Saya stepped on unbalanced feet down the stairs of the tomb, her long hair cascading down her naked body and trailing behind her on the wet ground. The rain was now beginning to die, but the clouds were still thick and blanketed out the sky in shades of grey. On both sides of Saya, the forest was eerily still, with not even the chirp of a cricket or the feathery flash of a bird between the trees.

She remembered the dog whose misery she ended, whose blood gave her the strength to walk for the first time in decades. In her mind, she saw the four long gashes across the animal's back, freshly inflicted and slowly draining the dog of its life.

Chiropteran.

The word came from nowhere, suddenly appearing from some memory brought on by the wound on that poor creature. That single word lifted the veil of Saya's thoughts, and suddenly images, voices, faces, and memories all flooded into her at once. She remembered the day she arrived at the Omoro, the family who took her in and called her their own, the day that her life reversed course forever. The day came to her when her beloved sister shattered like a glass flower on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera, and when the man who swore his life to her gave it back as the building fell around him. Everything came to her in that second, and once the memories appeared to her and filled in all the gaps of her mind, she found herself on her knees, gazing down the endless weedy staircase sloping down before her.

The stairs. The same ones she had walked, on a day exactly like this, with the man named George so many years ago. But now she was alone, looking at the cracked stones of the stairs, seeing how the forest slowly crept in and sprung up from every flaw in this ancient work of man's hands.

Alone. The thought flashed in her mind, a single solemn word not spoken but heard. Saya clenched her teeth at the mental sound of those two haunting syllables. She cast the thought aside and reached into the depths of her mind, searching for an answer, a reason why she was here and a direction of where to go. Her revitalized memories began to guide her, showing her that at the bottom would be the road. Someone could help her there, someone to take her home, to the Omoro, to her family. She stood and looked forward now, taking her first steps to the place she would always call home.

Saya's bare feet stepped out and touched the cold asphalt of the empty road.

"Empty." The first word her lips produced since her awakening penetrated the haunting silence. She looked on both sides of the road, seeing no moving thing but the falling of the last drops of rain, the eternal pull and push of the crystal waves against the shoreline of Okinawa.

Saya summoned force in her chest, commanded her half-awake vocal cords to cry out.

"Hello?" she called loudly into the empty world. There was no response, not even the stir of a bird or beast at the sound of the single, penetrating word. The wind swept her word away, carrying the sound in its grip until it faded and died in the expanse of the sky. The waves crashed once more on the empty beach, the noise of its roaring consuming and drowning Saya's word beneath the cerulean surface of the sea.

Koza. Perhaps, in the city, there would be people. There would be Kai, and everything would be all right then. But some dark feeling clawed at her heart, telling her not to look. Saya ignored it. Drawing in air sharply, she focused her mind and followed the flow of the waves along the shoreline to the city too distant to be seen.

For hours she walked along that abandoned road, seeing only a few animals scurrying across the cracked pavement in search of food. Her legs became exhausted after some time and she could still not see the city over the forest, so she decided to lie down and rest for a while. She simply let her weak body go to the ground and curled up, wrapping her hair around her unclothed skin. She needed more blood, but for now, she wanted to rest and replenish what little energy she had.

For a while she lay there, moving nothing and thinking about everything. Mixed feelings began to fill Saya's mind, feelings of fear, confusion, and most of all a sharp loneliness that pierced her frail body and spilled across every inch of this island. She felt it in her every breath, in each heartbeat, and heard it with each crash of the waves and whispering of the wind. Questions began to appear in her mind as her eyes closed. Has it been thirty years? How is Kai now? Was…the thought trailed off, evoking painful memories from Saya's heart. She did not want to think about it, to think about whether the man who so loved her had truly perished on that day.

Thump. The single distant impact on the asphalt was a vibration felt by Saya's left ear and cheek against the ground. Her senses were still dull, but she could tell that the weight of something very heavy had pulled a foot to the ground. Lazily she lifted her face from the road and rolled over, expecting to see the source of the sound down the highway she just walked. The landscape was empty, and no creature stirred. Saya furrowed her eyebrow. She knew she hadn't imagined it.

The shrill cry of an animal shattered the silence and strangled the peaceful but lonesome sound of the wind and waves. Saya pulled herself to her feet and readied herself to fight, looking around carefully for the creature. Her posture was perfect; the stance of a skilled swordsman, but Saya had no sword to use. Only then did she realize how powerless she was, without a weapon, a companion to watch her back, or even the meager protection of clothing. Saya narrowed her eyes and tried to focus, to search around for this new enemy. That cry was of no ordinary animal.

