Sergeant Faye deactivated the Influence Skill, causing her eyes to stop glowing.
She had already obtained all the information she needed from Shizuka.
Slowly, Shizuka's eyes stopped glowing, and the trance-like expression on her face began to fade away.
When it did, a look of confusion came across her face.
Shizuka brought her hand to her forehead, as if she had a headache.
For the second time in a few short weeks, she could feel a gap in her memory.
"Faye, what the hell just happened?" she asked. "And…why does my mind feel so…foggy?"
A deep, rumbling noise soon filled the room, originating from Sergeant Faye's stomach.
Sergeant Faye gritted her teeth, as she felt the hunger in her stomach grow.
'No,' she thought. 'Not now.'
But then, she realized that this might be a blessing in disguise, for what she had planned.
She looked at Shizuka with a tense look.
After a moment of silence, her arm lashed forward, gripping around Shizuka's right bicep.
Shizuka looked down at her arm in shock.
To her, it felt like her arm was locked in a vice-grip.
Sergeant Faye yanked her arm forward, bringing Shizuka closer to her.
Shizuka's eyes widened in shock.
'W-What the?!' she thought. 'H-Has Faye always been this strong?!'
Holding Shizuka close enough that their faces were mere inches away from each other, Sergeant Faye looked deeply into Shizuka's eyes.
"Shizuka," she replied in a low tone, dropping her "Sergeant" title, and speaking to her in a form of familiarity. "I'm going to need you to trust me. And…try to keep an open mind."
Without elaborating any further, Sergeant Faye opened her mouth wide.
As she did, Shizuka's pupils became pin-pricks as she saw Faye's elongated canines.
'Wait, are those…fangs?!' Shizuka thought, a part of her mind thinking that she was just hallucinating.
Sergeant Faye clamped her mouth down on Shizuka's left shoulder.
For a split-second, Shizuka's instincts, honed over the last six years in the military, screamed at her to use her Soul Weapon to turn her shoulder into Earth to protect herself from Faye's attack.
But, Shizuka then remembered Faye's words.
About how Faye needed Shizuka to 'trust her'.
Shizuka sighed internally.
'This better not come back to bite me in the ass,' Shizuka thought.
While Shizuka had expected a sharp, piercing pain, to explode in her neck, and had braced for that exact feeling, what had actually happened was the complete opposite.
She had felt…pleasure from the bite, followed by a tingling sensation that ran through her body, as she felt the blood being drained out of her neck.
It was quickly followed by a paralyzing effect, locking up Shizuka's whole body.
Sergeant Faye soon took her mouth off of Shizuka's neck, small traces of blood stll on her lips.
"Faye…" Shizuka mumbled in a sleepy tone, as she felt steep overtaking her, her eyelids fluttering. "You'd better have a…good explanation for this…"
The last thing Shizuka saw before she lost consciousness was Sergeant Faye wiping the blood off her lip with her left hand.
No longer conscious, Shizuka began to fall forward, but Sergeant Faye caught her, wrapping her arms around her waist.
She carried Shizuka over to her bed, and gently laid her down on it.
"Sorry about that Shizuka," Sergeant Faye replied in a gentle tone with a smile on her face. "But I wasn't lying before. I truly will explain everything to you once you wake back up.
She brought her arm up to her chest and pressed down the red gem on her Vampire Communicator, causing it to begin to glow.
"Leader Muka, are you still awake?" she asked into the device.
There was a slight pause, then Muka's voice crackled through the device, the glowing gem pulsing in and out with her every word.
"Yes, Faye, I am still awake," Muka replied. "Don't worry, we have a different sleep schedule compared to you Humans. Additionally, as a Family Leader, I am usually up late dealing with paperwork. Do you have something to report?"
Sergeant Faye nodded, despite Muka not being able to see her.
"Yes, my leader," she replied. "I've made a breakthrough in my investigation regarding the other Vampire on the base. I will be traveling through the Portal you gave me and returning to the castle momentarily. And…"
Sergeant Faye glanced back at the unconscious Shizuka on her bed.
"...I will be bringing someone with me."
