us to the _Kempatai _right now", said with scorn Song Jiang…"If they don't, it's because they will realize we will denounce them after…Well, we done what we could…The only course, now, is to liberate them with our means…."

The other Chinese gulped. With the recent arrestations, Song Jiang would be able to gather, at best, thirty partisans, most of them very badly armed. This was not going to be enough…

"You really think that we have a chance to save the comrades from the firing squad ?"

A long, long, minute of silence. Song Jiang did not actually think that this was possible. But he did hoped that his men were about to be fired upon (even if the executions were often botched, and things finished with sabers blows….) rather than be experimented upon….

"…No. But, politically, speaking, we _have _to do something. We can't let our men being taken like this, and executed…this is going to be a terrible blow to the Cause. Without support from the KMT guerrillas, our chances of success are almost inexistent, I'm aware of it…"

"Maybe we should try to work up a little more our complicities within the garrison…"

"You know the Imperial Army better than me…They may disliked Kakuzawa and Ishi, but as long as they have the backing of the High Command, they will do nothing against him. If you push your contacts too much, we will end up losing the handful of assets we have there…

It's at this time that they realized that they had been followed after leaving the church.

Somebody, very slowly, was moving toward the alley, taking obvious care to not alarm them….It was an girl, very young (sixteen, maybe), who smiled at them….

The Chinese relaxed when they saw she was neither Japanese or Chinese-the chances that she had overheard something were slim. And her face was somewhat familiar to Shin Jin…

"I think recall her…she hangs around in the area. She is the child of a Russia refugee...White Russian...(Shin Jin looked at her more closely…he hard heard about her, a scandal…)

"Hey, I'm hearing what you are saying, y'know", replied the girl, in Chinese (this surprise to no end the partisans...White Russians never bothered to learn Chinese. Not only the Russians, to be honest. Most Europeans in town kept to themselves, not considering the local population) "This is why I understood quite well what you were saying in the church…."

Ah…so the girl would try to blackmail them. Well, they were prepared for this...

"….and I want to join you ! Especially is this involve doing stuff against the Yamen guys !

_That _was surprising in itself. And there was another puzzling things. She was saying _Russia. _While most White Russians kept saying "The Bolsheviks" in the best cases, and often used comments that were _a lot _more derogative concerning the current regime in Russia.

"You are calling yourselves Shin Jin and Song Jiang, right ? It's so _kawai _! (the girl had also picked some words of Japanese...) I guess you could call me Milady, or Marion de Lorme if you wish to keep things this way ! I also think, continued the Russian girl with a clearly mischevious smile, that you are some sort of former administrator or officer (she pointed Song Jiang)…and that you are an ex-military (she pointed Shin Jin), or something like that ?

Both deductions were exactly on the mark (altought, fortunately, she had not noticed-yet-the killing point concerning "Shin Jin"). To be honest, those deductions were not very hard…

The two partisans looked each other. They really should have picked other warnames-it was not the first time that people made comments like that (but literary references had some advantages)…And there was no way to know if the girl was serious about the mountain hideout idea. What was much more serious was the fact that the girl, had, certainly not as innocently as she looked to be, pointed out that she knew stuff about them.

"I'm Annah, by the way…Annah Sovorov…I can help you…See, you were excepting help from Russia, hey ? (True….but, because of the current situation, the last thing the Soviet Union wanted was war with Japan. For now) But it's not coming...And you need to impress the Nationalists, to gain their support for whatever attack you planned on the Yamen" (this girl was obviously smart, but the fact that she knew about the basic lines of the plan was a very bad sign about the security around the small group…Song Jiang had the unpleasant feeling that the Japanese knew about it. Fortunately, she had not heard the attack plan….)

"Err…miss ," tried Shin Jin. "Thanks for this offer, but…err…we don't need you…."

"Of course, I can. What you really need is the _moral _support. Like an envoy from Moscow..."

Annah bowed while saying this. The idea she had was obvious...and this was clearly insane. Pretend that she was sent from Moscow…to impress the Nationalists about their support.

A rather puzzled Shin Jin managed to turn her off, with a mixture of half-veiled threats and some genuinely well-meaning nadvices about her leaving things that were beyond her to professionals. The girl, clearly disappointed about this refusal, left the place…

This matter would need further dealing, but Shin Jin did not find that idea so unworkable…

"Hey…what do you think of her suggestion…It a little, err, audacious, but...this could work. Those guys have never seen an actual Soviet advisor, after all…A little bluff…"

"They are maybe from the KMT, but I doubt they would be _that _stupid…."

Song Jiang, while saying this, was wondering about the exact motivations of the girl.

Annah, meanwhile, returned to her living place, more than a little dispirited. Well, at least, this time, they had not tried to shot her on the spot…it was a progression over her previous attempts (she had tried once to propose her help to an KMT group, and had been accused of being an envoy of the Communists…What a surprise, the Communist group she had proposed her help too shorty after accused her to be an spy from the KMT sent to infiltrate their organization. Both groups had also thrown in accusations of her being on the payroll of the Japanese, of the Russians….She had managed to talk her way out of both situations, but it had been a very close call) They had also manifested a minimal interest toward her proposition of playing a little comedy…maybe there was some hope on this side. But their comments made her hardly positive for her real chances of joining this group anytime soon.

_I want to do something...what this man his doing, this cannot continue. I seen it with my own eyes…I can't pretend it's never happened. Even if they turn me down, I will kept trying…The good point is that it's going to help me, on the long hand, to be considered as trustable…_

Annah wanted to go in Soviet Union….Unlike most of the Russians in Harbin, she had not the slightest scorn for the Chinese. She had even genuine respect for them, thus the pain she had took to learn the language, to read some of the literature. Her real "home" was in Harbin, not Russia-a country she had never lived in, moreover…Why then, she wanted to go there ?

It was not for improving her life, for sure…Annah was not trusting what foreign newspapers were saying about Russia, but she was (rightly) dubious about the standard of living she would have there. It's could hardly be worse than Harbin, of course, but still…

She was certainly not having this desire thanks to listening to tales about Russia from her parents…In fact, what she heard them sighing about, about the glories of the Tzarist regime, made her feel sick with disgust concerning those times that were judged so well by her father and mother (it was certain that in this attitude, there was more than a little part of rebellion toward her parents...but also genuine reflexion about the politics and society)

This rebellion thing…it was not only against her parents, but the whole Russian community of Harbin, who considered Soviet Union as an abomination (it was their right to think that, and they were probably not completely wrong about this) and that anything that could bring it's downfall would be a nice thing. Including providing military expertise to the Japanese (maps of the areas….knowledge of mountains tracks…intepreters…analysts….) for help them into an invasion of Soviet Union, which would result in the deaths of ten of thousands of Russians. The fate of "peasants" was very secondary to several self-styled "White generals", if this was the price to be paid for returning to power. Such concepts were completely alien to Annah….

Many people of the age of Annah, throughout the world, had been seduced by Nazism, it's appeal to raw strength, to the right to smash the weak, and the sickest thing of all, deep down racists conceptions of Humanity….It was no hard to be a good Nazi : just follow the orders of the Leader, don't think….The genuinely idealist Annah had been rather attracted toward the ideals _officially _promoted by Soviet Union. Annah was well aware that there was a very large gap between noble ideas and the bleaker truth…but it was better than nothing,

Annah was not stupid-she knew that she entered Soviet Union like this, she as in for a lot of trouble, especially with her familial background…This was part of the reason why she wanted to enroll herself in a partisan group-with that, she would prove her reliability to Soviet authorities (Annah could hardly guess at what point Soviet foreign policy was…sinuous, to say the least, and the slightest change of Moscow's foreign policy could turn her even more than before in an enemy of the state. But her basic reasoning was somewhat right….)

With her…sympathies…she was now hardly welcomed in the Russian sector of the city. And she did not cared a lot about it-she had pretty awful memories about her live there. And she really did not wanted to have the slightest contact with her family-she shivered while thinking about it, More exactly, Annah knew that she could not afford to be in contact with her family.

She was (very) strong-willed, but she had her weak points…things on which people could play on. On which people had played on, even if she was self-deceiving herself about it….

It was why it was much better for her to be as far as possible than her previous life…

Annah had fortunately found some housing in the Chinese parts of the city. It was not terrible, but survivable-she did not asked for much more-she hardly had expensive tastes….She was looked very badly by some of the denizens of the sector-Russians had not exactly a good reputation in Harbin, but most who knew her a little more at least agreed on letting her alone.

Still, she had better contacts with some people in the area…mostly with her Chinese roommate, who was helping her with paying the rent (this was an _highly _unusual agreement, even in a multi-cultural city like Harbin, but Annah was beyond that….And anyway, even if she had cared, anything was better than continue living as she had….)

Her roommate was a very down on her luck Chinese girl, that Annah called Anemone, a rough translation of her name. The two were not exactly friends, but they appreciated each other-more exactly, the contribution of the other to the survival of the pair. …

Annah managed to get her part of the rent by various schemes and small trade….the latest one was doing meager writing jobs-if she could hardly wrote Chinese, she understood it almost perfectly, and she knew well several Europeans language. Making small notes or letters was a way like another to scraping a living….She also profited of this to do things according to her political sympathies. She had once slightly reworded a note that a Chinese trader who did not knew a single word of Japanese had addressed to one Imperial commander…a denunciation of "un-Japanese activites" The note was in English, the international language by excellence. In the letter that the commander read, instead of denouncing his neighbour, the guy had denounced…himself ! Annah had innocently changed the address….This was maybe good for her moral, but it was not making in the end much money. Annah had often to resort to more…creative…things, that worked sometimes, but were all quite dangerous….

Anemone, well...Annah had a "no question" policy concerning what she was doing to gain money. It was somewhat obvious, anyway, even if she tried to hide it….

Upon entering the rundown place, Annah realized at once that something was not right-Anemone's nephew, that she was more or less responsible for, was there. Annah liked the kid, and would have not mind about his presence…but he was visibly distressed.

A quick interrogation later, Annah had learned what she needed….Anemone had finally "found something", and she was leaving the place for some days, for her work….

"For work ? Where ? (Annah did not mind about caring for the child for some days, but she was more than midly worried about what her roommate was doing….And, to be honest, she was also concerned about the possibility that Anemone would stop paying…)

The news did not exactly came as a shock for Annah…it was the kind of thing that had to be excepted, while living in this city at this time. The boy handed her a flier, with Chinese characters printed on it…An ad distributed by the Japanese forces in the area….

Annah translated the ad while reading it. Her translation was accurate in the general idea, but not exactly in the words themselves-she added a lot of sarcastical comments.

_Female workers required for various jobs at the garrison-_wow, what a subtle request. The only thing lacking would be "for night duty" or something like that (she was hardly finding this amusing, despite her comments…) _Food will be provided_-what a generous move ! They will be fed..._Decent pay _ (Annah stopped to make comments. She did not knew what was going to be more _indecent, _the pay or the job itself) _Report to _LIEUTENANT KONISHI ?

Annah had heard this name before. Lieutenant Konishi was the "dirty jobs" man of Major Kakuzawa…And she had met before both Konishi and Kakuzawa. An experience she was not eager to repeat, unless there was a chance that Konishi and Kakuzawa ended dead…

"Don't look so down", she said at the intention of the Chinese boy to cheer him up…I'm sure she is going to turn up fine…because I'm going to find something to her help a little…"


	18. Chapter Seventeen : Numéro Trois

**Kaede Inn, present time...**

Since Nana and Nyu had come at the Kaede, one of Yuka's priority had been to try to give them a life that was as normal as possible...The problem was that, with the lives they had, there was a lot of things that could go wrong. Nyu ended usually about laughing, but Nana's situation was more delicate ; like any normal girl, she hated to be humiliated, and there was nothing more humiliating than being forced to confess that she did not know how to do a very basic thing…Nana's was taking this quite well, but she was probably suffering deep down. Accordingly, it was probably better to try to avoid any activity that would showcase too deeply her lack of knowledge….Yuka, over the past weeks, had realized that there was a lot of things that could end in total embarrassement for the younger Diclonius….

Asking Nana to water out some potted plants. She had thought it meant to clean the pots….

Asking Nana to put some order in Kouta's room when he was outside (this place was a mess) She had come back innocently asking how she could class the magazines that Kouta had lost behind his bed. A busy Yuka had replied to go for classing them by topic. It was only when she had overhead Nana asking from the room if some of her categories were right, while mentioning what where her categories, that Yuka realized what kind of magazines that Nana had discovered. Nana had been more puzzled by Yuka's reaction to this than shocked by the content (a nasty side effect was that she felt guilt for the very bad moment that Kouta passed when he came home…Yuka had then tried to say that it was not Nanas's fault, to no avail…)

Offering to Nana something after taking her for a short walk in Kamakura (a pastry, for instance) Nana reacted to such things with exuberance, to the point it was raising attention….

And so on…Nana always made apologies, and usually never made two times the same mistake…Yuka had developed a real liking for the girl-she would definitely spoil her a lot once they would go in Hokkaido (Yuka's was thinking to this journey more and more like a genuine vacation for Nana than a outright flight from Kamakura) Accordingly, she also tried to her best to entertain Nana's meanwhile. And there was a simply way to combine this need with the need for social interaction. It had took a while, but Yuka was almost sure of having find something that _could not backfire..._A good old Monopoly game ! (she was an enthusiast of board games. Kouta had seen this with the joy of someone about to be hit by a truck….)

It had seemed a neat idea first hand, but now, Yuka was feeling...ashamed. Technically, she was supposed to cheat a little to make Nyu and Nana win more easily. Cheating at Monopoly was not obvious (the only thing they could do was to lie about the content of the cards...for instance saying that such card meant more money for Nana) but as Nana was more and more able to read, this could have turned badly. The other way was to twist a little the rules (be flexible on mortage, for instance), and gave a little counselling (such as Waterworks : Bad)

The problem was that she had to fight against pulsions...very dark pulsions. Horrible pulsions, that were a clear sign about how low the Human nature could go...

Like for instance, cheating for herself, because her situation was frankly desperate right now ! (having to fight the temptation of cheating in a Monoply game with her cousin,a girl that had seen her share of troubles, and two girls whose life had been hectic...Brilliant, really…)

At least, however, the three guests of the Kaede House (Mayu, Nana, Nyu) looked to amuse themselves….The first two were giggling, and Nyu…well, was like usual. She still suffered a little for her wounds, but like a girl that had sprained her ankle. She had trouble to move, that's all. (an rather staggering recovery for less than a week, to say the least) "

Nana had been tasked to be the "banker", and she was really enjoying it...

Fortunately, Kouta had, this time, enough brains to did not complain when Nana made mistakes and handed him incorrectly his money (a thing also related to the clumsiness she sometimes had with her hands.-Yuka had "drilled him about this rather energetically, by intensive Pavlov conditioning-a neat word she had took from her psychology courses.

This meant concretly that since Kouta associated a stimulus (her slapping him violently) with a behavior (him doing stupid things...a very, very wide categories of actions according to Yuka...), he would avoid the said stimulus. This kind of thing worked well with Kouta…

Anyway, Nana was not making that many mistakes for someone who weeks ago had not the slighest idea of what was money-she was visibly a very quick learner.

In fact, she handled herself so well that she was winning, even without the little cheats and the mistakes. Granted, this game was not very intellectual first-hand (but Nana was still showcasing that she was quite smart-as soon as she had learned enough things to function normally in society, which would take a worst some months, she could have a real life where she wanted…including of course at the Kaede. Yuka made herself a mental promise to continue to teach Nana's about playing to chess...she had began, and Nana looked very interested by the complexity of the game...-the concept of overwhelming, killing an opponent was still looked by her with suspision, but she had realized it was just a sort of game…)

She managed, for instance, to actually fool Kouta with one deal in "real estate" transaction She had made him accept to make a property exchange that was looking externally as highly favorable for him-she had traded a "green" for a mere "red". The point was that she had the second "red", and the third one was still free, while if Kouta had already a "green", the last one was in the hands of Yuka, who would never let it go, as Kouta had nothing that interested her...The final "red" could either land in Kouta or Mayu hands, for which Nana had no longer things to trade, or it coud land in her hands, or the ones of Mayu or Nyuu, for which she had things to trade (not that Nyu would be a very hard business partner...Nyu had figured out the basic rules of the game, but she played like a six years old...which was an marked improvement over the behaviour she had when she arrived at the Kaede) Three chances out of two...This was rather basic, but this meant that Nana had an actual grasp on probabilities/statistics, which was really a good sign about her cognitive capacities

Yuka had realized that this Monopoly was maybe not exactly a good idea when she thought about jail, but Nana hardly noticed this (she had been in a institution much worse, after all)

Short of Yuka impulses, this was going rather well…The only point that was annoying her was the dubious results of Kouta's explanations toward one peculiar rule of the game. He had mentionned to Nyu that when her token was next to a little house, she was sleeping there (a rather innocent sentence, but Yuka would have strangled him, or at the very least slapped him, as Nyu had visibly understood the sentence in a very different way….)

What a surprise. Nyu looked delighted when she landed on proprieties owned by Kouta (and it was a safe bet that she associated "sleeping" with something else...) Fortunately, she had not, yet. started hugging/kissing anyone, and looked to have a relative interest to the game…but it was likely to not last long…And then, it had happened. Yuka had said a little sentence, to cheer up a little more Nana, after she had made a roll making her avoid the only asset that Yuka had still in-game (an mere inn on one of the worst place of the board)

" You are so lucky, tonight, Nana ! You could have ended there instead of here "

Nana stopped to laugh at once, and had started to look very distressed. She looked at Yuka, at everyone, with very panicked eyes, before…before collapsing in tears. Nana had such outbursts in the past, for things that sometimes looked ridiculous to an outsider (when, for instance, Yuka had tried, with all the diplomacy she could muster, to explain her what she thought about Kurama) but it had never been of this scale….A Diclonius in such grief could means very bad things for Humans near it, but with Nana…the threat was minimal.

But her pain and grief was very real…She said, still sobbing that this was not true….

"It's all right", tried Mayu, "but why you look so down ? What did we said ? "

"Why did you say that….I'm lucky…I know it…I'm just too lucky…I don't deserve it…"

As she was saying that, she raised, and fled the place, leaving a completely heart broken Yuka…harming Nana was the last thing she wanted to do…Where she had made a mistake ?

Nana was now in the streets in Kamakura, crying, compltetly forgetting all that had been told about her staying low, about not raising attention...this was really, really awful...

She knew that this what not something Yuka had wanted deliberatly...still, it hurted her a lot.

The phrases had triggered something within her mind...about her former live at the facility...

Nana found that it was probably easier to live with the horns than with this...No one could see it...only _her _could see this sort of inner wound...and this was already hard as it was...

Nana had never told this to anyone (to who she could say that ? she only knew _four _people)...she was _ashamed _of it. She had not been that alone, at the facility, during those years...in the first years, she had some company, at the island...a very relative company...

Nana had a once a sister, a _twin _sister...who, like her, had not a name but a number...3

Nana had only realized what this "twin sister" thing meants exactly _after _her arrival at the Kaede...Before that, she knew , of course, that this meant that her and Three were alike, but she was not aware, previously, that this was at this point...Mayu had been rather surprised when she had said, once Nana had asked the question, to see her looking so depressed...The "nickname" of Three was just "Mitsu", which was probably much worse than "Nana"

Mitsu. A word for nothing, from what she understood...for counting little things that were of no value, that could be discarded when used up...Exactly what had been the life of Three. Short of Nana (and to a lesser extent, Kurama) no one had been really affected with her death (excepting the numerous ones that had seen it with joy, with lines such as "One more down")

Nana knew that her name was a number too...it was also a "real name". Not "Mitsu"

Since she had left the facility, Nana had found a name that was a little better for her sister.

Mitsune.

It was a neat name, no ? A very _kawai _name...it sounded like the name of a nice girl...Maybe Three would have loved it...But now. Mitsune was gone...there was only a faint trace of her...

Inside Nana. Both in her soul (classsical...) and in her Vectors (a lot, lot less classical...)

In a sense, she was Mitsune, and Mitsune was her, after all...Nana had also, sometime, troubles with her inner voice...she was resisting it, but she still had to hear it...

Nana, like the others time, chased the thought that Mitsune was maybe not completly dead...

How could she say that Mitsune would have like it ? She had spoke maybe for some dozens hours to her twin sister in many years...and the pair had been a truly exceptionnal case...

