So, this happened very fast. I screwed up the timeline and who was taken on purpose, I just felt like it because I feel like Scud would be even more of an asshole about a kid than an old man, you know? So, hope you enjoy!

Kelly POV

"So, we know that vampire blood is different, it's biconvex and the hemoglobin isn't right. What does this EDTA do?" I ask, holding up the bottle of dark blue liquid and pulling out my sketchbook.

She takes it and pulls out a pipette, having already set up a sample of vampire blood in a dish. "That's what I want to find out," she answers with a little smirk. "We use it to treat blood clots."

"A fancy and expensive version of rat poison then," I comment, just to poke fun at her.

She gives me a playful glare. "This isn't too hard to get ahold of, it runs out all the time and we know somebody slips it out." She takes a small sample and drops it into the dish, causing it to bubble and explode, making us both jump away.

I laugh a little at the idea that just came to mind. "Blow up the vampires, and disguise it as serum," I whisper, writing it in my book and drawing out an injector that Papa found to use for Blade's serum in a hurry. I grab a few plastic test tubes and the injectors before looking for one of the spare stake holsters. They're a perfect fit, so I take it all back to the computer station to sew caps to the bottom and start filling the tubes and attaching them to the injectors.

"Blade should like those," Karen muses, and I look up in time to see her pleased expression as she turns to one of her cold boxes.

"Do you have any ideas on how to treat your vampirism?" I ask as I draw out the tool with its notes on a fresh sheet, comments on the reaction with a little before and after doodle of the test we ran. It's been a while since Karen started comparing blood samples of herself, me, Blade, and Quinn, and we've been working in silence.

I look up after coloring in the blue on my paper to find her nodding. "It's the hemoglobin part, it's in their DNA at this point. So, I use gene therapy in a retrovirus to rewrite my DNA."

I frown at her. "How do you get to that idea?"

"It's the same thing we use to treat sickle cell anemia. It's a part of their DNA, just like the vampires. So, if I use this, it should have the same effect, getting rid of what could be considered a virus that turns me into a vampire." She wipes a spot on her bicep and injects herself with a solution, making me wince.

"Is this even safe, and could the same be done for Blade?" I ask hopefully.

She shakes her head. "I have no idea if this is even safe or might work for me, but I don't have much choice. This might help Blade, but it'll take time for me to get it adjusted for him. He was born with it, like sickle cell patients, and it took a long time for this therapy to be developed. I have the start of it that should work, at least to cure his thirst."

I look at the screen as I pull out the sheet and tuck it into the back of the holster, leaving it on top of the computer in case we both forget about it when the guys come back shortly. "I don't think we've got that much time," I reply softly, watching as the figure in the center on a pedestal expands in a burst of blood that takes over the screen before the program ends. A cold laugh stops my heart. "Karen, we need to run," I whisper, jumping up and pulling a shotgun down from the top of the light over her and grabbing her hand as she pulls out a gun of her own.

I lead her towards the back, shooting at someone upstairs on a catwalk before someone shoots out my knee from behind, making me cry out in agony as I collapse. "Kelly!" Karen shouts, bending to help me up as Mercury grabs her, holding her arms painfully behind her back.

"Nice place you got here kid, too us a while to find it!" Frost snarls, lodging his foot in my ribs to kick me onto my back.

I gasp in pain, holding a hand over my ribs, but I give him my best glare. I don't let my eyes tear up in pain or fear. "Go ahead and get it over with you fucker," I snarl up at him, edging away from him.

He gives me a horrible grin as he kicks me again, this time in my stomach and completely winding me. "I'm not gonna bite you kid," he promises, turning away to pat Quinn's shoulder. "Do your thing man."

"Kelly?!" Blade shouts, and I moan in agony, the act itself hurting every fiber of my being. Everything hurts, everything burns and all I see is a bloody white sheet over my head, one I can feel covering my body in the chair he uses to take his serum.

"Kid, over here!" Papa shouts, pulling off the sheet and letting the light nearly blind my swollen eyes.

"Papa," I whimper. "Frost… Quinn… Mercury… they got… took Karen," I gasp, not even fighting the tears anymore as Blade wipes away some of the blood from my neck, too close to one of the bites on my collarbone. "Bit me."

Blade's gloved hand wraps around mine, squeezing ever so gently. "Shh, save your strength. We can treat it."

I close my eyes. "No… been hours… hurts." I look up at Papa then Blade. "Made… a tool… on the computer… EDTA kills… they don't know. Looks like a… serum. Make it stop… I don't wanna turn… please," I beg Blade.

"Give me the gun," Papa orders Blade softly, and he obeys, not looking anywhere but in my eyes. Papa takes my other hand and squeezes gently. "Close your eyes, Kelly… just like you're going to sleep."

"Love you," I whisper, closing my eyes and unable to keep myself from crying.

"Love you too Kelly," Blade whispers, kissing my forehead. "Goodnight."

I hold in a scream as they electrocute and beat me, blinded by my own blood. "Talk little bitch, and we might stop," the same man as before orders coldly.

"Liar," I laugh hoarsely. Why didn't I die? Why did I turn? Papa shot me, I know he did!

I scream as one punch shatters my ribs and dents my entire left side, coughing up blood as blood gurgles in my throat. Black spots dance in front of me as they untie me from the chair. "Put her in the tank," someone orders someone else blandly as they walk away.

Blade POV

Rush, I'll have to remember him. Good shield, but a weak link in this little operation. They shouldn't have trusted him with anything, the little coward, but it led me back to my little Kelly. How did she turn though? How did they find her and make sure she lived? I saw Whistler kill her myself, a bullet in the head and no pulse. They forced me to hunt her all over the world, always moving her and never staying somewhere long, for just over twenty-six months. She should've just turned fourteen, and now she's still twelve years old.

The tank glows red from internal lights in the blood and water solution they've trapped her in. "Kelly," I whisper hoarsely, feeling the pain of losing her all over again as I spot the fangs in her mouth, open in a silent scream. "What have they done to you?"

I find the locks and release them, opening the tank and opening the door, flooding the room and leaving her small body hanging from tubes in her arms and back and the plastic restraints around her neck and wrists. I take the time to remove the needles, one at a time, and remove the sensors sticking to her naked, emaciated body. The feeding and breathing tubes from her throat, and what I hope is a waste tube from below.

I lower her to the ground after cutting away the restraints, and her big blue eyes open ever so slightly as I cradle her in one arm, my free hand instinctively going to the silver stakes strapped to my leg. "Blade…" she whispers with a faint smile. "Make them stop," she whimpers as her eyes fall shut once more. "Make them…" she trails off, asleep in what she thinks is the safety of my arms.

I'm at war with myself, my experiences and instincts demanding that I kill her, that I finish the job. But I can't make myself kill this little girl, the one I raised with Whistler and care about too much. My head tells me to end her suffering, but my heart tells me Karen's cure will bring her back to me. I saved her from the fire nine years ago, and I can save her from vampirism now.

I shrug off my coat and wrap it around her, closing the front gently and lifting her in my arms. "Let's go home Kelly," I whisper to her, tucking her head under my chin as I rise and walk out, not a single vampire in my path, just the ashes of the ones who tried to stop me.