Muka remained silent for a moment.
"I…see," she finally replied, her voice now with a hint of concern and wariness to it. "Very well, Faye. I will be awaiting your arrival. You and your…guest."
Muka ended the call on her end, cutting off the connection.
Sergeant Faye looked down at the Vampire Communicator, the red gem slowly losing its illumination.
She sighed internally.
'Hopefully, Leader Muka won't be…too mad at me for doing this,' she thought.
Sergeant Faye walked over to her dresser, and pulled out the third drawer.
There, hidden beneath a pile of perfectly folded pants, was the black Teleporter, still in its compact form that looked like an old laptop.
Sergeant Faye removed it from the dresser, and placed it on the floor.
She began pressing the numbers on the top of the device in a specific order.
Before Sergeant Faye had left the Ninth Family Castle, Muka had told her to set a personalized "command code" into the Teleporter, like the lock combination for a briefcase.
In Sergeant Faye's case, she had decided to use her 12-digit military ID, but had changed the first number, the last number, and the number in the middle to a "9", in reference to how she was now a member of the Ninth Family of the Vampire Settlement.
The second the last "9" had been entered, an audible "click" was heard.
Just like before on Pioletic, Sergeant Faye watched as the inner mechanisms and moving parts of the compact Portal began folding out, reshaping themselves.
Within seconds, where there had once been a black, metal rectangle on the floor, there now stood the circular frame of a full-sized Portal.
A vortex of swirling, purple energy soon formed in the center.
'I swear, sometimes I wish I could share some of the secrets of the Vampire Settlement with the rest of the military,' she thought in lamentation. 'These 'Collapsable Portals' could do wonders for us.'
She momentarily flashed back to how when she, Sergeant Shizuka, Sergeant Leo, Hayley, and Del had been sent out on that "Retrieval Mission" to retrieve the three missing students, Del had to carry the Human's version of a "Portable Portal" in that heavy rucksack.
Sergeant Faye walked over towards the bed, and lifted up Shizuka's unconscious body, holding her in a princess carry.
"Alright," Sergeant Faye replied, steeling her resolve. "Time to go."
She walked forwards, and headed straight into the Portal.
As she was halfway through the vortex, Sergeant Faye looked back at her closed dorm room door.
Since she didn't have any of those "explosive spheres" like the one Lexi and Muka had used, Sergeant Faye had no choice but to just keep the Portal active.
But, fortunately for her, since the Portal was in her dorm room, the chance of someone actually coming in here and stumbling through the Portal was minimal.
Just like with the rooms in the Student Dormitory, the door could only be opened from the outside by using her personal fingerprint.
Well, there was one other person on the base who could slip through, but she happened to be currently passed out in Faye's arms.
Faye gulped, and finished walking through the Portal.
***
Far away from Military Base 2, on a completely unknown planet, Vampire Leader Muka Fortuna of the Ninth Family sat on the throne of her throne room, wearing her full set of black armor.
Standing at attention on either side of her was a small group of Vampires, her having three on either side.
"Tch, the nerve of this woman," one of the male Vampire muttered under his breath with narrowed eyes. "She's been one of us for what, three days, and she's already broken one of the most sacred rules of the Settlement by bringing a Human here?"
Muka's helmet turned to face the Vampire who had just spoken up.
"Be quiet," Muka replied in a soft, but reprimanding tone. "No matter how 'new' she may be, Faye Dallum is part of this family now, so show her the respect she deserves."
She turned her head back so she was facing directly in front of her.
"In any case, I am sure that Faye knows what she is doing," Muka replied. "Remember, Faye wasn't just any run-of-the-mill Human before I turned her. She was a disciplined soldier."
The Vampire turned back to Muka, and looked as though he was about to retort, but the words died in his throat, as they could all feel a certain…change in the air.
Directly in front of them, they watched as the air began to distort, looking as though a hole had been torn in the very fabric of reality.
Small bursts of electricity shot off of the distortion, and soon, a swirling vortex of purple energy formed in front of them.
And…walking out of the vortex, was Sergeant Faye, holding the unconscious Sergeant Shizuka in her arms.