Mitsune and Nana had never know anything else than the facility...their earliest memories were probably eerily similar. Walls of steel, electrical lights, cold cells...

Both her and Mitsune had been, how to say, somewhat late bloomers-their Vectors had began to be usable relatively late, when they were four years old. Before that time, they were in what was known by the personnel of the island in the "nursery". It was just a detention area with security measures a _lot _less drastic than the dreaded cells-for instance, they were not restrained all the time. Not for their own sake, but because this would have affected their developement. Life at this place was still quite harsh...isolation, very limited contact...

The personnel of the facility had never settled between trying to socialize a _little _the Diclonius or to treat them as worst than beasts...Whatever the isolation, Diclonius _always _managed to learn enough language to have a general idea of what Humans were saying to them, so isolation to disable them against Humans-by preventing to understood what the Humans were saying-was pretty inoperant...And there was the question of insanity. The Director was not against it, but this was very costly personel-wise, as insane Diclonius could no longer be controlled by pain or threats of pain...After the years, a sort of informal status had been reached...Diclonius that were acting in a relatively non-hostile manner were treated in a slightly better (or less worse...) way. Basically, Diclonius sent at the facility from their birth could beneficiate, at the "nursery" from some care...devoid of any real warmth (the female technicians that were sent were terrorized by what was told to them about Diclonius-and the truth about Diclonius too...and they were also escorted by armed guards...)

This was very harsh, but this was probably better that the lives of Mariko or Lucy...As it was planned by the scientists, some of the technicians tried to develop a link (they were chosen deliberatly female to inspire more confidence) with the Diclonius, in the optic that maybe she would be less hostile if her "mother" was in the vicinnity (Mariko had showed some years later, how this concept was working...The average Diclonius was _anything _but dumb) The woman had an tendancy to do it by the book, and it had never worked with the twins...

Their years in the "nursery" would have been rather lonely...if their condition would not have been extremely interesting for the scientists. Diclonius _twins _! The perfect test subjects...Kurama and the son of Kakuzawa had began to check on them quite early...Those were submitted to regular "check-ups" to see if their Vectors were growing. The said "check-ups" would have been evaluated as clear abuse (they were hard to support) by anyone...And they were extremly lame and acceptable compared to what would follow thereafter...

The two Dicloni were sometimes deliberatly put together as they waited for the check-ups, under heavy guard (for "scientifical" reason rather than humanist ones : it was to see how they would react...) and Nana and Mitsune had chatted a couple of time. Were they aware, at this stade, that they were sisters ? Probably not...they just exploited the opportunity of talking with someone that was acting "real", not playing roles...it was ony latter, when they had saw the first mirrors walls in the facility, that they realized that they were...copies...of each other

Nana had been the one thay was able to use her Vectors first...a security camera had spotted her tapping on the wall with them (it had rather recorded the sound), visibly trying to figure out what she could do with them...she was merely playing with them, tip-toing in a sense...

Kurama had come, and had, in a genuinely kind way, explained her the situation. Over the past months, he had come to see her several times...and as he was most sincere than many, Nana was really liking him (he was still outrageously lying...what was not false was the sort of affection he showed to Nana, who reacted rather well to this kindness...)

That, because of this developement, they would have to move her to a different place. That they would need to do certain things on her, on a much more frequent basis than before, and that if she was kind enough to cooperate, this would be a lot easier for her...He had spoke to both Nana and Mitsune before, even trying to play a little with them-both of them had seen this with great joy, and tremendously liked him...Accordingly, Nana was rather happy of the perspective of seeing her "Daddy" (had she gave him this name already or not ? She was not sure...) more often. So, she had replied that she was very willing to do so, and then Kurama had thanked her-with genuine relief : if Nana had cried, this would have been a lot harder...

Of course, Nana's opinion on the matter was hardly of consequence. But the thanks that Kurama had made about her cooperation had allowed her to imagine that what she think was important...This sugar-coating of the truth had made Nana much more willing to accept the situation when, days after her "moving-in"-she had been saddened a _lot _by the loss of the little physical liberty she had...the actual experiences began. When they first tested the Vectors resistance, with the dreaded Gauss experience, she was visibly terrorized by the huge weapon being pointed and readied in front of her, struggling feebly with her restraints...

Kurama had explained her the experience-maybe a little cruel, but not more than setting up a crude white lie...Kurama remained next to her, and had ordered the test to stop as soon as she was no longer able to support it... Kurama's affection for Nana was quite peculiar (it was an euphemism), but there was no way of saying that this was non-existing

When Mitsune Vectors began functionnal, mere days later, she was denied even this. It was Kakuzawa that was responsible for her. He began the experiences _hours _after her transfer.

At first, Mitsune was as good-hearted as Nana. She actually asked Kakuzawa if she could do something to help, as she was sent to Cell Number Three...When she saw the Gauss gun, she asked for what was about to happen...No answer. When the test started. She pleaded for stop...She asked for mercy. She had none. Not this day...Never after too...

The idea of this program was very basic. Try what would "give" an extended social interaction program with a Diclonius...and a total lack of the said social integration with the other. The Director was obsessed with heredity...he thought that everything was related to it, to the genes (disgusting thing, but hardly surprising while thinking to his former employers)

In fact, the results had been a crystal clear demonstration about how _education _shaped an individual, Human or Diclonius, but when results contradicted the exceptations of Kakuzawa, he ignored them. The contrast between the two girls could not have more striking. Both were submitted to the same experiences regimes. Oh, there was some differences. When Nana was asking for the experiences to stop for a while, she sometimes managed to have a little respite, that allowed her to preserve her sanity-she was having a little control on her fate, as tiny as it was...When she said to Daddy that the tests really hurted her, _sometimes _he stopped them. And unlike Kakuzawa, he was not really a sadist. It did not changed much in the overall...it just made the difference between completly unberable and barely bearable...While all pleas of Mitsune felt in complete silence. Kurama had made-sometimes at the direct request of Nana, who was "sensing" her sister mental health deteriorating-some comments concerning this to Kakuzawa. No effect. And Kurama had not done anything else. Three was not is job...

The growing hatred of Three toward Kurama was related to this. She knew he was not like this with Nana...but she sensed him behind the looking glass, when she was tortured. Not saying a word...watching being slowly destroyed, both physically and mentaly. had lead to dramatic things both for him and Nana., Since the scientists had continued to put in contact the Diclonius. They even sometimes made double experience...Apparently, the girls had realized that they were sisters. But the conversations, usually, were not in very significative (what could they say ?) Initially, the girls were friendly with each other...But as the time passed by, Nana's took more and more of it-Mitsune was usually not in a mood to chat.

To the point that one time, she had unleashed her Vectors on Nana who was beginning to annoy her (to kill or hit her ?)...and this was at this time that Nana had found her "disabling" secret. Nana had found this "weak point" purely because of luck .She had tried to push Mitsune Vectors away with her own (both of them were immobile...restrained), without harming her. She had accidently knocked her on the forehead, resulting in the stopping of the attack...She had kept carefully this information for herself...Mitsune was put into more severe detentions conditions-and even if she was really sorry (she had done this in a crisis of madness), it affected her quickly deteriorating relation with her twin sister...

This was seen as a proof of the antisocial behaviour of Diclonius : the scientists could point out that Diclonius were so agressive that a girl would attempt to murder her own sister ?

(the scientists could have also pointed out that the _other _Diclonoius of the pair was still trying to have a social relation with her sibling...but Nana had been already categorized with a submissive behaviour, which was a convenient explanation for anything. Nana was not agressive ? Submission. Nana was trying to be friendly with anyone ? Submission. And so on...this allowed the scientists to never reconsider their basic hypothesis about Diclonius being born killers...In fact, however, Nana was not really submissive-she just did not wanted to be a "bad girl", a vague concept for an Human girl, a very clear one for a Diclonius)

Years had passed like this...Nana surviving because of Kurama, Mitsune slowly sinking into madness thanks to Kakuzawa...As she was going very agressive (she still had not killed anyone, but there had been some close calls), they had began to drug/sedate her to keep her quiet between tests, which was quickly removing what was still Human in her behavior.

Nana had seen it and sensed...and could not done anything for it...Except for one time.

When the point of non-return had been cross...the last time she had ever seen Mistune...

It was simple. Another double experience in a special room-again those horrible balls-Seven and Three being installed at an wide interval...the idea was to check if the condition of one Diclonius would affect the other...Kurama and Kakuzawa were watching it, safely away...

Mitsune's was heavily drugged, to prevent her from using her Vectors offensively ...while Nana was _not. _Because Kurama was trusting her ? At this stade, despite what Nana was trying to convince herself too, it was very unlikely. It was just that with all the heavy weapons that were in the rom and with the armed guards, the scientists, in reality, risked nothing at all...

Mitsune was trembling with all her body as the test was about to began. She feared...not just the test itself. It was the fact that this was going to continue until she fainted...Again and again and again. And then it would restard as soon as she had had recovered. No end to this. Mistune was no longer able to stand it...she screamed...she cried...she pleaded...not the Humans...her sister. She asked Nana to kill her..or at least kill the guards...

She kept saying this, screaming more and more, as the experience began. She continued to scream until her voice broke-and she continued to say it in a very weak voice...she only stopped when her Vector "shield" broke down. All this while seeing Kakuzawa smiling...he had not, at all, the same ...tastes...as his brother, but he was finding the situation extremely amusing. Hearing a Diclonius pleading for pity was much funnier, after all...

Nana had...done nothing (what could she had done ? She was unable to answer the request of Mitsune of killing her-they were too far away...Killing the guards would have changed nothing. Nothing, except that Mitsune would not have felt so alone in this world...) ..she had said to Mitsune that she could not do this...she was crying too as she was saying it...Nana had suffered a lot from the test-she was bleeding from many places-but the pain she felt was _nothing _compared when Mitsune, regaining conscience, said that she hated Nana...

If Nana had used her Vectors, she would have been a bad girl. Daddy would have loved her less. And more importantly, this would have been the start of her slide toward...madness.

If Nana had used her Vectors, maybe Three would not have made the same very slide. Or maybe she would have it anway, but Nana would feel a little less responsible. At the very least, Mitsune's would nhave the impression of not being completly alone.

As Nana had not used her Vectors, Daddy had not been harmed..It was at that time that Daddy began to trust her, to realize that she really a special Diclonius...that she was a good girl !

As Nana had not used her Vectors, Mitsune have gave up all the meager hope she had. It was probably this day that her mind had snapped. And it was certainly from that time that she had stopped to speak altogether with Nana. If her own sister did not even cared about her...what the heck she could hope for ? Nana had...saw it, in her eyes...Mitsune going away...and being replaced by Number Three. A Diclonius like they said...a ruthless killer.

And it was that time that her fate had been sealed. Nana resented a _certain _interest to Kurama, both because she was more friendly and because this whole "social contact" experience was very interesting for the facility, to keep exploitation costs lower...and there was not many Diclonius there that reacted this well to such approachs. While Mitsune was just another Carrier that was losing her sanity, without traits that were making her valuable They could do very well without her-and they had done very well without her, in fact...Except for Kurama and the assistant she had contaminated, she was just another statistic.

Nana had never learned the killing detail...that the death of Mitsune had really been her salvation. In a sense...Because, what really interested Kurama to her fate, what really motivated him to do his best to assure for her a little well being was when his _own _daughter was born as a Diclonius. Thanks to the infestation made by Three. The mere fact that Kurama had not felt anger and/or resentment toward Nana was a sign that he was a still decent man...

In relation to this, he had really defended her (to a point that showed she really mattered for him) against the actions of his very agressive colleague that Three had contaminated too, resulting into Kurama killing his daughter at birth, was one of Nana's merrier memories...

She had heard, weeks later, that Three/Mitsune had gone berserk...and had died. It was not really a new...she had sensed it. It had not make the event easier to accept, of course...

After the event, there was...how to deal with it. Why Mitsune had such an hard fate ?

And this was the point that had been tortuting Nana for years. Why Nana had survived, remained sane, and not Mitsune ? Why her, and not Mistune ? Her memories about her where so blurred...but Nana was well aware that it was very unfair to say that Mitsune had died because she was "evil", like it had been hinted to her by Kurama (out of real concern about Nana being seriously affected by survivor guilt...which would have been, during the time she was at the facility very ironical, since she had hardly any chances of going over eighteen-either she would collapse under pressure, or being eliminated as a waste of ressources. Since she had left, however, she had sometimes crisis of the said guilt...Not often, however-Mitsune's death had been very traumatic, but the whole life of Nana had been a succession of serious traumatisms, who had somewhat overlapped it. And right now, well, her mind was rather focused on enjoying her current life (if someone desserved it, it was her...) No one could have survived while thinking constantly about things like "she is death, and I'm alive"

The core of the thing was that she had been placed under the "care" of Daddy, while Mitsune was under the "care" of the son of Kakuzawa, an infinitely harsher fate...But this was displacing the real problem. Why she had ended so well (relatively speaking) ?

She knew the answer : Kurama and Kakuzawa had merely splitted up the test subjets. How ? Nana had an idea of how the scene had played out...Daddy had told her a little about it, and Kakuzawa had been cruel enough to told her the rest, with all the crude details...

Basically, they had picked the test subject at total random. Of course, the best would have been to do it in a really scientifical way...In fact, they had done it in a very random way...It could not have been more simple...and yet, this was a way as "fair" as it could be.

At the suggestion of Kakuzawa (Kurama was downplaying his role into this), they had took a coin, and flipped it. Head would mean that "Three" would go to Kurama, Tails would mean that this would be "Seven". Simple and neat way. It had not take more than a half-minute

To have his life, his fate, determined that way would have been shocking for anyone. For Nana, considering the horrible fate of her sister, it was completly monstruous.

Nana hoped with all her heart that this was not true...because owing her life and sanity to the right flip of a coin was a rather distressing thing...If the coin had landed "Head", this would meant that she would have been at the place of Three...just because of _that _?

No wonder that, with this, Nana's was paying only very polite lipservice to that strange thing-that she had heard being mentioned a couple of time by Yuka and the others...

Religion...

From what she understood, it meant mostly believing that someone/something could have an influence on your life...For her, it was just a sinister joke, this idea : what had decided her own fate was _hardly _something inspiring...it was rather something that was very despairing.

Nana had, however quite resilient: she had survived to many things that would have destroyed anyone...she would survive to this too. If she given up, she would never understand...she would never be able to ask _them _why they had do that to Mitsune and her, who were barely days old when they were sent to the facility...Them...their parents, of course.

This was why the innocent sentence of Yuka had triggered such painful memories...Nana had been _very _lucky, yes (an outsider reviewing the life of Nana would have probably disagreed on the point that she was lucky)...Too much lucky for her own taste. And the problem was that Yuka had used _almost the same sentence as Kakuzawa after Mitsune's death..._

_You are so lucky, tonight, Nana ! You could have ended there instead of here..._

_You are so lucky, Seven...You should have ended there instead of her..._

The "there" in Kakuzawa sentence was...the absolute nightmare of Nana...

Mayu had followed discreetly Nana outside, while Yuka and Nan were arguing about if this was better to let her cool off a little, or try to convince her to go back inside...She waited until Nana calmed down a little...then merely walked next to her, not saying a word...(Nana probably did not wanted question) Her mere presence calmed down Nana very quickly...

Allowing her to realize that a sort of "alarm bell was ringing like hell in her mind...


	19. Chapter Eighteen : Hacker

**Somewhere in Kamakura...**

"Maybe this little night walk was not the smartest thing to do, after all..."

"The _smartest _thing, probably not...But this was maybe the _best _thing for her. Why we should lock her in a room ? I think she desserves better...We just need to be...quite cautious..."

Indeed, much caution was needed when dealing with a Diclonius-but not at all for the reasons that Tatso and Xu thought. They were worried about Kate being seen and recognized. Or getting lost, or getting a panic attack. There was no way to know how she would react…

In fact, Kate was recovering rather well. She had been startled a little by electrical lights-they were piercing her retinas, unused to such things, but short of that…she was fine.

She was fine physically speaking, of course. Psychologically, she was rather wrecked (it was not that she was without reasons to be in this state) Still, she was still quite sane, which was a feat in itself. The only "detail" was that she desired to kill every single Human she could put her Vectors, on, as soon as her health condition would have increased a little…

All Humans including those two…hmm, no, not the woman who had removed the helmet (a thing that Kate had appreciated a lot, for obvious reasons). Not until Kate had understood a thing about her. Short of this little point, Kate was a bit puzzled by the way she was treated right now; this was certainly a kind of trap, but she liked it…a lot. Especially because a revelation was dawning within her : they did not know, at all, about Diclonius….

And this was a very interesting thing, this information. This would give her time to think…to calculate…to be sure to never return there again. As long as they did not known about the Vectors, those Humans were probably going to help her. Why destroy a so profitable relation, after all ? No need to take harsh measures, until she had figured out what to do exactly…

Because, the idea of killing all Humans, sure, this was a plan, but a rather basic one. Kate needed to sort some things within her mind. Settle priorities. There was Humans-or Diclonius like Kakuzawa that could be killed first…Those two Humans…hm…were rather low in the priority…Kate had toyed several times with the idea of using her Vectots to infest them-a reward, according to her, since it would extend their lifespan for a couple of years.

A Diclonius could not kill, after all, her children, either born or incoming….

The reverse was not true-she knew it very well, but life is life, after all…

Both Tatso and Xu would have been very surprised to know that Kate, who at this time looked the sea with what could pass as an expression of pure delight (she did find the scene…moving…because it recalled her a little of the place she was born. Long ago…The rest of her thought had not much innocence) was coldly thinking to ways she could use to dispatch the two last Humans that were standing in her way. Technically speaking, she was not completely wrong about this. They had tortured her _directly. _They had humiliated her day after day….They had done that to other Diclonius. Her only regret was that she would have to find a way that was not _too _obvious (and something not_ too obvious _for Kate could be surprising. She had the brains of a fourteen years old girl-a rather mature one-but the experience of a much younger girl. As education was something of trial and error, there was a lot of things she did not knew, to which her reaction was starkly abnormal…)

For instance, take the time when, some time after they had left the beach, the two female Humans had brought her to a sort of place with clothes…why the heck she should have been happy about it ? (Kate had not realized, yet, that the jokes that Tatso was making frequently were to drive the attention toward herself, and not Kate, as well as trying to make more or less normal her total lack of expression. When a clerk lady was hearing one woman say to her "little cousin" to stop looking so down, it was explaining a lot of thing concerning Kate…

It was the fact that Xu and Tatso had bought a _lot _of clothes (basically, a complete wardrobe) for Kate that had helped the clerk ladies to not ask themselves much questions about this strange girl who had a quite disturbing expression : why risk to lose such good customers ?

Likewise, Kate had not understood a word of what Tatso had said her in the shop, concerning the clothes. Always French sentences on the lines of "Do you want it ?" "Like it ?" "It's nice on you"...Tatso was not sure that Kate had understood them (she was rather almost sure that she _did not _understood them). But those sentences were not just for the cover up. It was also for show to Kate that her opinion actually mattered. If Kate had showed, in a way or another, that she did not liked something, Tatso would of course not have bought it. The chances of this happening were very unlikely, however (Kate could hardly make comments on _any _matter, and when you don't complain or look to care about being completely naked in front of strangers, it's a sort of hint about your reaction about clothes…) , and both Tatso and Xu were aware of it. But it was not a reason for acting like Kate had nothing to say on the matter….

In fact, right now, Kate was radically different-looking than she was some days ago. She had on her clothes that, according to Tatso, would have made any girl of her age jealous (another attempt to make her feel normal. In fact, Tatso had followed more or less what the clerk ladies had told her…neither her or Xu were very good with this. And, honestly, they had been pretty much ripped off price wise, and they knew it. Tatso had swore to herself to make them pay a good extra if they ever requested her services. Which was somewhat unlikely, unfortunately)

Her hair now dyed black, and neatly settled in a way hiding her horns, there was no obvious way to tell that Kate was not, well, normal…except her eyes. The color herself was unsettling a little, but it was nothing compared to the expression they sometimes took, especially the times she saw sometimes more or less her age. Tatso, not wrongly, associated this with a sort of...jealousy, envy. It was normal that Kate was angry when seeing a girl of her age enjoying a very normal ife (or even any kind of life. It could not be worse than her own) Tatso hoped that being kind with her would help to "open" her a little, be less agressive (and also genuinely cooperative for describing the facility for an Intelligence-wise perspective. It was not _the _priority, but it would be something useful. Both Tatso and Xu had agreed that it would be a smarter idea than interrogating in a classical manner. It was smarter in this way for sure, but this also had the added benefice of helping them to keep their heads on their shoulders)

The whole idea of taking her outside for a walk was in those lines, and both from Xu and Tatso too. Kate had been freed for three days now, and she had not done much short of staring blankly at the walls of the room they had given her...A rather depressing thing.