Up. The word was from within her, an instinctual and urgent warning. Saya turned her gaze to the sky just before a great shadow plunged to earth to crush her. She turned and rolled across the pavement, looking up to hear a massive crack of asphalt and seeing a dark and billowing shape against the grey sky. Its head turned to face her, and two glints of red glass gazed at her with hunger. A toothy mouth opened, oozed saliva that dripped and gathered on the ground, and released a scream that turned Saya's blood to ice. She shivered and stood tall slowly, again taking up a balanced and ready posture to fight. If this creature had eluded her so easily, came down so quickly, she doubted that her slow reflexes and weak body could fight it off.

The creature stopped screaming and its nostrils flared, picking up a new and more appetizing scent. Its eyes moved from Saya to some area behind her, and the creature sprang from the crater it had made, grazing Saya's leg with the sharp edge of its wing as it passed. Saya turned and saw the creature leap onto something – a living thing?

Then she heard the man shout. A man. An innocent person was being attacked. Saya ran as fast as her weak legs would carry her toward the creature. She wasn't thinking; she couldn't help this man no matter how hard she tried. She was not yet strong enough.

A silvery blade pierced the creature and its point glinted through its back. The blade withdrew and the beast staggered backward, off balance now.

"That won't work!" Saya cried out. "It'll heal…"

For a moment, everything was silent, and nothing moved. But then a crackle pierced the silence, and the creature moaned, stepping back again. Its chest was turning to stone as its blood hardened, crystallized, and began to fragment. The wings flared and the creature's legs carried it away, suddenly driven by the instinct to flee. The creature leaped once and took to the air, but its wings solidified in mid-flight, cracking and chipping away piece by piece. They ceased to function and the creature plummeted to earth, shattering on impact like a massive hunk of black glass.

Saya stood there, open-mouthed, looking at the broken fragments of the beast. Something was not correct in her mind, and not coming together into a coherent explanation. No man she knew could kill a chiropteran this way.

"Are you alright, miss…?" the man's voice stammered, sounding embarrassed to see a naked woman standing before him.

Saya slowly turned her head, expecting to see some strange thing looking back at her. But what she saw was a normal man, dressed in camouflage, rubbing his forearm a little. He had no weapon.

"What…?"

"I'm a Soldier," the man replied in an authoritative and slightly accented voice. "I was stationed here to try to control the mice. I didn't expect to see anyone here alive…"

Saya froze. No one was supposed to be alive… "If I'm not home, where am I?" she cried out, desperation edging her voice.

"C…calm down, miss. You're on Okinawa…or, at least, what used to be Okinawa."

Saya's hands were trembling now. "What happened here? Please, tell me!"

The man's fingers curled around her shoulder gently, trying to comfort her. His brown eyes were piercing and pensive, thinking about how to put his next phrase into soothing words. "Everyone has been escorted out of here," he finally said. "There are only monsters here now. A girl like you doesn't belong on this island." He looked out to the ocean. "Where is your family?"

Saya was still shaking. "I…I don't know," she stammered. "I don't understand…"

"Miss, I don't know how the Red Shield could have been so foolish to leave you behind. It must have been a hard six years for you."

"Six…years?"

The man nodded. He looked at the thousands of fragments scattered across the road, pieces of what were once a monster. "That's how long it's been since they showed up. How long you've been alone on this island. I imagine you've lost track of time…" He looked back at Saya. "Listen, I don't know why you're still here, or why you don't know what's happened. But I'll do my best to get you out of here. This place is too dangerous for a girl like you."

Saya hesitantly nodded and shivered.

"First, let's get some clothes on you."

Omg, guys! I'm so sorry for the delay! I spent the last few weeks moving and finishing up school projects, and I haven't had much time on the computer to post this. So thanks for being patient! (I'll definitely post more chapters by Christmas, I'm sure of it!). I'm also starting to write another fanfiction, this time a one-shot or two-part story for Hetalia: Axis Powers revolving around Prussia and Hungary. Once I get that finished I'll post it for you guys, too! :)

Anyways, I hope you like this chapter! It's definitely one of my favorites so far. I'm trying to make my usage of OCs (which I make especially for the story, not borrowing from any of my original work) as intelligent and canon-sounding as possible, you know? I honestly don't like using them, but since this is 30 years in the future, it's unavoidable! So I hope Marcus won't come off as being some silly extra character. .