Saiya.
The name given to the Huntress who onced hunted Takabi. A creature with an unparalleled sense of smell and combat specialty in the art of hunting. They were enemies at first, but Saiya's came around to owing her life to her one time prey. Takabi was the one who gave her a name and truly gave her a chance.
She did not waste it.
For the past few months, she and Syrreth had been away on business. It was mere coincidence to her, that once she returned, she learned she would be going back to Dreulara.
The two sat at a corner table of the cafe. It was shaded, and removed from most of the others that were around, so they could talk quietly, privately.
"Quite a story. Forgive me, for missing so much, Master."
Takabi shrugged, sitting on the tabletop and resting his feet on the seat. "You had a job to do. Don't sweat it." He opened the can in his grip, and drank from it slowly. Swallowing, he looked at Saiya and continued, "Syrreth didn't come back with you?"
"Afraid not. She seemed rather troubled when she sent me home. I was supposed to give reports to Garuga, but I haven't seen him at all since I arrived." She tapped her claws against the table. "Have you seen him?"
"This morning. Not since."
"Are you not concerned?"
"No. Should I be?"
"Well," Saiya began, but quickly bit her lip and shook her head. "Not really, but I just figured you would want to know more about why we left for so long."
"When the time is right," He said. "I'm curious, yeah, but I'm sure it's for good reason. You just got back, so I'd rather not drill you with questions."
"My appreciation, Master. You'd rather handle other things currently, no?" She looked at him, watching his face go from calm to a twinge of hurt. "Miss Nana isn't happy about this new girl, Hailey, correct? Why give her a chance? Why trust her?"
"Truthfully, I don't know." He leaned forward, cupping his hands together. "I just don't think she's a bad person at her core. She can't be, she's Nana's copy. The kid though… The Data sheets wouldn't lie right?"
Saiya grabbed his can and took a quick swig, before her ears twitched visibly and she said, "Knowing the type of mindset Girston may have been in, granted I only met him once, it sounds like he was trying to create a creature like you and Kairas. A vessel capable of bonding and using the power of the God Gems. We can at least make the assumption he had been trying to bond different DNA agents, given how he created those horrid High Breed creatures."
Takabi nodded in agreement, running a hand through his hair. His mind mulled over multiple thoughts and possibilities, but not once did he think about vessels for the Gems. He and Kairas were safe from having them extracted, the time frame was too long, but what of the others? Aqua was in danger, as well as any other Gems in the universe.
"They can't be an end result. The High Breeds, aside from the first, haven't shown any advance intelligence. I've fought about ten by now, so it's safe to assume they're a failed creation."
"Or a blank template," Saiya added.
They watched one another at her words, tense at the idea. The High Breeds being simple alpha experiments for something far worse. "They're merging DNA…"
"And mass producing the results for an army. We know this already, but what is supposed to be the ending goal? Cloned Fallen Angels?"
"Hailey would be an example of that," He said wearily. Takabi hopped to his feet. "Come on. Let's go find her."
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Garuga coughed hard into his cloth. Removing it from his mouth, his eyes widened at the dark blood that stained the fabric. Breathing hard, he slipped the cloth into his shirt pocket and looked up at the multicolor sky.
The temperature felt tropical. The breeze was kind to his skin, which calmed his growing fever. Around him, multiple Dinosaurs lay in rest. T-Rex, Pterodactyls and Raptors.
He felt at a false peace. True peace, sadly, never lasts. His mind wandered to everyone, and telling them the truth, but he couldn't bear seeing their heartbroken faces. Especially not Takabi's. The boy had been through enough, he didn't deserve any more pain.
The sound of footsteps filled his ears. Slowly, he faced the fire Dragon Porrelth, somehow looking more like a slob than usual. His fiery red hair was an absolute mess, traces of ash lingering at the tips. His shirt was torn up, and pants held dried stains that Garuga did not want to ask about. Traces of faint lipstick was on his neck, as if he had tried to wipe it off, and his coat hung loosely off his shoulders. Porrelth's usual facial hair was shaved at the very least.
"Late night?"
Porrelth scoffed. "Earth has some amazing women, lemme tell you that. You should find you one."
Garuga raised his left hand, pointing to the wedding ring on his finger. "Married, remember?"
"Ah, right, right." He replied, sitting next to the Shadow Dragon.
They were silent for a good minute, Porrelth mulling over his thoughts to say something. The tension in the air was thick, as it was obvious they both wanted to talk about the elephant in the room. "We're almost ready to go. We're waiting on you."
"Yeah," He said. "... I'll be going home. To see my wife. My children, after so long." He laughed. "I bet they've grown up into fine Dragons."
"If they're your kids, I would expect no less."
"Aye," Garuga agreed. "My eldest son, Jade. My god, he probably has a face full of hair and scales now! I should bring them something from Earth, shouldn't I? Gifts!"
"Take it easy. Seeing you will be enough." He said. "We'll go at your call, but you should hurry. Syrreth is gonna have our asses if we don't send word for her to stay." Porrelth stood, leaving his fellow Dragon, waving back to him. "No pushing yourself either, understood?"
Garuga nodded, reaching for the locket around his neck, holding the rusted necklace tightly in his clammy palms.