That said, for Kate, it was a _major _improvement over her previous life. If she did not cared about the efforts of the Humans to cheer her a little (she _did _appreciated a little the efforts to talk to her in French...it was making her recall some of her life _before_) she did liked her new life conditions. She was no restrained, she was not blinded, it was warmer, there was no longer experiences, and she was not about to be killed ! Not to mention the food…Like Nana and Nyu, she had been fed during years with tube and injections, with the bare minimum neeed for her growth (since Diclonius were pretty much immobile, they did not burn much energy. This bare minimum accordingly accounted to not much) Accordingly, Kate had a quite…ravenous…hunger. She eated so much that her stomach had trouble to cope with it. She had been sick for hours earlier, and had been in a very pitiful state. Still, she loved meals. But you could only eat three times a day ...what to do the rest of the time ?

On this point, Tatso understood her very well. The Intelligence cell was not a very exciting place, set up in a most boring cover (that, however, indicated that the Chinese Intelligence was quite professional. Sure, a secret mountain hideout or the like would have been more interesting to live in, but, what the heck, they were not in a James Bond movie, or in Sui-Hui-Tzan...) and distractions of any type were very limited, especially for Kate and Tatso. And it was even worse for Tatso than for Xu or the other Chinese Intelligence members.

Xu could pass up as Japanese without trouble : she could leave the cell, go somewhere (usually to very "exciting" places like bargain computer shops, to buy some hardware...)

Tatso...well, despite all her real skills in Japanese, she was, for an obvious reason, quite noticable in an standard Kamakura crowd...It was not that there was not tourists in Kamakura (the town was even an tourist attraction), it was just that they were not in the...bland...areas of Kamakura where the cell was located (not to mention that, currently, tourism was somewhat in crisis, with the "crime wave") A side result of this was that it was preferable, for not raise attention, to stay in the cell, which was, how to say, pretty functionnal : some computers with Internet access, but not exactly top of the line machines. The Kamakura cell was the "little sister" of the Yokosuka cell, and they did not get top-of-the-line equipment...the laptops Xu and Tatso had were much more perfectioned. They had received sizable amount of cash for their mission, but probably not enough for "fantasies" like buying an second-hand computer. Chinese Intelligence was well developped, but not very well funded. Tatso and Xu had to use for a good part their personnal money for making Kate look less indecent-the other part had been provided with the funds, thanks to a very creative labelling of expenses, like _financial ressources needed for expenses required to help potential witnesse to keep a low profile. _

And to be honest, Tatso was beginning to find this boring to death too...Thus, the walk idea was going to be a nice change of settings for her too. Apparently, Kate had somewhat enjoyed this...and it was not that risky, since the streets of Kamakura were quite empty at night during those days (the risks, anyway,would have been for the interlopers rather than Kate...)

Kate had walked first without much coherence, going to a point, coming back.

Both Xu and Tatso had realized, of course, that there had been a major switch in the behaviour of Kate during the walk... It was obvious that she had, from an certan point, an clear idea of where she wanted to go. It looked to amuse her to the highest point. Anyway, she was _smiling _now, even if this was not exactly a friendly smile (better than nothing)

In a park, Xu and Tatso lost her for a couple of seconds as she moved foward faster (they feared for a moment that she was trying to lose them) and as they were watching her from a certain distance, this means she was an hundred meters away when she reached her goal...

...What the ? Kate was heading next to two girls (but what those girls were doing there ?)

It was in the middle of the night, after all...neither Tatso or Xu realized that one of the girls had a rather startling feature (that had been hastily covered by Mayu as soon as she had realized that there was newcomers, and that Nana had told her, in terrorized voice, that "another one was coming"...Kate, when she realized that Nana was afraid of her, did not moved further. She had not much liking for Nana (from a mix of jealousy and uncomprehension toward her), but she did not hated her either. No...she had just made her presence known. This was enough. This turns of events, if it panicked Nana, pleased Kate tremendously. She had "seen" Lucy and Nana move away alive-and she had never really trusted the guards when they said they had been killed almost immediatly...

Having allies is always useful. Kate made a mental note to be cautious when she would enter in contact with Lucy-from what she had sensed at the island, it had been painful for Nana.

It did not go further. As both Nana and Kate were staring each other, Tatso and Xu arrived.

Xu moved to check for the girls, both for real concern toward their safety (one more time, related to the crime wave...) and to check if they had seen things concerning Kate. The first girl gave her a coherent explanation, if obviously make up, about their presence here.

Xu realized plainly that the second girl was quite afraid...but she calmed down a lot when she saw that Tatso was talking kindly with Kate, and motioning her to come back with her

Xu left some time later, to return with Kate and Tatso to the Intelligence cell.

Both Xu and Mayu thought that it had been a very close call...while both Kate and Nana had a lot of things to think about this near encounter. Especially Nana, who was now very puzzled. How Four had ended here ? And who could be those nice Humans helping her ?

Nana voiced some of her concerns to Mayu on her way home, still full on sorrow concerning Mitsune. She kept for herself, however, the most distrubing piece of information...

The return at the Intelligence cell was thankfully uneventful. Her mind cleared up, Tatso decided to go ask some questions (without quotations mark) to the prisonners took at the facility, who had not been very cooperative up to this point. As Kate could not speak or write (yet), and as data recuperated from the computers was unconclusive, this source had to be exploited. The two prisonners had been locked up in the closest thing that could pass up as a cell (a storage room with an heavy door, that had been carefully emptied of anything that could be used as a weapon) As being captured was a lot better than being shred appart by a Diclonius, neither prisonners had complained about it ; anyway their detentions conditions were basically _paradisiac _compared to the facility (There had been a couple of rough questionning sequences-the classisc lamp thrusted in the face, the goold old telephone book, but nothing even remotely compared about what the Diclonius had to live with when they were in power. Not responsible, but still...) The main reason behind that was simply that the guards feared Kakuzawa retribution much more than anything that Tatso or Xu could devise. Which was indeed the truth. One of them was so sure that he would not be killed (because he could give information) that he was downright insulting toward Tatso and Xu, who were both extremely reluctant to use more...agressive...interrogations methodes : it was not in their syle, and the efficiency of such methods was at best dubious on the long run...

Tatso, who was exasperated about the said comments, had an idea upon seeing Kate heading for her room, for sleeping...or rather, laying prone and thinking to dark things.

They did not know that Kate was with them...or that she was unable to speaj. If they knew that someone was talking-and certainly not in very favorable terms, they might go a lot more cooperative quickly, and finally said something. Tatso made a sign to the two operatives keeping a far watch on the "cell" door. Time to play "you are detained into a top secret facility, with top level security". The two Chinese operatives picked up assault riffles (unloaded) and pointed them threateningly, while barking commands...

Upon her entrance, Tatso was greeted by insults concerning the fact that she knew nothing about the situation, about the fact that they were her only possible source of data...

"What truth did I miss ? It's exactly what we ask you. What were you doing there ? And, by the way, little detail. Don't tell me that it's for science, okay ? I saw the termination room..."

"This is the only kind of life that can hope the ones like her...And it's too good for her !"

Tatso disliked his tone, his word, his sentence, and especially idea behind it...

Accordingly, she slapped him very hard, to make sure that he understood her point...

"You can say whatever you say on her, I will not believe you...We have a way to check..."

Both guards were startled by this statement, and the air of confidence Tatso had...

"She is here...We rescued her from execution. The one you were calling Number Four (an hesitation. How to say it in a way that looked credible ? Ah, she got it) You know, she have some speech troubles, but she made it very clear her feelings toward you two..."

Tatso _was _very surprised of the reaction of the guards. She excepted fear, surprise...not sheer terror. She thought that she had finally found a point on which she could play...

"...You are joking...IT'S IMPOSSIBLE ! YOU JUST CAN'T HAVE DONE THAT !"

"...Sure, we did. She is having a nice chat with us right now. I must say that it's not improving the opinion we have on you (Tatso added a sentence for pressure. And for an reason, obvious for someone knowing Kate personnal history, impossible for someone ignoring it, it worked very well...) When we said her that you were there...oh, she was upset."

Tatso left immediatly after, to let them think about her little sentence (that had been merely said in the optic of "If you don't talk, we will believe her version, which is likely to be quite partial". While in reality, upsetting a Diclonius was not exactly a smart move...)

"...She is bluffing...she must be bluffing...There is no way that Four can be with them, and-"

To their sheer horror, the two guards suddenly heard a serie of knock being made on the walls of the room they were located into...A way of knocking they knew very well.

Meanwhile, Xu was working on one of the computers, trying to figure out what write next...

Xu was a meticulous, consciencous, girl. She had took in note everything of potential value she had learn during the raid, and was currently putting this into a proper form.

This was depressing, as it was going to be hard to make it look like a coherent thing, _without _revealing the existence of Kate, as Tatso had asked. (Xu would have probably agreed on this point, even without the formal orders she had received to do what Tatso was asking her) Not to mention that precise information was lacking a lot to write a good report of situation...

She was currently writing a very delicate section : the one concerning the termination room...

WITNESS FIVE : One male guard, probably Japanese below fourty, precise background unknown , interviewed in hostile circumstances (at gunpoint) in the facility.

Q : What are you ressearching exactly in this facility ? (Xu hesitated...and decided to add a little note : "this is maybe not exactly the perfect transcription of the question")

A: Various profanities concerning the agent asking the question, not the ressearches

Q : Repetition of the question, adding psychological pression on the witness (this neat euphemism meant that Xu had made indeed some pression, by threatening him to shoot)

A : Witness attempt to grab a weapon, while...(Xu hesitated even more...How to dissimulate Kate presence from the report without outright lying ? Ah !) trying to fire it, probably in intention of destroying evidence and/or denying access to it to the agents involved.

The evidence involved...Kate...as long as they did not knew why Kate was held there, all this was leading nowhere. Maybe Tatso would manage to get some info out of the prisonners soon, but it was probably better to not hope on this...The best thing would have been to ask to Kate herself what had happened to her, but who knew when she would be able to talk ? Unable to go further and annoyed by this, Xu, in desperation, tried something else...

She deciced to make a quick database search for diseases that could ressemble as the one that Kate was apparently affected by. She had already done it, of course, as discreetly as possible (she had asked for references concerning _all _types of slight malformations) using medical databases,but results were slow to come. Why not use conventional Internet ? It was _unlikely _that she would find much by proceeding this way, but it costed nothing to try...

Ah ! There was something...She read the notice. An site "devoted to bring support and information for the families of children affected with the _Dicloni _virus-followed by a vague description of the disease : pale skin, immunitary system problems, eye/hair color distorsion, (all of this was pretty "normal" problems, after all), and _slight but marked cranial deformations/growths on the temporal bones. _If this was not that...

But there was something that was not right. Why she came up with this result so quickly ? This was the _third _result (out of thousands) that she had got. That said design looked pretty unprofessional...similar to countless sites made for orphan-type diseases.

She was tempted to make a left click and access to the site...for a split second. This was way too easy...(data about the cover-up of a secret weapon program found with a Google search and two-three clicks ? It was what, a rip off of the "plot" of 80' action movie ?) She made a few auxilliaries searches in English, Chinese, and every major language she knew...

There was something that was not right...whatever she did, she ended with sites with somewhat different designs _but always with the same notice, of course translated_, with only minuscules variationsAnd even if it was correct grammar wise, the phrase always had a somewhat _Japanese _style. _Including twenty ones different pages for the Japanese version.._

The result was obvious. The sites were made by the same person. Typical parents devoted to help their children don't know ten different language, or don't make multiple copies of the same site. This known, it was easy to figure out how thoses pages were always bringed out with searchs such as _disease+horns _or _malformations+crests _: Google bomb, or another Internet gimmick working the same way (such as the well known _Miserable Failure _one...)

And apparently, _all the Japanese sites were hosted on the same server..._Interesting too.

She would bet anything that this server was "flagged"...her IP adress would be recorded is she got there (true. What she did not know was that an IP adress from _Kamakura _was specifically interesting for Kakuzawa...this was of course part of his procedures to make sure to snatch every Diclonius possible) Fortunately, she was not without means to overcome this obstacle.

She typed some commands, for activate a procedure she had prepared for similar circumstances. Rather that trying to disguise the IP of her computer, Xu actually used another computer, who could _hardly _be connected with her : one computer in one of the most used cybercafes in _Taipeh _(indeed, the last place where someone would look for the work of agents from the Popular Republic was in Taiwan...The Colonel had handed her access to thoses ressources, saying openly that if those bringed trouble for the Nationalists (the use by the Colonel of this age-old name was not accidental) this would be a neat bonus. It was an euphemism to say that the Colonel looked to dislike a _lot _the heirs of the Nationalist...to a surprising level even from a veteran of the Civil War. Xu had inquired discreetly about this. It had apparently something to do with the betrayal of a partisan operation to the Japanese by KMT officials during the war, with probably some personnal twist added to it)

A few seconds laters, the content of the site could be safely accessed from her place...

She was disgusted by what she saw. Of course, _actual _informations were lacking. The design of this site was...vicious, but crude. There was an _email _adress for the sent of an information letter, which was a trap of the sophistication of a _Roadrunner _cartoon. A trap that certainly could work with distressed parents. There was even a mention saying that the girls could be treated at a special clinic. It was not an ouright lie, but having seen the "clinic" and the "treatment", Xu was enraged by this...especially when she was the little mention that _the Japanese governement is willing to offer an financial help for the families of victims..._

Having seen the facility, it looked a lot like paying the parents to forgot about their child...

Xu had however managed to gather four critical informations with this site. The first one was of course the name of the disease...The second one was related to the use of the term girls... This was a female only disease apparently. Xu mindframe was quite geared toward numbers. She immediatly thought of a way she could exploit this. Check the numbers of _girls _reported with various diseases over the Kamakura area. Generally, when there is a marked diffence between genders in statistics, the difference is more or less provoked.

She had experimented herself a similar thing, after all : she knew what she spoke about...

The third info was that the condition of Kate was apparently not unique...and was visibly somewhat present at birth. What was so interesting about this slight cranial malformation was hard to realize, however...The final information was the physical location of the server. Of course, it's it's ended to be on the island, this would lead to nowhere. But she was sceptical on this point. Such a way _out _would have been a way _in _too. No...the server was elsewhere. Probably on main islands of Japan, for easing communicaitons. She would enquire about this.

What Xu did not knew was that this very site had been indeed "rigged" by Kakuzawa...but as hacking was really not within his capacities, this very crude trap had been detected easily.

...By two very different persons/organizations, with goals that were as divergent as they were opposed as the ones of Kakuzawa. Her mere visit, who looked as a glance, probably accidental, did not triggered much attention from Kakuzawa part. It did attracted minimal interest from the two "watchers", however. In one case, somewhere in South-East Asia, this triggered nothing than an alarm in a single computer, and a general sense of despair from the person who had put in place this...There was really nothing she could do...

In the other case, in a most improbable location in North America spy-wise (an place that had even less the look of an intelligence cell than the one Xu and Tarso were...) an very busy computer tech noted the connection attempt that appeared on one of his screens, and resumed his duties...Why he was supposed to survey the access of this site in particular was beyond him ; it was pretty innocuous compared to the others ones on black list...

If his superior had not been online, sending him the last details/files about the current operation, he would have send it with the weekly report. As it had been made clear that anything related to this thing was important for his superior, he quickly added the data...

The results _did _interested the superior, to the highest level, but there was other stuff to do...

Both her and the computer tech were spread appart by half of the world. They never had seen each other face to face, know nothing about each other. Still, both of them had a feeling of deep down satisfaction as, over the next hour, they systematically disabled, destroyed and purged (as well as infect with viruses) the abominable site they had chosen...

Illegal, of course. Morality wise, dubious. Which does not mean it should not have been done.

After all, open call to murder, hate propaganda and so on had to be dealt with..

Both contacts, however, did not posed much threat, even to secrecy, even if they managed to track the Internet communication up to here. After all, who would be insane enough to search for an Popular Republic Intelligence cell above a very down on it's luck lawyer firm specialized in small civil cases ? (Tatso had joked that it they ever got arrested, at least they would have cheap legal advice...) The firm was probably unaware of what was happening

They were so happy to have someone to rent this dreadful serie of appartments that they probably did not checked a lot the stories that had been provded to them by the Intelligence (officially the cell was a...public relation firm. Well, this was better than nothing...)

Xu, after this check, returned to her report. What she had seen had disturbed her a lot (this hint that girls were took there at birth...) To help her concentrate, she put on some music. As she was listening to them via an headset, she was somewhat isolated...Accordingly, she just felt a vibration, then several minutes of perfect silence. Then she heard something besides the music. Hmmm ? There was a commotion, downstairs. What was happening ? She first thought that they had been found and that they were being raided, but judging by the screams, this was even worse...The guys downstairs were again complaining. About what ? That they make some noise upstairs ? Xu thought first that were complaining about nothing, since they did not have often clients, before realizing that, as they were pretty well sound insulated (a necessity) their annoying neighbours were either very bored...or something bad had happened. Of course, something bad had happened. She sensed Tatso tap on her shoulders...

"Xu, we have problem...the prisonners had just committed suicide...This is a mess..."

As Tatso was saying this, Xu was moving with her toward the storage was, and she saw what had happened. Mess was an understatement. The prisonners had been manacled to a set of heavy metal shelves, stocked with cinder blocks and similar material (this place had been an ancient hardware/renovation store) There was easily several hundreds of kilograms of stuff up there. It was sure that the collapse of this would have been quite well perceived below, sound insulation or no. It was as sure that the collapse had nasty effect. Tatso was probably right about the suicide. The prisonners had been warned that if they pulled too strong on the manacles, the whole ting would fall on them. And yet...they had pulled, judging by the bruises they had on the wrists. It was hard to know why they had done that-no one could guess that it was mostly the result of their frantic attempt to get away from the wall...

Back in her room, Sarah, lying on her bed, wearing the shirt Tatso had given her for night-wear (Kate was able to dress up alone, a neat progression considering her recent life experience..It was just that, as she had trouble with the idea of decency, she had not yet realized that it was probably better to button it a little...) and was watching the sky, while monitoring the events besides her door, both with her normal hearing and her sixth sense. They let her go where she wanted, as soon as she did not left the small complex...It had been a piece of cake for her to see where the guards were located, the configuration of the room...and tap on a wall of her roon with her Vectors accordingly, to make them go half mad thanks to fear of what she will do to them Now, there was no longer annoying witnesses. Perfect...really perfect. She would be able to her little secret a while...


	20. Chapter Nineteen : Myriam

**Praha, March 1943...**

Sarah had to admit the truth: she had to be cursed, in some way…Everything she tried to do was bound to end in disaster, despite her best intentions. Like her current attempts to survive….

Food was the critical thing. The issue was, it was already in short supply for citizens in normal conditions. For the ones living in clandestinity, this was hard. Of course, there was other ways to get food than the rationing cards. Black market economy could provide many things...if you knew where to search. Which was not the case of Sarah. First of all, she did not have money that could be used for such things: she could hardly go in a bakery and pay for bread using a silver necklace. People owning pawn shops or similar things were not worse than many citizens of Praha, but honestly, anyone was bound to found that Sarah attitude was quite suspect. If she tried to turn in one of the jewels of her mother, it was almost sure that she would be arrested within a half-hour. In normal times, she could have find out something (by begging, or stealing) but the times were hardly normal (although, honestly, this was the world in which Sarah had grew)...

Most of the food she had managed to "find" had go to Myriam. But _most _of _nothing _does not help much…Myriam was not complaining, but it was obvious that she was suffering from hunger too. And this was also obvious she was somewhat afraid of the mood swings of Sarah

The first days, Myriam had been cheerful, saying that she was "camping" with her sister. Camping was certainly a very, very creative way of seeing their current situation, which could also been described as "hiding in an unheated basement, never going out..."

In how much time Sarah would be reduced to streetwalking or the like ? Probably quite soon. It was a perspective she was seeing with dread-and it was quite justified.

((You are going to let an old jeezer defile you for a scrap of bread...I don't think neither you or I will stand this…As soon as he will touch you, his head (or hand) will...Oh, you did guess the rest, hmm ? In any case, this is silly. You can take whatever you want. You could walk in anywhere in this city, and...convince...the inhabitants to stay silent about your presence...))

Sarah had to find a way to calm down the…bloodlust…that had awakened in her. This voice, that was now worse than it had been in years...She was going to get insane, if she did not anything about it. Those days, she was…well, she was very tense, about to have a sort of breakdown. She had to cope with the stress of clandestinity, survival, caring of her little sister...(not to mention that….err….physically…she was in one of her, how to say, "bad days" which did nothing to improve her mood) The inner fight she had almost constantly was really the cherry on the cake...

((We have to work together, Sarah, to keep her alive. Without you, without us, she will be dead within a week…a day, even. No one will help her. You are alone. People will look away…))

The Allies and the Soviets are pushing the Nazis back. This will end soon…

Soon is a very relative term, you know? The end is years away, not months away...On the other hand, if you wish…you could hasten it. And this would even be for a right cause...

Sarah screamed to the voice to shut up-but she did it in the real life. Myriam, who was seeig quite well that her sister was "not right" thought that this comment was for her. Obviously, it's hurt her feelings a lot, to be told in such an agressive to shut up, with such expletives...

"Myriam !" apoloziged desperatly Sarah..."I'm...I'm sorry...I guess that.. I am really a monster"

The most horrible thing, for Sarah, was that her murderous impulses started when she was annoyed, which could happens for very menial reasons. And as Myriam was by far the person that interacted the most with her….the conclusion was obvious. Sarah was sickened at the mere thought of it, but was very aware than an "accident" could happen anytime….

"Don't say that, it's not true...You are not a monster…You are my big sister !" replied Myriam.

There was of course the possibility that Sarah could be a sister _and _a "monster" but either Myriam had never seriously considered this possibility, or that she did not voiced her opinion.

She would, however, realize this in some years. She would know about Sarah...she would be disgusted by her. She would _hate _her. As soon as she woud live with other, normal people, she would realize that her "big sister" was more or less a psycho in the worst case, and at the very least someone with deep psychological problems, which was deeply anti-social...

This was not seen with dread by Sarah. Because this would mean that Myriam would be _alive, _which was a thing that Sarah seeked with desperation. What the heck if she hated Sarah...

((Maybe, at this time, you will no longer bother to try to play the nice and normal Human girl.))

...You know how to hurt me, hey ? I never had friends, and the coming of the Nazis worsened the thing. My father hate me. My mother is ice-cold with me. My sister...she is the only one that ever showed me some...some kind of human warmth. And still, it's because I LIED to her, and...

_((Sarah, you _do _have a way to be sure to know what she is thinking about you…))_

Sarah had thought that if she gave up to that voice on small points, this would may be easier for her to resist to more dangerous insinuations. She was now aware that doing this just made her more vulnerable for accepting to do more and more dangerous stuff. Like, for instance, the fact that she, sheepishly, accepted the suggestion. She simply, by a rather graceful move of the head, disturbed the carefully made set-up of her hair. Letting Myrian see quite clearly the crests, growing on a daily basis. They were now clearly visible on the sides of Sarah's head.

If she did not do something about this, within days, there would no ways to hide them. Her heart jumped at the thought, but there _was _a solution. In this basement, there were old tools...

((Oh, you know, if you want to hide your heritage, I don't mind about it. Because, those crests...they are just a sort of decoration. They change nothing to the core issue. Just be warned: pain affects you as a normal Human being. This is going to hurt A LOT with this rusty saw...))

This snickering comment was bad, but this was nothing compared to Myriam's reaction upon seeing her sister in her...well, her real appearance. Myriam gulped, and turned pale...

Sarah had never been despaired to this point. Even her little sister hated her...

((Not much of a surprise, hey ? You see, there is no point to try to be nice with Humans-))

For one time, Sarah was...lost. She did not knew what to anser to this voice...

The other one always tried to look to be the master of everything, that she was in full control, that she planned everything, that nothing surprised her. Well, this time, she was very surprised…

Myriam had softly kissed her older sister on the cheek. To cheer her up. Myriam had realized early that when her sister was in her bad moods, a little affection had great effects on her...

Sarah thought that everyone hated her. This was not true. Myriam liked her, genuinely. Sure, she had been a little surprised by the…horns, that were making Sarah looks strange. A little like this bad guy with a fork, she had seen in books…So, could Sarah be a demon ? Of course, this was not true. Sarah was not an demon ! She was an angel, Myriam knew it very well…

"I knew it, Sarah…About your…your special thing. The…the magic thing you can do…"

Sarah was so surprised by the fact that Myriam knew about her Vectors that she did not asked her _the _question: how she knew ? All she could do was to ask, weakly, if Myriam was afraid...

"Of course I'm not afraid. You are a sort of angel, Sarah ! I'm sorry that I had this reaction..."

Sarah had excepted a lot of things, but _not _this comment. An _angel _? Why her sister was...

"It was just the surprise...You know, I wanted to give you this for you birthday-but I can't because we left...The big book-we left it at home, so I can't finish up my gift..."

Sarah did not understood what her little sister meant (like most normal kids, what she could think was obvious was not necessary something than an older person could have find obvious). What made her happy was the comment, that was so sincere. She hugged Myriam with even more fervour than before. This gave her new energy, determination, for tonight task…

After tucking Myriam in the lone blanket they had, Sarah took back her coat...

"I will be back in a couple of hours at worse…Myriam, you remember the rules ?"

"Yes…I don't move…I remain hidden. I don't follow anyone, whatever they say to me…."

Sarah was well aware that those rules were at best a very flimsy protection, but this was necessary…for her. For convince herself that Myriam would be safe when she would be away…

"I'm sure I will be back with good news about Mom…I'm sure she is all right…"

Officially, Sarah was away for making some inquiries about their mother (thankfully, Myriam had not voiced her thought on the fact that it was strange to do this in the middle of the night, "cause everyone would be asleep"), a thing that had deeply pleased her little sister.

This was the tale she had made for Myriam. The truth was, she was in for…destroy proofs.

And this was the tale she had made for herself, because she knew how this would end.

How could she be _sure _that there was nothing, there, that could point her or Myriam to the Nazis, like photographic pictures ? Her mother had been forced, which had been very painful for her, to destroy most of the pictures of her daughters, but she had probably kept some away. Sarah had to destroy them. This would be awful to tear apart the last relics of her earlier life, but if this was necessary. Deep down, however, Sarah knew very well what she was seeking. The one who had sold them to the Nazis. He had seen both Sarah and Myriam. He could pinpoint them.

This was why the landlord could be seen as a potential evidence to…deal with. An thing that a part of Sarah saw with something quite close to pure delight. She could rationalize, say that his death was somewhat required: this changed nothing to the fact that she would enjoy it...

After a short walk, struggling to avoid Nazis patrols, Sarah reached her former appartment...

Hmm ? The building was empty...it had been evacuated. The reason for it was rather obvious. There was cars in the street. And men. Gestapo. SS. Wermacht. Sarah realized quite clearly that nothing was there to prevent going _in..._those men were there for another reason. They were chatting, and were maintaining a rather loose watch on the buising. Sarah had the relative pleasure of seeing the landlord being escorted outside, probably for "questionning". The pleasure was very relative, because Sarah realized that this could meant that they were...after her...

I'm cursed...I have this gift...and my origins. Wrong girl, wrong time, wrong place...

_((That's a depressing way of seeing things ! This could also be seen as the wrong people, the wrong Humanity, the wrong world. 'Cause...honestly...who is the worst ? ))_

The voice was trying to play on this, all the times, by linking two different situations: Sarah wretched life because she was Human, and her as wretched life because she was Diclonius.

In a second state, she climbed back to her apartment. She was not _that _surprised when she realized, shortly after entering the already half looted place, that people were coming….

Sarah fumbled into the drawers, for finding something of use...anything. She ended up with a kitchen knife, a rather lousy weapon. Especially compared to the weapons she had at her disposal. Which was why she had picked up this peculiar thing. Just to try to persuade herself that she would not use her Vectors if threatened. And this was not working too well….

_((C'mon, you WANT to use them. This is why you came her. This is why you are doing this…))_

This referred to the fact that Sarah could no escape the building, with the Nazis in the hallway. She had to hide…And there was not much hiding place, here. Sarah had to run in a rather childish place-the wardrobe of her room. Any serious search would find her within minutes.

Which was not really worrying her: if she was found, there was no real problem for escaping.

In fact, Sarah realized, she was more and more in an "no win" situation concerning her Vectors.

Well, the issue was rather that she could not escape _acting like a normal Human girl. _If she acted as a Diclonius, escape was going to be pretty easy. A piece of cake, even.

Hidden there, Sarah could not see, but she could hear, quite well...

"This is leading nowhere. No one know where she is from. Finding her will be hard..."

"I must stress this out, Weber. She must be taken _alive. _And in a more or less working order.

The man had not the same accent that the Nazis. He was a foreigner...Japanese ?

"Well, find the elder girl, at any cost. It's only her that matters. The younger one, bah, I guess we could be lenient…We will send merely send her on (Reich paid) train trip to Poland…."

This sentence did not sounded right to Sarah. The tone, for instance, said that this "Weber" was finding the idea amusing. This made Sarah shivers. What could they be planning to do ? There was also the fact that this sentence was somewhat strange, in the current context.

For some reasons, both the lieutenant and the scientist stopped to talk suddenly. They lowered their voice, and…They left the apartment. They had been called outside. Why ?

Then, something happened, that made Sarah's blood goes like ice within her veins.

There was inspectors left in the room, but also someone else, judging by their comment, asked in a rather harsh voice, to someone that had remained quite silent to this point.

"You seems to have attracted the eye of this egghead. Don't know why, however, in your state, you are not exactly attractive, you (what followed was odious racists comments)

Using her Vectors, Sarah made a tiny slit in the wood of the door, even more nervous than before. She was rather pale in normal time, but what she saw make her loose all her colour. When she applied her eye to the slit she made, her worse fears were confirmed.

Her mother was there, beaten, closely watched, by nothing less than four Gestapo agents.

They were currently trying to play "good cop, bad cop". One of them, playing the "nice" guy continued on Weber suggestion, saying that if she turned Sarah in, Myriam would be saved…

The mother of Sarah had remained carefully silent before-she had been brought here in the hopes that she would accept to pinpoint the location of eventual documents about Sarah, but…now, she talked, in a rather feverish tone. Sarah would understand why quite soon….

"No…I will not do that. They are both my daughters. I love them. I love her. I always loved her, even if I we were not in good terms. She is a good girl-she is not like he said….It does not matter to me to die, if they are safe. I trust her: I know she will take care of her little sister…"

This was a nice speech, quite heart-warming for Sarah, but a little strange. This sentence did not make any sense…_unless her mother knew that she was there_, _and was talking to her…_

The definitive proof of this was that her mother was looking everywhere _except _in the direction of the wardrobe. She was trying to distract the Gestapo. To not draw attention to her daughter.

How she could know? The answer was easy. Sarah realized it in the next seconds. There was no need for far-fetched explanations. At their older apartment, Sarah, when she was young, had often hide in her wardrobe, when her mood was bad (which was quite often). Her mother knew it very well. Did she had unconsciously acted the same way here ? Also, her mother had probably heard the very distinct noise the door of the wardrobe made when closed.

In any case, the situation had changed, and massively. Not mentioning that Sarah was really, really relieved to have such an…confession (close to a deathbed confession, but better than nothing, for sure), she could hardly let the things in the current state…

Her mother was half starved, exhausted, beaten, out of sessions of torture. She did not have a chance to survive a trip to the camps (if the Nazis planned to keep her alive for slave labour. With her state, unlikely). Unless Sarah came. Unless she used her…gift. With her gift, there was nothing that could stand before her. Not those four men of the Gestapo. Not the SS lieutenant. Not the scientist. Not the soldiers below. Finally, a good use for this thing that has cursed her.

Sarah was….on a sort of cloud, right now. The worst thing that she had in her life, the impression that her mother hated her, was gone. Her mother was still alive. Her Diclonius side was quite sure to be able to handle four Nazis, not excepting the slightest resistance. She just had to walk out, a little hack and slash for a righteous cause….and she would have, maybe, a day, a normal life.

On the other hand, Sarah was somewhat right to suppose she was cursed. Because, what happened in the next minutes could had been seen as a proof that she was very, very unlucky…

She tripped as she was rising up. Her hunger had made her dizzy, she stumbled…and she felt on the ground, causing boxes to fell in the wardrobe. An horrible feeling of dread, despair, began to overwhelm her. Outside, all the four agents of the Gestapo turned their heads toward the wardrobe, to the source of the noise, drawing their weapons….But they were not the only ones that had guessed the situation. Sarah's mother too. The Nazis realized this into the next seconds.

As Sarah was struggling back to her feet, she heard the Nazis shouting outside, about "putting her back into control". One screamed more than the others, after a gunshot-apparently, Sarah's mother, who had not exactly been a mother-at-home during the past years (despite the fact that her top priority was indeed her daughters) had managed to grab the weapon of one of the Nazis…

This was hopeless, however, and Sarah realized this quite quickly. This was just to draw the attention away from the wardrobe. Instead of Sarah saving her mother, an action she could have done in a couple of seconds, her mother was going to die trying to save Sarah….

It did not last long…A few seconds, Sarah soon heard a second gunshot, and a muffled scream, as well as the noise of something connecting on the floor. This did not require much explanation. All this had occurred in less than a half-minute. But there had been a major change in Sarah within this time frame. She was feeling guilt, terrible guilt about what had happened.

She also realized that…this pushed her further…down, in a sense. Assisting to the murder of your mother was a deep trauma for anyone. Despite Kakuzawa's opinions on the matter, Diclonius did not have a natural hatred for their parents or siblings. They had rather the kind of reactions that an Human child could have. Sarah knew this rather well-when she was little, she had realized very early that her gift could kill. And…she had temptations, horrible temptations.

All little girls can be jealous of their newborn sister, because she have more attention than them.

Many of the said girls can think, very seriously, especially if they are six years old "I wish she was dead". But almost none of the said girls have to cope with issues like bloodthirsty voices in their heads…and worse them all, a genuine possibility to kill everyone in their path.

It was mostly because Sarah had made the connection use of the VectorsHornsI look like a monster that she had not used her gift in a deadly way in the dangerous years between the time she had realized she had this gift, and the time she had realized that cutting the head of someone is not like cutting the head of a toy soldier : you cannot glue it back, for instance.

There was also the fact that the Diclonius in her had trouble to bypass: that Sarah was not exactly a fan of the concept of the "sub-humans", for an obvious reason: Sarah had lived all her life in the situation of a "sub-human", being threatened of the same wipe-out that her voice suggested her to do. Accordingly, she was somewhat hostile to such ideas…especially because of Myriam.

This does not mean, however, that those Nazis would be alive tomorrow morning.

Sarah slowly opened the wardrobe door, appearing in front of both her mother, and the three surviving agents of the Gestapo. She gave up the charade of trying to hide her crests. They were fully in view as she walked out. The Nazis excepted to arrest an terrified and helpless girl, qualified in their propaganda as sub-human, not someone which such a disturbing feature….

Not to mention her expression, or the fact that she did not showed the slightest fear.

Then, Sarah realized something. The other…inside her was upset…angered. Despite what she said, she liked, deep inside, the woman, even if merely Human, that was her _mother._ Especially seeing her in such a condition. This other…this was Sarah too, after all. Both the Human and the Diclonius were revolted when they saw the broken body of Sarah's mother.

"I'm sorry to have think that of you" said Sarah as she was kneeling next to her"…I'm really sorry to have think that you did not love me. I will take care of Myriam. I…promise that…."

Sarah had been always been dead serious about this, but the recent events had made her even more determined. If after killing her own mother, she could not even save her little sister…

One agent of the Gestapo moved to arrest Sarah. He had obviously not been told that Sarah could be dangerous. Without even turning away, she…dispatched…him, by whacking him on the bookcase. His spine broke soon, and he collapsed on the floor like a broken doll. This had a rather calming effect on the two others. Sarah quickly spotted the one that had a smoking handgun in his hand. This one…this was very, very, very personal. She pinned him in place with her Vectors, and stabbed him with the kitchen knife. Why she had taken such a way to kill ? The most probable explanation was that the _Human _part of her had been deeply, deeply hurt, hence the pretty "normal" way of killing. All those events made the last man of the Gestapo crawl into a corner of the room, too shocked to try to scream: what the heck was this girl ?

Sarah, meanwhile, was struggling to find a way between two objectives: kill everyone in the building, in Praha at whole, and go back at her hiding place, with Myriam.

"…Sarah…give me that…Give me that…the knife…please…please…."

The croaked voice of her mother, who was still alive, brought back Sarah to reality. A rather puzzled Sarah handed her the knife. Her mother hastily grasped it-and did nothing else.

Then Sarah understood, in a flash. Her mother wanted to take the crime on her ! As she was going to die there, this could help her elder daughter to escape. After all, the agents of the Gestapo could have been killed by more or less normal means, not invisible hands…

"….No…." said Sarah, who was now fully aware of the situation. That she was going to see her mother die in the next minutes, with her completely powerless about it. Her "gift" could shield, could heal at some point (she remembered starkly how she had been able one time to heal a scratch Myriam had. One of the rare time she had been happy to have this wretched gift of her)…but not that kind of wounds. Still, not knowing what she was doing, she…let the Diclonius part of her try to use the Vectors for this. Completely hopeless. There were not only the bullet wounds, but also the crippling injuries of the previous interrogations.

Still, this managed to give to her mother a couple of minutes more. A thing that the mother of Sarah was quite grateful for. Sarah did notice something, however, but this never was formulated in a conscious thought. Why her mother was not showing more surprise of the turn events were taking ? The answer, _that she had seen what Vectors could do in the last days_-hence some of her cuts-was of course almost impossible to her to guess, or even apprehend.

"C'mon, Sarah, I….don't have the time for this. Listen…The drawer chest…near the oven. Remove the top one. There…take what is there, okay ? It's for you, and for Myriam. Quick…"

Sarah did that, and understood what her mother had meant. There was an item tucked between the chest drawer and the drawer itself-Sarah picked it, not thinking to watch it…

"I'm sorry…that the best thing I found….I hope this would be enough to hide both of you…."

Sarah tried to say something, but she had never been very good with oral expression, and this situation was the kind of one that left someone speechless. She did thought, however, about asking her mother what was this supposed to be. She began to ask this question, but her mother was no longer hearing her….she was rather trying to say something to Sarah that she judged critical. The answer would have been probably more helpful, but she _needed _to say that….

"When I saw you for the first time, I…I did not thought like your father. I did not found that you were an abomination…I found out that you were so pretty, with those little horns…"

Her voice trailed off, for a rather obvious reason. A mesmerized Gestapo agent finally snapped out, and began screaming for help…Not for long. He was really at the wrong place at the wrong time. A sort of dark veil fell on Sarah. She began to cry, as she used her Vectors to ram the man into one window-another "accident". The last sentence of her mother….this was a very kind demonstration of love, of affection, but honestly, it was…it was just making things worse for Sarah. She should have been happy of having hear such a kind comment, but now…

Sarah still have enough "Human" attitude to realize that she had to flee. She did that...As the building had been emptied, no one heard the screams of the agents of the Gestapo. That said, this would not last, and someone was bound to find, any time, the bodies (especially the one that had made an accelerated trip from the current floor to the very first floor) She hurried down to the first floor. Sarah could not get like this in the streets. She had to calm down. She had to find what she would say to Myriam about their mother...To do this, she hide herself...on the first floor.

I bring despair, tragedy, whatever I do…My own mother ended up dead, because of me. They will hunt me down, because of what I did…Not only because of my origins, but because…because of them…of this cursed gift of mine…I may even end up to be the cause of the death of my little sister…I…I love her so much. I can't do that. I…I have to find something, to hide her.

It's only after a while that Sarah thought about looking more closely at the item that her mother had handed her. Sarah recalled now-her mother had placed something carefully in this drawer BEFORE leaving for her last attempt to gain visas to Swiss. So, obviously, this was not related to this. Judging by her mother last word, this was rather an possibility for an hiding place….