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Hailey lifted her bag and placed it on the bed. She sorted through some of the things still inside. From books to wrinkled clothes, she wanted everything out so she could torch the duffle. It was a gift from Carlos for her birth, a memory she longed to erase, along with Carlos as a whole. A knock came to her door, and she looked at her radio, using the air to click the power button on the side before stating, "Come in."
They did, the metal sliding open loudly, Takabi and Saiya peeking inside to make sure she was decent. Sure enough, she was dressed in a black T-Shirt and Pajama bottoms. "What's up, Taki?"
"Okay, firstly, no. Never again. I hated that Nickname growing up."
"You seem quite fond when Miss Nana addresses you as such," Saiya muttered. Either he didn't hear her or chose to ignore her comment, because he walked towards the desk by the window and sat down in the swivel chair.
Saiya approached Hailey, looking her up and down, and taking a few strands of hair between her fingers and sniffing. Hailey didn't fight it, but she quickly looked at Takabi for help, but he merely smiled. "It's fine. Hailey, this is Saiya."
"The Master has told me quite a bit of you. You smell just like her, and I cannot sense any malicious intent in you." Saiya took a step back and bowed. "Welcome to our home."
"I… Uh… What? Takabi, who is this?"
"She's my…" He shuddered at the word. "Servent. I wanted to ask you a bit more about the experiments Girston did. Anything new would be helpful."
Hailey sat on her bed. Saiya slowly dropped to her knees and placed her hands politely on her thighs, ears twitching. It was an odd sight, but Hailey quickly adjusted, throwing her hair over her shoulder, and tying it up.
"Well… I guess I would say we're living, breathing creatures. All of us have the same blood in our veins you do. We're organic and age naturally after reaching the original's age."
"Remember anything after you were born?"
"Not too much. I was bred for combat quickly, and that was most of my early time. Girston mentioned me being the first official success, but I can't say why exactly. I have ideas though." She hugged her legs. "Maybe I was the first legit copy from Nana. Maybe I was the first ever that could actually pass for a human. Or, well, Angel. High Breeds, Huntress and Hunters kind of got locked away after you made a mess of the ones that were alive. The last one, you torched, remember?"
"When I saved you, yeah." He touched his chin.
Doesn't seem like she knows too much more. Why would he focus solely on cloning vessels for the Gems if he can't get his hands on them? Naturally he'd only need one to be a threat, but the vessel would only be able to use so much power without destroying itself if the Gems and soul aren't on decent terms. He clutched his chest. I was perfect for the White. The Violet wanted my body since I didn't accept my evil side at the time. After I did, I could use the Violet Gem a bit more freely.
He blinked, eyes slowly widening. "... Why… Are we assuming…"
The girls looked at him. "Master," Saiya asked.
".... Why are we assuming he's ONLY copying organic life?" He picked his head up. "What's the chances he's creating the vessels because they already have Gems to copy?!"
"That's… Quite a reach for thoughts, Takabi." Hailey's face showed a look of worry and horror. "How'd you get to that conclusion?"
"Well, they're after the Gems. There's no point in creating a bunch of useless sacks of meat if they had no use for them, right? An army means nothing if the difference in power was too vast."
Saiya stood up. "It's a plausible theory, but there's not a lot of information to go on for it to be true. We should keep this one between the three of us, just in case our hunch is wrong." She made for the door, "Nice meeting you, Hailey."
Once she was gone, Takabi took a heavy breath and rubbed the back of his head. He was nervous, and he truly hoped his idea was wrong. It was too early for an assessment to go spreading something of that magnitude around, but there were more things pointing towards it than away from it.
"I'm gonna go take a shower and get my head together."
"Um.. Takabi." Hailey stood, avoiding his eyes. "I… Noticed Nana hasn't been talking to you lately…"
He watched her for a moment in silence.
"I caused… I caused trouble, didn't I?"
Takabi swallowed the lump in his throat. "I could lie and say no, but you wouldn't want that."
"No," She replied. "I know, it's crazy to think we have a child growing in some chamber somewhere. If it makes it easier, my genes aren't any different from Nana's, so it's like you both have a child too."
"A child that's in Carlos' hands, along with my Father."
"Yeah. I promise though, once we save him, I'll be out of yours and Nana's way. You'll be free of me."
"Don't say that," He said. His voice sounded a bit sad. "You're your own person, but you don't have to think you're in the way. As far as I'm looking at it, you're Nana's twin sister, Hailey. That's all there is to it."
The loudspeaker cut on. Garuga's voice, gruff and distorted. "We're taking off people. Bunker lockdowns begin in ten."
"Right. Hailey, when the Bunker's taking off, you have to stay in your room. This thing can get pretty damn rough when it's moving." She nodded at him. He smiled back, waving before leaving.
The metal closed behind him as he made his way into his own room, the door closing behind him and locking. Nana was still at the desk, glasses on her face as she read over data sheet after data sheet. The shower was running, and he guessed Saiya was inside.
His eyes held their gaze on the back of Nana's head, and he wanted to approach her. Instead, he moved towards the bed, removing his shirt, shoes and socks, lying down before shutting his eyes, and immediately passing out.