What the ? This was one of those things Catholics used for honouring the Virgin Mary…beads on a string, to mark prayers to her, with at the end a pious representation of the Holy Mother (The Czechs were rather Protestant than Catholic, but still, Sarah had seen many Catholics in her life…for instance, Slovaks, or German soldiers from Bavaria or Austria. About the later category, many of them apparently missed a point concerning the origins of the lady that they venerated so devoutly: the fate that awaited Myriam-especially considering that the actual name of the Virgin Mary was indeed Myriam-if she was captured was a clear sign of those conceptions…)

Sarah did not exactly had a good opinion of established religion-the fact that according to all religions, she was the exact depiction of a demon did not helped. This was why Myriam strange comment about her being an angel had shaken her to the core. Her mother was not exactly pious (and moreover, obviously, she would not have been pious in an Christian way), so why...

Then, Sarah understood what her mother had meant. She…had succeeded. She had, finally, found a way to hide her two daughters, until the war had end. Or rather, had been working on this. But this was better than nothing. (All this, one more time, tore apart Sarah's heart-knowing that all this was because of her, because she had been stupid enough to tell about her…her condition)

With the…darkness…growing within her, Sarah was not sure, at all, that she could go there-if she did something (like surrendering to this voice), this would affect Myriam too…No. This…this exit door would be for Myriam. Alone. Tomorrow morning, Sarah would began to search for finding what was the precise denomination of the pious medal.

Her thoughts were perturbed by voices. Real ones. Weber and the Japanese were coming back ! They were walking in the stairs, going back to the appartment...

"I seriously wonder why Fegelein had bothered to call us at such a time..."

"Hard to known. It was rather urgent, apparently. With the line that had been cut so quickly...I wonder if this means that the...Leader...is growing impatient with the results..."

Sarah felt like she had been stabbed. This meant that her situation was even worse...This was nothing, however, to what she felt when she heard the next sentence of the professor... 

"We still have the other one to began the research-this…what did you say, professor ?"

"Carrier or Drone…It's not as good as a real Queen, but this is a way to begin work…"

There is another like you…like us. I'm...not alone...what...what should I do...

_((C'mon Sarah, you know like me what this means. YOU are the cause of this situation))_

The thought horrified Sarah, and kinda numbed her. Because this was true...She only came out of this state when she was on her way to her hiding place. She collapsed, in tears, next to Myriam...who was wide awake, and was rather puzzled, distressed by the state of her sister...

**Ten minutes later, in the apartment. **

Kakuzawa felt quite angered by the death of this woman-he had tried to hide it to the Nazis, to keep her for his personal experiences, but in his opinion, a woman able to give birth to Queens, even if apparently only in 50 of the cases, was priceless. The results he had get with the…female guinea pigs….that Unit 731 provided to him had been rather dreadful.

With this one, he was _sure _that he would have been able to "get" live Diclonius, with full powers and capacities, for his twisted goals (he of course did not exactly considered her opinion on this matter) Well…if she _was _the mother of a Queen. Kakuzawa was not sure of this, right now.

"Of course not" he mumbled. "She cannot have Human feelings. Besides, everyone in the whole building would be dead by now, if she had truly awakened-she is just a worthless Human girl-"

Kakuzawa musing were interrupted by the very last thing that he could have excepted here. Men bursting in the room, armed, and shouting. (Well, it was not exactly an unused sight in Europe. At the current time, however, this was somewhat surprising for Nazis and their allies)Kakuzawa thought for a second about an action by a Resistance group (like those f… bastards in Harbin, that had destroyed such precious research) but he quickly noticed that those men were Germans.

"The Abwher ! What the-" (Weber seemed to have a pretty good idea of what was happening. He tried to impress those men from the Military Intelligence with his connections)...

"I fear that you connections with Fegelein and Himmler will not save you this time" quietly said one of the newcomer. "Lieutenant, you were stationed in Briansk in the 1941 winter ?"

Weber could hardly protest that, since his…colourful…depiction of his actions in 1941 had been the source of his current job. He did not wanted, at any cost, to return on the Eastern Front...

"Apparently, you are the lone survivor of one unit ambushed by the _241, _right ?"

Weber felt nervous, just by hearing that. He was one of the ones that Sovorov wanted to kill in top priority-he had only escaped thanks to his "rear command style". The fact that his…connections…in Berlin were grateful for his capture of Natalya had also helped for his speedy removal from the hell that was the Eastern Front. Being afraid of the wrath of a lone Russian girl was somewhat strange, but with Sovorov, this was a sort of normal reaction…

"Of course…I…escaped after heroic resistance..." (official version, of course...)

"Well, there is another possibility. That Sovorov let you go deliberately, because of a service…"

"This is ridiculous. Sovorov want me _dead_. Personally. You know this..."

"In this case, why the Red Valkyrie herself-she had been formally identified-was sent by the STAVKA to destroy _Red Orchestra _files in Kharkov that clearly identified you as an informer ?"

Weber had the impression that the ground was collapsing under his feet. He tried to formulate an explanation…but he knew that this was hopeless. Whatever Sovorov had planned was probably a deathtrap in all the senses in the word. She had quite an hatred for him. How she had managed to get the Abwher into this ? How she could have known the very carefully kept secret that the Abwher and the SS were more or less into a undeclared war ? How she had managed to play on this ? He did not know, but he was sure that this was within her capacities…

Weber was quicklyarrested, and if Kakuzawa remained free, he could not do much for Weber...

Bah. Weber thought that this was not _that _bad. He certainly got out of this better than Major Ludgen, who had been at Stalingrad-he had maybe handed up in her hands…He had rather probably ended up in her hands, since Sorovov obviously knew enough about Weber duties to trap him. In any case, he was in for major troubles for a couple of weeks, but Fegelin and Borman would get him out of this, for sure. This was just a bad moment to survive too…

Weber did not knew that he had "crossed" not one, but _two _females that were ready to go very, very far for vengeance. Technically, they were ready to go up to Berlin, to make him pay for his actions, both the ones committed up to this point, and the (far worse) ones he would commit...


	21. Chapter Twenty: Mayu

**Somewhere in Yokosuka...**

"Mayu, you are so nice...I will never, never forget about that...this is wonderful..."

Nana had the knack for saying things at the wrong moment. For instance, such a declaration in the middle of a shopping mall had the result of making more than a couple heads turn, since Nana, in excitement, had said this in a rather loud voice this sentence that was somewhat strange in the mouth of 14 years girl, especially while thinking that this concerned merely a frozen treat...

Nana had not a taste for ice cream. It was a _passion_. If she had been allowed to, she would have eaten almost only that. And she was especially liking this _Gelatto _thing Mayu had just paid her...

She had already eaten three servings. With the prices there was there, this was bound to be a very pricey afternoon...a thing that did not mattered much for Nana, who still have a rather sketchy understanding of what was money. Mayu, whose relations with the thing was quite different, could have been appaled by the behaviour of Nana...but the younger Diclonius was so cheerfull that it was very hard to have hosile feelings for her. Besides, this was technically _her _money that she and Mayu used on their modest spending spree, so...why if she found entertainement in little things ? This was a trait of character that was rather admirable, honestly...

Nana comment made reference to the mere fact that Mayu had suggested her to try _gelatto _instead of traditionnal ice cream. The small portion had initially dispirited Nana, but as soon as she had tasted this...hmm ! This was not the first time that Nana showcased such a passion, but this was certainly one of the most intense time. This pushed Mayu to ask to her friend a very basic question, a rather natural one...but with Nana, there was no such things as easy questions

"Why you like so much ice cream ? I mean...you like ramen, rice, cookies...but it's really ice cream that you love the most ?" (a very cheerful Nana nodded as Mayu said that)

"Oh, it's just because Daddy let me taste some of this, once…I enjoyed that a lot…."

A moment of silence. Mayu did not have the hostility of Yuka concerning Kurama.

No. It was worse. It was dozen of times worse. This monster had abused of the trust of Nana. He had tricked her into accepting monstruous things. This was even worse that what Mayu's stepfather had done to her...No. It was the same kind of thing. Her stepfather had tried everything to make her shut up. Giving her small stuff to keeping her quiet. Telling her that this was _her _fault too...And...and Mayu had accepted this, for a while. There had been times when...when she accepted to shut up, because her stepfather had promised her to buy things if she submitted. With the obviousgoal of saying, later on, that Mayu...was just a ...a...He had told this to her countless times. This...this was partly why she was sympathizing with Nana: similar fates. Similar despair. Nana looked to be more or less aware of this situation, for some reason...The fact that she sometimes eyed curiously Mayu when the girl was talking about her family was a clear hint of this. Mayu felt bad about lying about this to Kouta, Yuka, and the others...

Well, _Lucy _was almost certainly aware of the situation. Mayu got very nervous at the thought. Lucy reaction had been rather friendly, but certainly frightening. Who was this Natsume that she had mentionned ? The circumstances in which she Lucy had...pushed, to say the least...Mayu to talk about the situation, some weeks ago, was certainly a good hint about the whole thing...

What angered sometimes Mayu was the fact that _she _had to flee. _She _had to live in the streets. _She _had to lie each day to her friends. All this made that...the protest she had voiced when Lucy had told her that she would be _delighted _to take care of stepfateher was less than a token protest...

Chassing the thought about Lucy/Nyu (besides, she was Nyu those days...and very busy, as Yuka was frantically trying to "brief" her about behaving in a way that could _look _normal), Mayu thought about the current situation...Could telling her experience to Nana could be a good thing ?

This would certainly be good _for her. _And for Nana too. Nana trusted her...she had shared with Mayu her darkest memories. Maybe doing the same would show to Nana that Mayu trusted her...

_And if I told her about my stepfather...would this help her to realize the truth about Kurama ? Or she would rather think that what...that what he done to her was not _that _bad ? How to blame her to think like that...I still think, at times, that my life could have been worse...if I had been born with horns, like her. She...she have told me everything...This allow me to...to judge her. I should do the same thing. I should...tell her about what he did to me. When...this will be the good time._

"The good time" would have to be triggered, however...Like Yuka, Mayu was trying to open the eyes of Nana. As Nana saw her as a friend/sister rather than a mother figure (like this was likely the case for Yuka), _maybe _this would be easier if Mayu was the one doing the talking...

Mayu took a deep breath, and decided to try, one more time, to raise the subject...

"Ah ?" finally said Mayu. "This is interesting...How this happened, Nana ?"

Mayu saw clearly that a part of the happiness present in the eyes of Nana moved away...

"Well, I'm almost sure it was flavoured chocolate, and not actual one, but still, this was _so good_-"

"Nana, this was not I was asking...How...why he gave you this ? Why you liked it..."

"Like you", said innocently Nana, "he gave ne this a reward because I had been nice…."

The "nice" part refered to the whole shopping event in Yokosuka. In fact, this had proceeded amazingly well, when speaking off the social abilities of Nana. Not a single _faux pas. _Nana had behaved mostly like a perfectly normal Human girl-except her excitement over certain things...

This decision to send them to Yokosuka instead of Kamakura was straight from Yuka. Currently, it was a safe bet that most commercial zones of Yokosuka were under watch. Yokosuka was certainly safer for the little things Nana still needed. Yuka had began to "prepare" Nana for the departure toward Hokkaido. She had already found the hotel where she was going to "hide" her for a couple of days (with, to make things easier for her, at least twenty litres of ice cream, of all flavours, tucked into the room bar….) As Yuka was aware that she would "trap" Nana into this room, in a situation not unlike her previous life, the Human girl had at least tried to find a good hotel…an luxurious one, even. This time, with Yuka's own money. (This point was...nagging Mayu. She liked to pay treats to Nana, too, but she had trouble doing this-the best she could was to pay for things like the gelatto..with Nana's own money. This was not right)

The hotel was complete with an large swimming pool. Recalling how she was excited, when she was young, about the possibility of swimming, Yuka had decided to use this as a "selling point" for showing to Nana the good point of the trip. The results had been an even more enthousiast answer of Nana, who had carefully kept secret the fact that she had trouble with the concept...

Nana was not sure of what exactly this "swimming" thing meant. She understood the basic concept (go in water), but she had never figured out why Yuka had made such a fuss when she had took Nana and Nyu to the beach. She had complained because Nyu had walked into the water fully clothed. This, Nana could understand, but she had trouble with Yuka's other reaction, when Nana had, mindful of not damaging her clothes, had removed them. This what you were doing when bathing, no ? Or rather, Nana had started to remove them, before Yuka told her that this was inappropriate. Fortunately, Nana had not done a similar thing today, when she was trying the different swimsuits/clothes that she and Nana were supposed to buy in Yokosuka...

Still, even if she had no go strolling with this in the shopping mall, Mayu had to admit that Nana's pick for swimsuit was maybe a little audacious...(even if Mayu had to admit that Nana was…striking…in this amethyst two pieces, that was on the verge of being tiny)

Complete with _pareos, _and various clothing that looked great on her, Nana was certainly a very attractive girl...and she was somewhat conscious of it. How to explain, otherwise, her question to Mayu, as she was asking her opinion on a yet smalller swimsuit ? _Do you find me cute into this _?

Mayu, on this point, was ill placed to spoke on this matter. She had answered, without thinking that, yes, she thought that Nana was _gorgeous _into this. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.

The saleswoman, who had then made to a colleague a puzzling comment about a couple of French female tourists that had come recently (apparently, Nana recalled her the younger French girl...Mayu was sure that this meant that the two French girls were, ahem, close), had a very positive attitude: she had said, very sincerly, that this was _kawai _to see girls so much in love...

Mayu had managed to walk out of this, while avoiding an explanation on the whole concept of _love _and _like, _with Nana. This was immediatly after, in part for preventing her to think too much ot the comment, that Mayu had decided to stop with Nana to eat a little something...

In any case, this little event had been more fun than anything else...Not like what was to come.

"Nana", continued Mayu , "I...did not pay you ice cream because you were a "nice girl". I paid you ice cream because you _like it_, and because I wanted to do something to please you..."

"This is exactly what happened with Daddy. He gave me some of this because he knew I-"

Nana did not specified that this had been the only solid food that she had eaten in years. This was not necessary, as Mayu realized this. So...even the so cute, so kiddy trait of Nana liking ice-cream was related to a dark thing ? What wretched life this poor girl had been forced to live...

"Nana, how...how could he know that you liked it ? What you did to have this reward. ?"

Ah, she should not said that. Yuka looked to be a lot less happy than before, now…

Another "chunk" of cheerfulness vanished in Nana's eyes. She knew where this was leading...

"…Well, they…needed to test something, and this required that I told them honestly what I was feeling. He told me that if I did it, he would gave me a treat…a surprise…"

Mayu was outraged with this. This recalled her furiously the conduct of her step-father...who had made to her similar offers. "Shut up, and I will (insert a tiny thing, that coud please a young girl)

"I see", Mayu managed to say in a neutral tone...What you needed to do in exchange..."

"Oh...oh not much. You see, the...reward made this much easier to me..."

"Nana. What you had to do ? " (Mayu said this in a much harsher tone that she had wanted to)

"Not...not much, actually. I just had to tell them how I was feeling...you know...to see if the razor blades where just annoying to me, or if they prevented me to…to…do stuff…"

Up to this point, Nana's conversation _could _have been made by a normal girl. The comment about the razors blades just...just cut that. In front of Mayu, there was no longer a girl who was excited over ice-cream, but a former guinea pig, who had been tortured during years...

"Do you know, Nana, that this thing probably took to him two minutes to buy ?" finally managed to utter a deeply shocked Mayu. Nana, for her part, was...was almos on the verge of tears...

_This is so difficult...I...I can't tell her about Mitsune. Maybe if I used a different way..._

Nana recalled a plot device in her favourite movie. The old man knew that the truth could hurt the young hero. About his daddy being a bad person. So, he invented a tale, to tell him what had happened, without outright lying ! Yes, this was the thing to do. Unfortunately, Nana had a rather limited "bank" to make up her story...this was going to look very, very strange...

"…you know, I have been trying to read some of your books, Yuka. I…I have came on a story, you know…It was about two sisters, that looked alike. Twin girls who had a very sad life..."

Nana took a good minute to think about that. Yuka had gave to Nana carefully chosen books, to cheer her up. Stories about depressive people with wretched lives where maybe exactly what she needed, not to mention that this would be problematic with her currently limited reading skills. And she was quite sure that there was not such a story in those books. _Which meant that Nana had made up the "I read that" part. _This meant that the sister part…had actually occured ?

What followed for the next minutes was a rather weird tales, about two princesses that had rings with magical powers, and one of them turning bad because of the ring (that point, obviously, could have been lifted from one of the books Nana liked the most...) What Mayu noted was the pain that Nana took to explain that both sisters liked each other, after all, very much...

The interest to the story made that Mayu did not noticed that the breath of Nana was getting irregular, that her voice pace was increasing...the terrible memories she was telling was as bad as any armed agression toward her. Especially...especially that, once she started to _tell _the story, she realized plainly the lies, the half-truths, everything they have used against her on the island...

_They...laughed of me. They always did that. They joked about how I was submissive. They told me that once I would no longer be useful, I would end like Mitsune. They did not respected me the slighest bet because I was good girl. They thought that I was an idiot, a DOLL for them ! _

"So, the...the bad princess say that she could not stand anymore, and, and the dragon and king..."

_And Daddy watched her. And Daddy was there, after she had been crippled. _

"and to punish her of using her magic, the dragon decided to...to bury her alive, and..."

_He did not say a word. He did not tried to help her. He let Kakuzawa do that to her, alive..._"

"Then…she go straight to Hell…to Hell…her sister watched her…she watched her…they forced her to watch, to teach her a lesson. No. They…done that just for the fun of it..."

Mayu realized that Nana's voice was changing-a process she knew, since it had happened sometimes with Nyu. A couple of other sentences, and Nana would have told to Mayu about a very important thing to her. But...she was growing hostile. She would probably not harm Mayu in this state. No...the harm would for herself. Mayu had to stop her. And she know how,.

Nana stopped suddenly. Mayu, whose cheeks were bloodred, had just kissed her on the forehead...This...calmed her, at once. Unlike Nyu/Lucy, there was not clear distinction between Nana and the Hostile Nana (or, to take Nana's own conception, between Seven and Three...)

This was slightly...hmm...delicate to do in a little restaurant, in the midst of a shopping mall (and Mayu noted, with disdain, that Nana's horrible tale did not raise attention...while two girls kissing _did _draw the attention of many, many men nearby...) Nana did not looked to be much disturbed. She was looking at Mayu in a strange manner. Oh, oh ,oh...

Mayu had a certain interest for American cartoons. In any case, this had gave her an almost perfect expression for expressing her feelings about the pertinence of her action. _DOH ! _

This impression vanished quickly, as Nana moved to kiss her back in turn. On the lips. And...well, with what could be labelled as passion: Mayu felt very clearly Nana's own lips and tongue moving on her lips...it's lasted for a good half minute. Nana was clearly _delighted. _

And she topped it with _the _sentence that would convince manage to convince every single person watching them that she and Mayu were, err, intimate (which made Mayu go even redder...)

"You know", she said all smiling, "your lips taste very, very, very good, Mayu..."

Mayu managed to mumble something, while noting that Nana's comment looked...looked _strange._ Did she had picked this expression somewhere ? Mayu made a mental note to told to Yuka to check a little more what Nana was watching on TV. Or rather, make sure that Kouta delete is vast, vast collection of works where two female characters could say such things...

Nana felt, one more time, really lost. Visibly, she had done something that had displeased to Mayu. What this could be ? When Nana had kissed Mayu, days ago, as they were bathing (to try if this had the same effect with Mayu then with Nyu. Answer: no. Mayu was...special for Nana) Mayu had not the same reaction. She had even looked to be quite pleased by this-Mayu disliked deeply the "tickling", but this was not the same for the more...discrete...shows of affection.

Then, Nana saw it. This was probably a sort of secret thing, again...Maybe the people around them were not supposed to know ? Nana eyed curiously the people sat at tables next to them. If there was some hostile looks, most people were...interested, at the very least...

In any case, Mayu's intervention had chased away most of the hostility of Nana.

Nana was still slightly worried...but _nothing _compared to what she felt some minutes later. Like someone had just stabbed her. And...and this was her punition, because she had been a bad girl.

Nana, with dread, was realizing something. Mitsune was a very lonely, very desperate girl. Very angry. Very hostile. Diclonius "sixth sense" worked a lot with agression. Mitsune had been quite visible, in this way. Someone had sensed it. Someone walking toward them right now.

And Nana knew the Diclonius girl that was coming here. And this was making her heart jump in her chest. She was so afraid that it's took her a good two, three minutes, to gather her spirits, and manage to say something to a rather startled Mayu. Nana realized, with horror, that this delay, that her fear, had allowed the ennemy to come _much _closer. They were almost to the mall...

"Nana ! Nana ! Snap out of it !" (Mayu said this in a rather low voice, to avoid making the situation even worse. To top Nana's peculiar sentences, there had been her strange story, then Mayu's kiss, Nana's even weirder declaration, and her looking aghast for two minutes...)

"She...I don't know how this is possible, but she is coming...Mayu...she...she is after me. She is laughing of me. I...I don't have a chance against her...I don't wan't to go back there, I..."

Nana was saying this with a terror-striken voice. She had to bit her lips, to be able to talk.

Mayu did not lost time by asking to Nana who was coming, and how she had sensed it. Her reaction was a pretty good hint of it. While trying to calm her friend, she paid up for the gelattos.

After that, she led Nana away. Nana was trying to focus her mind, but the fear of being recaptured...of being one more time being beaten, laughed at, treated like a toy, was too much.

Especially considering that Daddy was dead. No one would love her, at the facility. No one would be nice with her. Would they even allow her to live, once they would have forced her to say what she knew about Lucy/Nyu. Probably not...even if Nana could live a very normal life with her false limbs, this was not enough to be allowed to be a guinea pig there...

And...and Nana did not wanted to either die, or to return there. She wanted to say with Mayu, with Yuka, with Nyu, with Kouta.. But even afraid, Nana was able to think clearly.

Like right now. She was trying to see if there were not others options..._She _would be unable to fend off the ones that would come against them. _Mitsune _could be able to fight against them.

Sure, Nana prefered to be...Nana, and not be a...a.bad girl. It's not that she did not understood Mitsune to be so angry. It's just that she knew that the stuff she liked to do was...was awful. The fact that Nana was very well aware that, in reality, Mitsune and her were the same person (even if Nana's conclusion on the matter were a little peculiar: far from thinking that Mitsune had a different "soul" than her own, or that Mitsune soul had somehow jammed herself in her body, Nana was deep down sure that Mitsune was what she would have been if the money piece had landed on the other side. A rather disturbing conception, to say the least) did not prevented her to realize that doing the same actions than Lucy was a thing to avoid at any cost. At any cost.

At the cost of Mayu's very own life ? Nana had not said this to the poor Mayu, but...well, Mayu's life, happiness, mattered to her. Like the others members of the Kaede's household.

It was just that Mayu was...well, special, for her. There was no doubts for her: if Mayu was ever threatened, she...she would defend her as long as possible as a good girl. If this was not enough...

Nana's looked at her prostethics arms and legs. She could live with them. It's was even a happy life. But Mayu was without Vectors. If the Diclonius realized that Nana liked Mayu, she was _sure _that, just to harm Nana, the other Diclonius would do to Mayu what Lucy had done her...

And then, an alarm began to ring. This made Nana shiver even more. This recalled her the darkest days at the facility...when such an alarm had been raised, after...after her own sister had been murdered. All those very dark considerations put her in a kind of second state...

Mayu, who was certainly less exposed, could afford to try to identify who was coming, while motionning her friend to move away. And sure, there _was _something bad coming at them. Vehicles were stopped next to the main entrance, and suspicious folks were checking the people that were hastily evacuating the shopping mall, thanks to the fire alarm that had been ringed...

Among those individuals, there was of course individuals with the mercenary type...

And also US servicemen, from the Seventh Fleet, in uniforms and in weapons. A dozen of them.

The mere presence of armed soldiers was sufficient to motivate people to move away, rather fast. Who know ? It was maybe a terrorist attack, or something like that. The thing was, Mayu and Nana could hardly hope to pass in front of them...since the Diclonius was very, very near.

They feigned to move toward the exit, then darted in an little hallway near the gates. Neither Mayu and Nana had much experience into escaping grunts. What motivated Mayu was mostly the service staircase. She was more than a little worried by the fact that it was more than likely that, once she pushed the door to the service staircase, a new alarm would ring...

Mayu tried, by overhearing conversations, to figure out what was happening. Apparently the Americans, which were within meters of her were completly unaware of the situation. They were chatting about this right now, wondering, in English, what the hell they were doing here. Those soldiers were not stupid to the point of not being aware that being ordered by Japanese officials to do an police operation in Yokosuka was really strange, orders from their own officers or not...

"I'm telling you, the lieutenant must be blackmailed by the _Yakuzas, _or something like this..."

"This will end up _bad_. Those guys...are...are...weirdoes, to say the least, and...

The two American soldiers stopped to chat suddenly. Mayu could not see it, but it was because one of the «weirdoes» had moved toward them. The soldiers had suddenly realized that this man was likely to be able to understand English. They returned to their passive crowd control role.

The sais crowd control was going rather quickly. The agents of Kakuzawa did not even bothered to ask for papers-they knew very well that their target was not moving toward them...

Once the place would be empty, however, well, they would be able to search extensively in the mall. And, on this pont...time was running out. The people moving for the main exit was dwindling. Mayu had hoped for a kind of improvment over the situation, but now...

"Nana, calm down...where...where is the Diclonius ? the other one..." she tried to ask...

"I don't know...I just don't know" said sheepishly Nana. "She is getting closer...but...but..."

Nana just did not know, indeed. The Diclonius sixth sense was usually not very precise, and Nana was so afraid that this was disrupting it: she was «feeling» the Diclonius next to the main door, but also just in front of her (where there was nothing but thin air), above her, below her...

Mayu, hoping that this would not end in disaster, pressed the door. She did not overheard the Americans and goons yelling outside about the new alarm. Maybe they had a chance, after all. This service staircase lead to the rooftop. This was a start. Once they would be there, maybe an opportunity would present itself. But...reaching this relative haven was going to be problematic. Mayu had, more and more, to help her friend to move. She was so nervous that she had now trouble to use her legs and arms, which was going to slow them down _a lot, _and Nana was very conscious of this. She was feeling ashamed at the thought. Especially when she tripped down very hard on her «knees»: with real legs, she would have ended up quite bloodied...

Her left leg almost flew away, and Nana's breath was knocked off. Mayu let her catch her breath, pause a little...and realized, at this time, that there was now perfect silence. The mall had been evacuated. The fire alarm had been shutted up. But the staircase alarm was not ringing...Startled, Mayu took a deep breath. They were next to another door. Mayu pushed it...Nothing.

Mayu's heart sank when shen realized that this was...too easy. _The alarms for the staircase had been desativated. The doors had been unlocked..._Was she leading Nana in a sort of trap ?

"Mayu"...said weakly Nana. "I...if I stay here, you can go away, you know ?"

Mayu protests were as sincere as they were utterly conventional. She would not do this...

Nana was so overwhelmed with a feeling of dread that she did not really listened...

"Can I have a farewell kiss, however ? Plize, this would be very nice of you..."

Nana was mortified that Mayu blushed at her offer. On TV, this worked _so well._. Maybe she should have topped this with this thing they usually did after...the...the...ah, yes, the _strip tease. _Seriously, Nana was just curious. She liked this whole kissing concept. It's made her feel good.

She liked to be close of Mayu. She had to...to be very cautious, however. Mayu was obviously not very keen on this issue. Nana had understood, thanks to deduction and some broken sentences of Nyu, as well as mumblings of Lucy sometimes, that this was a similar thing that had put a strain on the friendship of Lucy and her friend. Besides, just looking at Mayu lips was...

On this very precise point, the fact that Mayu lips had the taste of this so tasty _gelatto _(hence explaining the fact the, ahem, passion, Nana had put in her kiss. As well as the very sincere comment on the lips that tasted good...) was just a sort of very neat bonus for Nana..

_Besides...I like Mayu not just for the tickling. Just being with her make me feel good. And, well, for the tickling_, _Nyu is always very, very willing. _(Nana's train of tought could have been voiced in quite different terms, to say the least...)Just thinking to the good aspects of her life helped Nana to regain some focus. If she died...no more ice cream and ramen. No more Mayu and Nyu. No more vacations with Yuka in the OKKADO place. No more...so many things.

She raised back to her feet, and continued to follow Mayu up to the rooftop (maybe, after,she could ask as a reward kiss...but maybe this was better to wait for a more strategic moment. She was not as good as Number Four on this-the thought briefly made Nana frown. Bah, at least, Number Four was not very hostile-but she could have an idea of the feelings of Human for her. It was very good for her to know that Mayu's reaction to her kiss had been rather warm...)

Mayu, in addition of having to deal with her feelings concerning Nana actions, had to think about their escape. Now, she was overhearing Japanese instructions shouted to the Americans. Rather drastic. Nana was labelled as a target, and she should be fired upon ASAP. Apparently, they had not been briefed, at all, on what Diclonius could do when they feel to be threatened...

Then, Mayu understood it, in a flash. _This was supposed to end up this way._ One of the agents of Kakuzawa would fire at Nana...she would, well, turn hostile. Maybe end up like Lucy.

With her limbs (or lack of the said limbs) she would never be able to hold long against trained soldiers, who would almost certainly fire on her once she started to hack away.

US servicemen involved in the slaying of Japanese civilian...a pure nightmare for Washington.

_Of course, _they would not be able to _hide _something this big. But many would think, in Japan, that the murders in Kamakura were related to an obscure conspiration of the Americans...

And there was also the added advantage that witnesses would remember the Americans who had entered the place gun blazing, not the non-descript Japanese agents that were with them...

Finally, the pair reached the roof. For doing what ? Jumping to the next building was not really an option, with the distance involved. Mayu was about to ask Nana for suggestions, when she noticed that, one more time, her friend was looking in thin air, with startled eyes...

Nana had just felt that the Diclonius girl _knew _where she was. And...something else, too...

"Sorry, little ladies, trying to escape by the rooftops is very, very classic…."

Nana and Mayu then saw an foreigner woman (Russian ?), quite smiling, advance toward them...

"Might I ask why you are on a rooftop right now ?" she asked, in a friendly tone...

Mayu managed to grasp the basics of the situation...Those guys were after _Nana_, since they had with them a Diclonius-they were using this poor girl as a sort of living radar...This woman was a a sort of bonus for them, probably. No...upon seeing those grunts, the interloper had thought that they had been sent after her. Of course, there was the issue of knowing _why _this woman thought that they were after her.And then, Nana curiosity kicked on, at the wrong time. She was puzzled by the situation, and voiced, in her most innocent voice, _the _worse question...

"Miss...excuse me...did you were hold up there too ?" finally asked Nana.

9


	22. Chapter Twenty One: Tu n'es rien

**Yokosuka, same place, same time...**

Finally, Japan was not that bad, after all. For instance, Tatso _loved _shopping in the area.

It was just that the food was...well, Tatso did not liked it, despite her best efforts. For instance, this _ramen _thing...Well, despite all her nibbling, she could not bring herself to eat it. Even if she nitpicked away all the meat, well...she just hated this...

Still, she was enjoying this short break in the shopping mall. If only this had not been interrupted by an alarm, and armed soldiers barging in. (This, on the other hand, was not exactly a surprise, for Tatso, who had seen several times in her youth such things...)

Because of her recent actions, Tatso could not dismiss the possibility that those guys were here for arresting her, on some made-up charge. The presence of «normal» soldiers was a somewhat good news. Still, Tatso had decided that caution was the mother of all virtues.

She had hastily retreated toward the roof, planning to wait there, to see how the situation would turn. And this was there that she had found that this very classical idea had been used.

As she was coming toward them, Tatso sighed. Those two must had been shoplifting when the place was evacuated. They must had thought that the police was coming for them...well, or something like that. At least, this was Tatso's initial idea, which changed rather quickly when she saw the girl with reddish hair, and her cute little ribbon. The girls that she had saw with Xu, when Kate was talking a little walk...The eyes and skill color of Nana really excited her curiosity, not to mention, of course, this ribbbon. All this was nothing when Nana asked her cautiously if she had been detained back at the facility. For a confirmation, it was a confirmation. The dark haired gal, however, looked at her very suspiciously. She obviously thought that Tatso presence here was not natural, and not accidental too (which was true !)

Likewise, for Tatso, the presence of those twogirls on the roof was suspicious too. The issue being that she did not feel threatened, at all, by them, while the reverse was quite true (according to her. The reality was quite different, of course). She was touched, however, by the obvious fact that the dark-haired one was very, very, very protective of her friend.

Tatso had a sort of bad feeling about it...about the fact that the red-haired girl was probably like Kateé It was a safe bet to think that this poor girl did not had much easier life than Kate...It was hard to believe than a girl with such a rare disease could be there by "accident". Her comment...rather obviously meant that she had evaded from the island too ?

On this point, Tatso's japanese was average, but far enough to realize that the girl employed rather childish expressions. Still, a very good sign ! Maybe Kate would be able to talk, a day.

"Ok, little ladies" said after a while Tatso. "I think you recall me. I certainy recall you...I would be glad to discuss with you over many subjects...but it's maybe not the right time. So, listen, I have a sort of deal for you. You don't trust me, it's normal. So...I will help you..."

Mayu looked with more than suspicion at the woman. _Help you _like leading them in a trap ?

"You have nothing, nothing to do. I will...find a way to make those soldiers go. Just stay here...No string attached. At all". (Of course, there _was _a string attached. Tatso hoped that she would gain the trust of those girls...and maybe, some info. It could have been simpler to interrogate on the spot, but...recalling the facility, Tatso did not wanted to do _anything _that could be remotely associated with coercition...she was not one those bastards)

The dark-haired one manifested at once her doubt, but with a gesture, her friend stopped her.

Nana...trusted this lady. She could not say why. No. She could not say it to Mayu...

Feeling moved by this show of trust, Tatso, before moving inside, decided to have a chat. Just to let the girl know that...well, Tatso understood, more or less, what was her situation.

"You do know, by the way, that we may have a common friend ? I think you met with her..."

This sentence could meant as well as "you met her a day ago" as "you were with her on the island", and Nana perceived this clearly. But she was so _sure _that this woman knew about her

"...yes. I...saw her, recently. I think you were with her...you and another friend..."

"I saw both of you, too. You looked to be rather distressed, I must say..."

Nana took a deep breath upon hearing this. Mitsune...it's made her think _again _of Mitsune. Which was the last thing she wanted at the moment, because Mitsune was very, very angryabout the events. Mitsune wanted to protect Mayu, to hack anyone that would harm her...that _could _harm her. She was also badly jealous of Four, who had been a much worse _bad girl _then her, and ended up alive, well, and free (three things that sorely lacked to Mitsune). And this lady...she was irritating Mitsune, too, deeply, with her comments...

"On this point" continued kindly the lady, is there something that you wish to say to me ?"

Nana was really, really...torn appart. Shall she told the woman about Four ? From her comments, she looked to be nice with her. Maybe she needed to know that Four had been a very bad girl, in the past...On the other hand, why she would be a...a snitch ?

Four was...well, she was not worse than Lucy. Why she would not desserving of some mercy. Even _Lucy _(and not Nyu) had her chances...And besides, Nana did not feel much anxious for this kind lady. The lady's friend, who had also been quite nice with her and Mayu...this was another thing. All in all, Nana was quite unsure of what needed to be done...

«You know» said Tatso as she was walking alway, «I am...I am very sorry, about what...»

Nana stopped, and turned to face Tatso. This comment had made «Mitsune» come out...

It was only thanks to Nana's marked control over herself that Tatso came out of this unharmed and alive. Mitsune...hated this lady, She was very jealous of her...

Tatso was a bit surprised when she saw that the dark haired girl softly kiss the other on the cheek. Ah ? Bah, in a sense, it was somewhat _kawai, _no ? In any case, nothing of this was of her business. As Nana's cheeks were taking a nice pink tone (she was delighted of having been kissed by Mayu for the second time this afternoon...not to mention that she was about to pay back Mayu...), the red-haired girl moved slowly her head closer to her friend, who looked a bit ill at ease, but certainly not...repulsed...by the thought of what would follow...

Tatso, with a sort of haste, left the roof, for heading back inside...She was a bit unwanted, here...This operation, was, after all, not such a price for her. First hand, she know that the girls where from Kamakura. As soon as the matter had been settled up a bit, she would find them, and come talk with them. Maybe, at this time, they would have some minimal trust in her.

On the other side, she did not risked much. Tatso, before going to Kamakura, had took her precautions, and got some potential contacts in the Seventh Fleet...

She had some indirect friends in the command chain. _If _she was arrested, she was going to be able to talk her way out of trouble rather fast. The issue was that the person who had provided the contacts would learn of this. A thing that Tatso always tried to escape. Back when she was eighteen, she had...troubles...that had required major help from this person...Judith. Her sister.

Judith had been more than happy to help her little sister walk out of a...problem. She had not hesistated one second. Tatiana liked this support, but hated being forced to rely on it.

Accordingly, this support, this was her last ditch weapon (not to mention that doing this _would _raise attention, tremendous attention, from the spies that Kakuzawa had among the Americans). She would rather use her brains and her audacity for walk out of this...

The search was being conducted with dubious enthousiasm: the American soldiers thought this was another silly exercice, the Japanese officials obeying because their superiors had made it clear that discussion was not an option. When they saw Tatiana emerging from the service staircase, her hands very high above her head, their reaction was much more annyoance than agressivity. Another dumb civilian who had panicked...

"Miss", said one in English, with a somewhat hostile voice a Japanese policeman (but only annoyed, not I'm-going-to-shoot-style), might I ask you why you did not left ?"

"Oh, I had some stuff to finish...I aplozige about this disagreement..."

The soldiers were not paranoids, but, still, a Russian lady (Tatiana had handed them her Russian ID) in Yokosuka...she could be a spy. One of them asked her, half-seriously, if she was in Yokosuka for work, or for tourism-an almost ritual question...

"Of course, tourism. Tourism...and being ripped off by everyone. Fun stuff..."

It was an undestatement that Tatso was quite bad with financial matter. To the utter puzzlement of Xu, she did not looked to be much upset by this, even joking about. Not lightly: it was sometimes a bit forced. Xu was not acute on bargaining, but she had the bizarre impression that Tatso was desperate to _not _look as a stringy girl, or anything like that

In fact, the matter was hardly mysterious for Xu. She had been too puzzled by this Russian gal, so deeply admired by the Colonel, to not check the matter a bit further...By doing very basic checks, she had learned some things about her partner that explained a bit her background, and also parts of her training, like the surprising familiarity of Tatso with weapon systems that were _hardly _Russian (for instance, the heavy duty gear of the fortress)

Back to the present matter, Tatso comment had the merit to make some of the Americans and Japanese smile a bit. It was probably a mix of smirk about another tourist being ripped off, and some thought about themselves having similar experiences. Well...this was for the Japanese civilian personel, and the Americans, who had an...an _normal air_. The other Japanese personnel (the ones that Tatso had more or less labelled as _yakuzas_) had an definitely much more hostile atttitude. Hostile was not the right word, in fact...

She had noticed this as she was telling a story of some kind to those guys. An actually well made tale about her being a bit...nervous...upon seeing crack military troops barging in, then realizing that the thing would turn horrible if they found her trying to hide. A rather basic tale, but Tatso was very good at throwing tiny hints, bits of informations that made the matter more credible. The fact that top spies or secret agents did not infiltrated building while carrying credit cards receipts and clothing, in the hopes of getting a refund, helped a lot the Russian.

Actually, that part was _not _made up. She was actually there to exhange back some of the clothing her and Xu had gave to Kate-Kate, had manifested her deep dislike for some of the clothing...according to Xu and Tatso. They did not had the slighest idea why (she did not liked the cut ? the color ? the fabric ?), but Tatso, who was quite sincere in her desire to please Kate, had decided to do this to show that Kate's opinion really mattered. Tatso also admitted, deep down, that she had a big problem with kids (and, in fact, Kate, despite her...morphology...was very child-like) : she _loved _to make gifts to them. To them. During her military service, she always had with her some sweets, to hand out to kids-it was an understatement that this Public Relation stunt did not had the planned results. She had been much more successfull with the gifts she was showering Iris with, at every single occasion...

As she was telling her story, one of the _yakuza_ style indivuals with the Americans began to look at her very curiously. She figured out that this was because of the little distraction she had set-up, in the hope of drawing some attention from her visage. It was very risky, but she needed something more to get out of this tricky situation (and help those two poor girls).

Tatso, of course, did not knew that her plan was making the situation much worse.

Just to make them _very _nervous, she had put a ribbon on her hair, in a position adequate to hide horns like the ones Kate had. She did realized, plainly, that this ribbon was set in a very similiar way than the red haired girl wore. This was, in a sense, the final confirmation for her hypothesis about this girl. This meant that Nana was really like Kate. A good thing. This girl looked to be quite...normal, after all. Maybe Kate would end like this, after all.

In any case, if the Americans and the Japaneses officials did not showed much concern, she realized, with a grin, that the grunts from the island got suddenly, very, very nervous...

At the very least, the possibility of having an adult Diclonius, in full control of her herself, certainly made the personnel of the island think to complety different things than checking her ID, and try to pin her down with one of the recent intruders. Of course, the ribbon would have not been enough, if the...radar...devised by Kakuzawa to find out the Diclonius had not detected an Diclonius in the immediate vicinnity. Those two things caused a flurry of communication between the personnel and the island facility...

Tatso was listening to this conversation...it was apparently _critical, _since the _Yakuza _in command was so desperate to get an communication with it's bosses that he did not moved out of hearing range. Well...not totally. Even if he was whispring, Tatso caught some words he was saying. He was speaking to an Kakuzawa, labelling him _professor, _not _Director _(another Kakuzawa, or a mere mistake about titles ?) telling her about the situation being a bit more complicated then planned. The problem was that he had to use careful euphemism, which did not made the conversation more understandable to Tatso (especially considering that he was trying to hide it, and that a whole half of the conversation was impossible for her to hear). Alas, there was not sentences like «Sir, do you confirm our order to terminate her because she know about our nefarious plan for World Domination» to confirm this, but a mere «Yes, this will be done»...and some gestures to his subordinates...

It was maybe not a good time to make her situation worse, but she could resist to an possiibility of gathering a small bit of info. Thanks to the presence ofthe American soldiers and Japanese official personnel, they would _not _kill her on the spot...hopefully.

Smirking, Tatso came close to the one that looked to be the commanding officer for the personel of the island , and whispered in his hear (she did notice that he looked to be quite nervous while she was approaching, but did not thought that this was exceptionnal. Well, sure, the reaction was a bit bizarre, but...) some quite kind words...

"I know someone who is very, very eager to meet you...she wants to thank you for her stay in your _wonderful island resort_. And the such entertaining activities that there was there..."

As they knew about Kate evasion, this was not like she was giving them information. This was a sort of test, too, to see if others guards on the island had this peculiar reaction about Kate. And it was quite a success. The man reacted in an almost caricactural manner.

The fear that showed on his visage make her smile. And this made both the Japanese officials and the American soldiers realize that something was really, really not right there. The further reaction of the Yakuza make them seriously consider it's sanity...

After backing away from Tatso, the operative for the island screamed that she was a dangerous terrorist, in a crystal clear bid to get her shot by the soldiers-apparently, he had not been briefed very properly on how to present the situation to the Americans, cause the expletives he used would have been more approriate for a gung-ho Z-class movie.

The highest-ranking American looked quizically at both the female and the man. Obiously, for him, the gal was by far more credible. No...whatever the lieutenant had said to them, this thing was _way _too fishy, and he did not liked a bit the partners they had got for this ops. The Japanese civilian police, he had no trouble with, but those mercs...Besides, the orders they had got were _way _unusual (unusual ? Getting hired by _Japanese _to do police duty with weapons in _Japan _proper ? With insinuations about the fact that they were free to use deadly force, whatever the target was ? Not to mention that those guys had been very vague about what was the aim of the whole ops). He had more and more the impression of being a mere tool.

The Japanese officials had the same issues. They have been ordered to follow what those men would say. Still...maby of them had head rumors about Kakuzawa activities-colleagues getting a promotion (or rather, being kicked upstairs) on the island, then being no longer heard off...In addition to potential ethics problem, this was also the obvious fact that Kakuzawa was rumoured to be...very harsh, when dealing with human ressources. Meaning, they all had heard tales about what happened to officers who had saw things related to Kakuzawa...

It was when that she was described as an Al Quaida agent that Tatso almost burst laughing...Genuine laughter, even if the situation was anything but funny. All things being equal, this was almost as credible as a nun being a fan of trash death metal...

Tatso was briefly tempted to show to those idiots her actual identification papers-her real identiy, with her real past, which would have included her _real _past in the military, which made her highly unlikely to have beeen recruited by such an organization.

In fact, Tatso was likely known by some guys there, and like for her sister, she was probably labelled with something like K.O.S. In fact, she was lucky if this was only KOS.

The explanation was so ridiculous that the Americans simply did not believed it-it was way too obvious that the _Yakuzas_ were attempting to manipulate them into shooting this civilian on the spot. Their compatriots thought mostly the same thing. Realizing this the men from the island...backed down...surprisingly easy. They said that they had been mistaken, excused themselves, and topped this by telling their allies (now looking at them with major hostiliy) that the whole operation was probably a mistake...in fact, they actually started to pack their gear, disband their control point...a thing that would allow Nana and Mayu to slip out of this net without major trouble, since the ennemy attention was, for now, quite focused on her.

This was exactly the point. The _yakuzas _aims were obvious, and Tatso noticed this as soon as she left the area. She was in a very obvious way shadowed. She considered for a short moment climbing in public transportation, then decided against it: she did not wanted to verify if the ennemy was willing to fire at her in public-foes that tortured poor girls to this level were certainly capable of doing such things. Which meant that she merely walked away, on the streets. She had the satisfaction, as she was turning in a smaller street, to see on the corner of her eyes that the two girls she had tried to help were leaving, as discreetly as possible, the place, by a service entry. She did not waved at them, of course, or did anything that could raise attention toward them. The last thing she saw was the red-haired one looking, very puzzled, at her, while she was being tugged away by the down to earth one...

She would definitely talk to them later...As soon as she was out of this little trap.

In fact, she planned that action would start very soon. They were moving to trap farther down the street, away from the eyes of their now dimissed allies, and far enough from the public to maintain a deniability of some sort. As trying to delay would only raise further trouble (increasing numbers of ennemies, thanks to reinforcements), she decided to make her stand ASAP. She headed deliberatly to a nearby alley. Soon enough, a sizable groups of mercenaries of various origins slowly began to converge toward her, while staying carefully at distance. Why they had not shot her on the spot at the mall, and invent some story, was beyond her. Maybe she had pissed off so much this Kakuzawa that he wanted her alive.

Well, it was a positive point. It was _much _harder to capture someone than slay him on the spot. And Tatso was far from a model prisonner-she grinned at the thought...

Well, especially considering that they probably planned to send her to this facility...this would gave her an hell out of a motivation to try to elude capture at any cost. But...she would not shot herself, or perform a similar course of action. No. This would only, how to say, make them «win» (not to mention that she was without weapons at the moment...)

Things happened in a rather previsible way. Tatso was quietly herded/pushed by the now armed goons toward the back of the alley (as she was a careful girl, she had picked one that was not a complete deathtrap...), visibily waiting for something to happen...

Tatso tried to at least _look _confident. If she did not suceed at _feeeling _confident, at leeast, he did not showed at all on her face. To put things bluntly, at times like that, she often wondered why she had not picked up a nice and and quiet desk job, back home-her sister would have found her a neat thing...she would have been with her and her lovely niece.

Anyway, in a less than surprising turn of events, an van without much markings (Tatso alway found that the standard black van of the type non-descript was so..._clichéd..._that the ones using them could almost have painted slogans like «Evil Corporation Goons». That kind of dark humor, of _chutzpah, _helped her keep her spirts high even at the worse times...) arrived at the mouth of the alley. An individual in a business suit left the vehicle, to face her...

«What ? No white labs coats, or black uniforms with Nazi insignias ? Darn, I'm disapointed»

This sentence of Tatso did not attrated any reaction, except to make the leader of this group look very coldly at her. Tatso, in her life, had been looked at in very hostile manners.

She had been seen with pure hatred. Like she was an animal. And...this was exactly the feeling she had at the moment. Except that, instead of a rat or vermin, she was being looked up as a...guinea pig. Visibly, the ribbon deception was really, really working (still, even if those individuals have not showcased brilliance, they _were _incredibly dumb if this deception could have hold so far...There was probably something else...but what ?)

The fact that she probably looked like a good specimen explained why they had not gunned down her...It's also explained the Tasers and «sphere guns» that were point on her...

"Your path end here", say in a matter of fact voice the leader of this charming groupt. You must have left an quite bloody path behind you, but this is ending here and now..."

"What, no explanations about what you plan for me ? Not even cryptic hints ?"

This kind of reaction somewhat...surprised...the grunts. They had been told they were facing an adult, full grown Diclonius-and she reacted to threats by joking sarcastically ?

"Nah", she continued, "not that this is really necessary. I know what you do to people affected by the _Diclonius_ disease, so you can skip too the part about the metaphors about my fate...»

Tatso smirked when she had her confirmation that this horn thing was known as the _Diclonius _disease, that she was right on this point. She _was _surprised, however, when she realized that those individuals were not here because of her actions on the island-incredible as it seemed, they did not connected her with the commando (actually, the explanation was that Kakuzawas's son, to avoid blaming like Arakwa had suggested, had hidden the event, telling it's seach crews in the Yokosuka area for search for an escaped Diclonius possibly with Humans, but without any other precision. Paranoia was greatly serving Tatso)

And if they were not in the mall because they had heard of her...why, then ? Maybe because of the other, well, _Diclonius _girl, Nana. Still, she felt that there was something else...

Ah ! Something was in preparation. Something was happening in the van. A weapon of some sort, probably. The "boss" apparently considered this operation critical, judging by the clear nervousness with which he was looking back. Still, it did not prevented him to try to intimidate/demoralize...Tatso, with a more than dubious success

"Why don't give up, simply ? This would save everyone trouble..."

"You don't really except that this will work, hey ?", said Tatso, as, with infinite caution, four grunts moved slowly to approach her, two with conventional weaponry, two with those razor-ball firing guns. They were surrounding her, but nothing more...yet... At this point, Tatso was, honestly, a bit depressed about her possibility for avoiding capture-it showed by the fact that she had trouble finding a snappy enough remark to counter this. The leader, who had oversaw the capture of several Diclonius (much youngers ones) took this as a good sign. Sometimes, those girls felt so guilty about what they had done that it was really easy to convince them that what awaited them was retribution. In any case, it had worked quite well with Number Four, back in France. With an adult, it may be less effective...

"You don't desserve any explanation. You don't even desserve to _live_..."

"Tell me", said Tatso, her expression suddenly darkening. "That's not the first time I hear people telling me stuff like this. I dislike this. I hate this. A lot..._An hell lot_..."

As a Diclonius in a clear bad mood was a sort of walking destruction machine, the pace of operations was clearly hastened. In the van, there was some very muffled screams, some unlocking noises...and then light, very light walking noises. Oh, oh, this looked bad...

Tatso did not believed her eyes when she saw who was coming from the van...

An very young girl (stark naked, which was disturbing in the extreme, considering that she was barely six years old...and she was going directly for Tatso, without hesitation...

It's at this precise time that Tatso realized that the girl had _horns_.

This course of action was so...peculiar...that she was completly speechless, and she did not react, allowing the little Diclonius to walk until she was meters of her...

«I hate you», was the only thing she said to Tatso, before Hell broke loose...

What had saved countless times Tatso was the fact that she was very quick minded. The only rationnal explanation to the presence of this little girl was that they planned to use her, in some ways. (True). The only use that Tatso could figure out was that they planned to use as a kind of the hostage, in the optic: surrender quietly, and we let the girl go. (False) Sure, the horns and the disease were an unknown quantity, but she had not time to thought about that.

She put her hands behind her headd, like she was about to surrender...and in fact, unknoted the ribbon, letting it fall in a quite graceful manner. There was a _clear _expression of puzzlement in the eyes of everyone around here, which gave her some precious to act. She did the _last _thing that a guard on the island would have thought, especially from an Human.

First, it looked very classical. Tatso lunged for the closer guard, one with a conventionnal weapon. She was amazed about how _easy _it was for her to knock him down. Apparently, the facility had not sent it's best and brighest there. (Expendables ones, maybe ?) By the time the others had reacted, she had a weapon. It would have been suicidal to do this against _three _foes armed, but...two of those goons were equipped with those special weapons.

They were maybe useful against a Diclonius. Againt an Human, a lot less, especially because of the range question, not to mention that this was useful against targets remaining more or less immobile, like Diclonius sure of the solidity of their Vector shield, not a nimble Human, for which dodging relatively slow moving projectiles was easy. The two «razor balls» deployed harmlessly, meters aways for her. She had no trouble to dispatch the grunts during the reload flight, and put the lone guard with a normal gun in flight.

Well, there was just now the six others foes to deal with. They had watched, without much reaction, to this scene-too surprising. What they saw next _petrified _them...

Tatso grabbed the little Diclonius, and pulled her toward safety, farther back in the alley.

Compared to this action, poking at a bear in hibernation was a very smart move. And this is why the guards laughed, after realizing what she had done. It's also guaranteed that they did not fired much on her as she moved to safety (a meager cover offered by a bin). It would be _much _funnier to watch her being savagely dismembered by the Diclonius.

Besides, they felt somewhat better when this thing was away...despite everything, this Diclonius and the ones like her were known to be _very _vicious, and dangerous

They did not know who was this woman, but she was certainly not a Diclonius, and that's all that mattered-she would not pose much threat for them. She would even be a nice distraction.

Especially knowing that the ones like "C", the designation of this _hunter-killer _had a very sadistic trait, deliberatly nurtured...It was likely than in a couple of minutes, the defiance of this idiot would have been replaced by pleadings to at least finish her...

They waited...and nothing come. No screams. No pleas. What was happening ?

Behind the bin, praying that they were not about to use heavy weapons, cause this protection was _quite _flimsly, Tatso were trying to gather her ideas, especially about this new girl...

Tatso distinctly saw the men near the vans curse. The events was not turning like they wanted. Which was always a good thing. Short of saying such evdences, Tatso was however somewhat powerless to act on this reality. In fact, the situation was quite bad...

Especially considering that this girl...she was not like Kate. Tatso felt, deep down, that Kate liked a bit. In a sense. At least, she was not looking always at her with such hostility.

This girl...she was dead serious, when she had said those words to Tatso.

«I hate you. I really hate you..» the girl continued to say, like a...mantra. Did she was able to speak in a genuine manner, or this was just words she repeated like a parrot ?

And, with this girl, attempting to talk back, the strategy that had worked minimally with Kate, did not worked at all. The more Tatso tried to talk, the more hostile she was...

If she had not started to decapitate everything in sight, it was simply because «they» had told her to do this. She had killed dozens of time before. She had killer her own sisters without flinching, without feeling anything. They had made her this way, twisted her mind...

Thanks to that, she hated every single human being. Including her handlers. And there was nothing that she hated more that when she was forced to obey to them, to be their tool... It was to that, and nothing else, that Tatso owed her life over the next minutes.

This...and the fact that this woman was obviously not on the side of her handlers. "C" still had some reasoning abilities, despite everything had been done to her, including sedatives in sufficient quantites to kill most cognitives process. She had not hopes for anything fancy, like a life outside, or an less awful one inside the facility. She knew what awaited her, when she will be...used up, like the others, which was a matter of months rather than years...

She would serve as a sort of living dummy, for the others ones that Kakuzawa was...welll...mass producing. If she killed her sister, she would be qualified for serve in another mission. If she was killed or disabled by her sister, the matter would be over. She knew this, and she never felt that she have the slighest possibility of avoiding this fate.

So, she enjoyed seeing Tatso killing the grunts. It was not as fun as if she was doing itself, but...it was less painful. A lot less painful. She wondered what this would do if they fired on this woman one of the razor blades ? Or the Tasers ? Or the even nastier weapons they had.

Seeing someone else going insane because of pain was going to be interesting, for once.

Tatso noticed that the only sign that the girl had was a...a tatoo ? C3...

(The tatoo, it was not hard to make a connection with it. Historical connection. Especially considering that this was in _Latin _characters, not Japanese ones. Another memory of Kakuzawa's past work ? It made nothing for improve Tatso mood about the guys from the facility...As Kate had just a number, and a rather low one, not tatooed on her...Could this mean that this other girl was even _less _considered than Kate ? Even more expendable ?)

"C3 like _Cecilia_" tried Tatso, remembering that this had worked, more or less, with Kate, this approach of giving an name. Sure, this girl was much more hostile, ben maybe...

Tatso briefly frowned after saying that. She had...she had felt something...cold on her throat, but she was did not noticed this. She only noticed that the girl looked even more hostile...

Back on the van, people were...distressed. The _hunter-killers _had been used several times, to subdue normal Diclonius at the facility. They were quite expendable. But, Director Kakuzawa had gave very clear orders, about using them _inside _the facility, to avoid complications.

A4, B5, C3 and D6 were of, course...different. They were the toys, the gifts that Kakuzawa had gave to his son. Still, explaining about the disparation of one in Yokosuka could be hard.

Accordingly, they had to bring her back to the facility, if only for terminating her there...

So, they could not kill her there. They had to bring her back. Which means, likely, that this Russian gal would escape. Complete disaster. This worried a lot the leader of the group.

C" was not a subtle weapon. She could not used for precise actions. Basically, she was like a non-guided missile, with a...remote detonation system. It was not excepted that she would survive much more than one or two missions. If she was not even able to do this, this would be awful. For him ! His job would be compromise, at the very least...It was the necessity of salvage the situation in a discret manner that prevented him to summon reinforcements...

Tatso was not surprised when the firepower directed at her increased a lot. She was no longer a good guinea pig. Only a dangeours witness, to be shot down ASAP...

Man, thsoe guys were pathetic. They were thirty meters away at worse, and most bullets did not _came close to her ? _This thought kept nagging in her head...she recalled the frantic escape with Kate and Xu from the facility-there too, their acuracy had been quite suspect, like if they had graduated from the Imperial Stromtroopers School of Markmanship (Joking appart, there was clearly something that was not right, and even less normal, about this...)

While dispatching a grunt with an impressive potshot, Tatso kept looking at ther...guest. She still had her eyes focused on Tatso, and...and this was frightening, those eyes...

Kate had _some _happy memories...very relative happy memories. C3 had just an brutal life, even by Diclonius standards, to make her as violent, as vicious as possible. This was a deliberate process. There was no need to do tests, with her. Just to make her kill...

Then...she let ouf a scream...a very slight one, more a gulp of surprise than anything else. She then sagged a bit more on the wall. Tatso, suddenly concerned, dropped the potshots to check on «C3/Cecilia». She had, suddenly, an horrible premonition about what had happened...

"Where is the...where is the device, they just used ? If you tell me, I will remove it..."

This was a very optimistic comment, to say the least-Tatso had experience with explosives, but she was far from a specialist. And...and it was _obvious _that the hypothetical device was not...external (the girl was naked, after all). How could she remove an implanted device ?

The Diclonius, apparently, understood, at least partly the sentence...

"In my head" was what she said, in a tone that did not showed much appreciation...

Tatso recalled suddenly this horrible helmet that had been recovered near to the beach...

Dropping her weapon, Tatso moved the head of the girl closer to her own. She searched among her pinkish hair for the device that Cecilia had mentionned.

And...like she had thought, she found nothing. Maybe they had said this to terrorize her. Maybe there was nothing, after all...Or...it was even worse. May the girl had said _in, _and this was not Tatso's japanese that had mad her understanding this...

"In my head" said again the girl, looking blankly at Tatso. There was nothing she could to help Cecilia. Unless she found a way to jam the signal... _Jam the signal, _hey ?

She looked at the van...she would have bet anything that the emitter was there. Well, making this thing blow up would require creativity, but she was quite sure to find an way to do itr. She was having a...great motivation, to do this. Agressivity, even. With what she had seen during the raid in the facility, she did not have much merciful feelings for those monsters...

She...frowned...at the thought. There was...something not right, about this. Meaning, her reaction...there was something a bit too...extreme about this, even while considering

She stopped as she was about to fire, in the engine...An extremely basic thing would have been to implement a failsafe device-like an explosive charge, set to detonate if communication was cut. She could very well end up killing this girl.

She had experimented, in the past, how much a plan could end up with bad conscequences...

It was the life of _this _girl that she was about to gamble. And even if this was a wretched, monstruous life, it was a life that she...that she desserved, in a sense. Why she had been...sentenced...to such an awful fate ? She had asked the same question about Number 4 and Number 28, without answers, too.

It was at this time that Tatso realized something. The eyes of the girl were losing the little life they had...her speech was getting slurred. Her movements were slowing down, too.

She was being sedated/controlled...at distance. She was a puppet, a doll, for those bastards !

No...she climbed back to her feet...and...The girl slowly walked back toward her handlers.

An mesmerized Tatso watched her, only snapping back to reality, when some bullets zipped pass her. Was she actually being _controlled, _or acting out of terror for punition, or...

What happened next was...was really blurred for her. She saw the girl being brutally hauled in the van, while the grunts continued to lay off around Tatso a very intense supression fire, Tatso answering to this in a sort of second state. A second state that managed to kill almost all the guards, and wound seriously the man with a business suit. This led to an flurry of order, and the quick departure of the van. Short of the bodies...it was like it had never happened

With her mind still more or less on automatic mode, she walked out of the alley, hiding a handgun on he. She had still with her the bag with Kate's clothing...she was so troubled that she briefly walked back toward the shopping mall, before snapping out of it.

Changing the way her hair was, doing everything she could to change her appearance, double checking if she was followed, she returned on the crowded streets of Yokosuka.

She headed for the transportation hub. She would pick a train toward Tokyo, before heading back to Kamakura...just to be sure that her foes were no longer on her. She just made one little stop, on an electronic commerce, to buy, no questions asked, an prepaid cell phone, with international communication capacities. She checked her watch. 5 PM...She would be up.

Taking her cell phone, she slowly pressed touchs, to compose an number.

The cheerful voice that answered her was very soothing, after what she had witnessed...

"Iris !" said with genuine joy Tatso, chitchatting with her for a short while...as long as possible. Well, until she heard, on the other side of the line, Iris protesting a bit to someone taking from her the phone. And them, it was the warm, friendly, but concerned voice of her sister, Judith. Judith found a plausible reason to send Iris away from hearing range-a routine, with the work Judith had...As soon as she was sure that her niece could no longer hear her, Tatso's tension from the past days was released. She started to actually cry.

«Judith...I'm...I'm in something deep. Horrible. It's...I'm going to need your help...»

The person at the other end of the line was rather puzzled by those not terribly helpful remarks. She only knew that Tatiana was in Japan for an ops...After checking that her sister was _not _in immediate danger, Judith said to her sister to calm down a bit.

Tatiana promised to call her once she had "sorted out" the situation-it was probable that all she needed was to talk to someone friendly. Cutting the conversation short, she close quickly her cell phone...and threw it soon after, as she was boarding her train...

Far away from there, Judith hesitated...for a good while. Her and Tatiana were very close-she cared from her beloved little sister since Tatiana was 12. She trusted her, and vice-versa

It was only because of that that Judith did not did something that she had wanted to do since she had learn that Tatiana was in Japan: ask people for watch for her, specifically because she was in Japan...She would wait for the explanation. For the time being.

Back in Japan, the two surviving mercenaries of the team deloying C3 (who was back in her...well, cage. Although coffin would have been more appropriated...), in an helicopter, were talking about the results...One recalled painfully what was the price of failure...

He did not had the time to think much more about it. He heard two POP-like noise...and a minute later, like his partner, he was sagging in his seat, their leader looking at them, a gun with a silencer, still smoking, in his hands. The mercenary was still alive when his body was pushed out of the transport chopper. It was only the _hunter kllers _that were expendable...

A few hours later, back in the facility, the son of Kakuzawa, flanked by an horrified Arakawa, was watching over the form of the heavily sedated "C3", brought back here...

"Two failures over two days. Do you know what happened to your...sister...when she did make me lost my time, on this ship ? Don't think you will just die. My father is wrong: dying, even under vivisection is way to easy...especially for ones that dare to do what you done

As he said that, he punched, viciously, the inert form, without reaction, if course

«I hate when you don't react...» said in an omnious voice Kakuzawa...«I hate this...I guess we will wait till you are awake again..» (this was concluded with his sick laughter...)

Arakawa had...had seen what Kakuzawa was doing with those Diclonius. It...made her shiver. She knew about his tastes-he did not even hide them...And...with those girls...the rest was really previsible. As he as said to Arakawa, those _hunter killers _minds had nothing Human.

Apparently, this meant that Kakuzawa did not _even _the mental restriction he had about Human girls concerning them. No this was inexact. They had for him the same value than his countless Human victims. Pawns, toys, dolls, that could be discared and used...

Unless that he was annoyed by their lack of tears, of protest...

This was like the poor 28, in a sense...There was nothing she could do..._nothing_

_Nothing, nothing, nothing. _She repeated this to herself, since her arrival here.

She...she would find a way. Such monstruosities...she would not stand and be silent...


	23. Teaser One :Lair

**Nazi Germany, April 1945, Zossen...**

With a good kick, the final door came down. A dozen of soldiers wearing Red Army tankist garb moved in. The cavernous room was almost empty, safe for an half-dozen of technicians. They promplty raised their hands. Most of those German technicians were so dispirited that they saw capture as...well, the end of the matter. This comment was valid for those who were still alive. They were a couple of corpses slumped, having killed themselves in various ways.

The head technician advanced to the Russian commanding officer-a female, surprising.

«Well, we are the only staff left. Don't worry: the gear itself had not been rigged with explosives. I must say that the OKH and the OKW left hours ago, with most of their archives" said in a school-level Russian the tech, who had prepared this speech for hours.

«Yah, I guess that nabbing the whole bunch of big Nazis would have been a bit too much . Don't take it personnal, but you are a rather mediocre compensation compared to Keitel the Lackey». The female russian was not very warm, but she shown no murderous intention about her prisonners. She was annoyed rather than angered: this was a good sign.

«Nice installation, I must say», she continued, checkingt the communication arrays. «I hope for you that this have not been bobby trapped. You received orders for that...»

«We were supposed to monitor comminucations, till you come, and blow up the installation, yes. However, frankly, at this stage, this would have been pretty useless, despite what some people said. » While saying this, the technician motionned to a corpse. This one had bullets in his chest. The conclusion was rather obvious. Annah should have been amused at the thought of Nazis killing each others for surrendering to the Soviet Union, but she was not. Especially in this precise situation. Captain Annah Sovorv winced when she saw the face of this trademark fanatic Nazi, . A boy, clearly still in his teens. And wearing a SS uniform. One point raised her compassion, the other her anger. It's certainly not raised her sympathy toward the technicians in the room, who had really wait up to the eleventh hour

«If you are trying to woe me with you killing him...failure. I would also advise you to not try to say that you are sorry about the crimes of your dear fatherland, or telling me that you always despised the regime. You delivered to the Red Army a working communication array of great value. Would be pretty counter-productive to kill you. But just shut up...»

The technician had the brains to not add anything else, as the Russian observed her prize.

«What really annoy me is the company of SS that was left to guard the building...»

The technicians was startled. Those Russians were not very numerous. How they...

The Russian guessed his question, and smiled. In a very predator way...

«I can be very persuasive, and I know someone that is even more persuasive...»

She waved to a second female,very young. There was something...peculiar...about her, to say the least. Her pale skin, her hair, her eyes...and especially her expression...

«She dispatched _alone _a whole platoon of your so called Pretorians of the Reich...»

Since the Russian lying about this would have been pretty useless, the technician did what was excepted. He asked how this was possible. The younger Russian turned her face away.

«Have you ever seen one of your _neferweber _being used a point blank range ? It's messy, I can tell you. There are tiny bits of so-called elite Nazis all over the entrance. ...»

Annah said this in a conversation tone, but she was more than a little concerned about that. She did not had the foggiest idea of how Sarah had managed to do this, having been busy clearing the area with her T-34s. But there was certainly an issue about her agressivity...

She chased the thought. Sarah was of a great help, and the girl desserved some comprehension, Annah took a dramatic pose, for making a little speech for her soldiers.

«Admire this, boys. This is the nervous center of the Beast. This is their core communication center. This is from there that their armies were directed. And now, it's only serve as a sign of their downfall...of their impending doom» True. In front of Annah, there was a huge map, made at the time where the Reich had been at the peak of his power: this was a communication network for an oppressive empire, spanning all Europe three years ago. And now, limited to a tiny area, whose size was diminishing by the hour.

Annah had purple circles below the eyes, but exhaustion or not, she had hardly need for sleep.

Not when, back on the surfacer, she was seeing clearly the outskirts of Berlin. According to her estimations, they would be within field artillery range in less than 24 hours. Her unit, and the hundred of others that were converging toward the Lair of the Beast...

For the moment, however, she was seeing an occasion of having some harmless fun...

«Hey, Sarah, come over here. I have an interesting idea for distressing those fascists...»

The girl gave her a blank look, clearly not understanding. Annah sighed. She really needed to get the mind of this poor girl out of this-she did not want to see her break down too.

«It's their central telephonic network. And it's still fully operationnal. You pick a call, and you told to the other guy who you are, where you are, and what we are doing. It's very fun...especially when you imagine their reaction. Many of them think that they can still win the war. Their worse ennemies making social calls is very distressing...»

Annah decided to make an demonstration. She took the next call that came.

She was lucky, in a sense. Instead of a bureaucrat, she got some military. Some big brass from Northern Italy, with urgent news for the High Command, about some sort of thing that had happened near the Swiss border-apparently, this concerned Mussolini.

Annah was delighted to answer him with a mock german accent...

«_Ach, general. _I'm afraid that further messages for Berlin will have to be sent another way...Because Zossen/Maybach have fallen to the Red Army ten minutes ago...»

Followed a rather incredulous reaction. The fact that situation was _that _despaired was apparently lost to the Nazis over the Alps. He asked her a rather rhetorical question.

«Who I am ? C'mon, it's obvious, no ? I am a Red Army officer, little Nazi» said Annah, with pure delight. She was even more amused when he screamd that this was untrue...

Annah yanked casually the receptor, and waved it in front of her soldiers.

«Boys, he is not believing me. Tell him what you think of this so-called Reich»

The chorus of Russian insults and screams indeed convinced the Nazi that there indeed a Red Army unit in the former command center of the OKW and the OKH.

«As you see, litte Nazi, things are getting pretty hot around your capitol.This is the funeral pyre of your rotten Reich. I'm not a very religious, but I would say that you should get used to heat. Pretty fast.», Annah said this with her silkiest voice. «I would advise you to take a crash course of English, to learn how to say «I'm surrendering. Please save my worthless life». As our western friends like your kind as much as us, this will prove veryuseful in the next hours. And tell your Italian pet/prisonner that he and is master will soon see each other again...»

Annah cut the communication after, and turned to face her troops. They cheered her.

Their commander had really interesting ideas : besides, most of her troopers had to admit that her methods for releasing their hatred of Nazis were more...morally acceptable...that what many units of the Red Army was doing. While she was turning a blind eye toward «creative acquisitions», no one wanted to see if she was serious about her «no fraternization with female civilians» order. It was maybe an ridiculous euphemism, but she had been very clear.

The troopers, over the past days, have took a real liking for the newest member of their unit. Her sadness, depression, touched them. So, Sarah was under some pressure to accept this way to enterain herself a bit. Sarah sighed, and sat herself at the nearest console.

Annah was well-meaning. Besides, this would indeed allow her to vent some pressure.

Well, what was basically a crude prank call was probably not going to be enough to satisfy the...herself. This could help a bit however. She was really about to lose control..

_((Oh, we killed a lot of Humans,recently, my dear. And we will kill many others soon...So, well, amuse yourself with this. You don't want to know your "friend" to realize the truth ?)_

Sarah winced at the thought. If Annah knew about her gift, indeed...

Soon enough, a bulb lighted nearby her. Annah quickly read the indication, and smiled.

«Hey, lucky girl. Straight from Berlin, straight from the Chancellery. You probably got yourself a fat Nazi asking for air evacuation. C'mon, tell him some harsh truths...»

When Sarah picked up the phone, she was greeted by a torrent of German words, screamed by someone who was clearly unhinged. He was asking her (well, rather, the technicians) to check for the movement of an certain military unit, and in a completely frantic manner.

Sarah had received in the past weeks a sort of crash course about Wermacht actual possibilities: at the current time, there was not many organized units left, and those that were left were engaged with Zhukov troops. This formation was probably quite imaginary.

Not to mention the fact that this was pretty desperate to ask a _telephonist _to check about the movement of an military unit-most Nazis generals must have been busy fleeing...

Well, this was the reasoning that Sarah made latter. She was not very attentive about the words themselves, noticing only that this was something about an Army Group Steiner.

She was not listening, because of the voice. She recognized it. This was not a feat.

Hell, anyone in Europe could have recognized it. However, very few beings (in fact, one, maybe two) would have the same reaction than her upon hearing it. Heck, even this was false. Sarah's reaction, at core, was the same, as dozens of millions of Humans in Europe.

Unlike them, however, she had to deal with her anger, and especially the forms that her anger could take. At the second she realized _who _was talking, she almost lose control on herself.

Annah saw with great concerns that Sarah's teeth started to clatter, her irises dilating clearly. She had seen her going like this a couple of time since their first meeting. When she was irritated to this point, usually, a couple of SS got very violent deaths. This kind of agressivity was unhealthy: the poor girl was going to get herself killed if she continued like this.

Annah touched Sarah gently on the shoulder. The small gesture had an effet on Sarah-it shown her that there was at least _one _Human with which she was in talking terms. Natalya, of course, was also nice with her, but this was more frightening than heat-warming.

Still, despite all her good intentions, Annah would never make up for her sister, that had been killed in front of her eyes. For Lydia, who had been butchered in front of her. For her mother. For her father, who had abandoned her and Myriam. For Hans, who had betrayed-she had to chase the thought, she was going to get insane with rage if she continued. And her anger control was really an issue, with was she was currently living...

«What is happening ?» said in a low voice Annah. «Who is speaking ?»

Sarah was so shocked that she had trouble speaking. She babbled some words. Inside her, this damn voice was trying to show that she was in control, but the turn the events were taking had quite a toll. Both the Human and the Diclo side of Sarah hated this man with frenzy.

_((Well. You thought that I was an evil voice in your head. This is a voice outside your head, that is, IMO, much more evil than me. You think my voice kill ? This one is really worse...))_

The voice...This voice, that she had heard during years. That had called for unspeakable things upon her. Indeed. This made this damn voice in her head look like a charmant girl.

The man who had made her life miserable. The man who had created Theresenstad and Ravensbruk. The man who had gave the orders that had resulted in the death of Myriam...

The man who, when he learned about her gift, her curse, ordered her to be caged in...

((Nah, don't tell me you are now believing those little SS puppets ? "I was just follwing orders ". He is not the sole cause of this atrocity. His followers are as guilty as him...))

Sarah calmed down. She tried to find something to say. Something meaningful.

Hard to find with the other/herself that wished to kill every single German in the complex, with Vectors, and in gruesome ways. Not the more or less discreet kills that Sarah was making when one Soviet was in visual range. Sarah realized with a mild surprise that the other felt this way because she was...poweless. While the man continued to babble on the telephone Sarah had to try to calm down a bit herself-another of those insane conversation with herself.

_(Shut up, please If we kill everyone in this damn room, we, we...)_

We what ? Why Sarah was trying to not kill the Germans ? The reason she was trying to convince herself off, that a couple of technicians had nothing to do with the atrocities of the regime, was maybe quite true, but it was just not working with her. Why she managed to keep herself in control First, this would lower Sarah to the level of the Nazis, a thing she tried desperatly to avoid to do...And...and Annah would notice about this, for sure. Natalya too.

_((...I see. True. I can't do anything to him...You are the one with the social skills. Pretty minimals ones, but better than mine. C'mon, do as she says...find something good !))_

Ah, finally, _he _realized that something was not right. He was probably unused to not being obeyed with servility. He threatened to have anyone in the communication center executed by firing squad-as the numbers of «inferior humans» to execute on a whim had dwindled, he was probably ressorting to execute his own troopers, whose numbers were dwindling too. Despite his assurances, he must be aware that his reign was about to end. And Sarah just wished to make this crystal clear for him. Sarah fumbled a bit with the controls, and managed to find the command for making the words heard in the whole room. The chatter of the others Soviet soldiers stopped dead. They recognized the voice too. Annah was...horrified.

Another idea that was turning into disaster. This was really a worse case situation for Sarah...who, on the other hand, looked to be handling herself somewhat well.

«Tell me» said very quietly Sarah, «how can God exist while you walk on this earth ?»

The one at the other end of the line...stopped talking. Sarah imagined him slowly realizing that the Soviets were about to enter his wretched lair...Realizing that he was _doomed. _

«This is over. Your life, yours minions, what you done...it's over. We are coming»

Sarah had never been much of a talker...and this was all that she managed to say. She cut the communication after. It was a rather meagre speech, first-hand. Annah would have topped this with good old Russian insults. Especially ones about the virility or the sexual orientation.

That said, Sarah was not in a traffic jam, insulting the nearest truck or tank driver, but talking to the man that was probably the incarnation of the worse of Humankind, of...of pure evil. Maybe it was better to keep some...dignity. So, she made a gesture, to silence the others, who were about to make comments on this. This event was more a curse than a bless for Sarah. In a way that hardly suprised Annah, Sarah burst in tears shortly after. This was really too much.

At the other end of the line, an Human, who probably desserved a lot less this qualficative than Sarah, slowly put down the line. His hands were shaking more than usual...

«This was pretty good», said Annah to cheer a bit her friend. «I'm sorry of what happened.»

«Nah...» said Sarah, as she was rising for her chair. «I _do _feel a bit better about that...Especially when thinking that he will be dead within two, three days.»

Those were mere words. She needed more than that. She took a deep breath.

When all the consoles around Sarah fizzled and emitted sparks, no one gave much attention to this: they were much too excited about the latest events. Sarah felt like she had punched a pillow : pretty harmless way to cool down. No one made the connection. And if the Germans, now being sent to the rear, looked at her with fear, it was not because of that...

The German technicians had heard during years speeches by Goebbels, hate propaganda and the like. This little Russian could have taught trick to him : her tone was so icy...

Annah asked for an immediate communication with Koniev, to inform her commander of this rather major development. And she made preparation for what would proably follow.

After checking one more time that Sarah was more or less okay, she raised her hand, obtaining silence, for make a little morale raising speech before resuming the advance.

«Guys», said Annah, «back at Stalingrad, I made the wish to make a little visit at Berlin, to thanks those dear Nazis, by showing them that we can do urban renovation on their style too. Now, we have the chance to capture, or kill, the enemy of Humanity itself. _SMERSH FACHISKOY GADINE ! _It's the time to deliver the killing blow ! »


	24. Preview of Twenty Two

Preview, Explanation, Contest ! 

For the new styte of Alpha, I will post a small paragraph like this after each update. Of course, the text will be updated too.

Next Chapter Title : _Aphrodite Anadyomene_

Why I'm calling my chapter like this ? Hey, c'mon, find yourself ! (If possible, when your mom is not in the house. Although, well, with _this one_, you may have a slight chance of getting of with the good old "Mom, it's educationnal". Your mother still may ask embarassing questions about your sexual orientation if she spots you oggling at an contemporary depiction of a well known Biblical figure...hint, hint) This is an image : you see it, you understand the connection. The first who find and link me what the heck is an Aphrodite Anadyomene will have a super prize : he will choose who will be featured in the next very, very "hawt" yuri scene of Elfen Lied Alpha. Pretty much all the girls have, how to say, tastes this way. (only restriction, no sister/sister thing. And don't try to imagine Tatiana and Judith in their teen years in a Russian steam bath together, you perverts)

While you can of course use Wikipedia, it's a bit unfair. Try to find it by yourselves : it's what Lucy herself will try to do, after all.

Speaking of this. Aphrodite Anadyomene (publish date, October First) will features Aiko, Lucy's friend (Thanks to the Japanese publisher to not indicating the name of Lucy's friend until I wrote my first chapters. Natsume is Aiko, and I will call her this way for the sake of clarity and sticking minimally to the project...)

Little detail about "Lair" : Lair combine two actual facts in a bizarre way. One, Soviet troopers actually enjoyed making prank calls to Nazis during their advance in Berlin. Two, when the communication array of Zossen/Maybach was captured by the Red Army, communications broke down so badly that Nazis ressorted to making phone calls to civilians. If the answer was a torrent of Russian exclamation, well, this was a zone where the Red Army was...


End file.

Elfen Lied