Summary: She never was one to fall for those stupid fairy tales. She was never the smartest person in the pack. She was never the one who believed that hate was another word for love. Hell, she never was the one who believed in love. She never was the one who was called normal. She was never a girly one. She never was the one who squealed when someone attacked her because she'd strike back immediately. Something about her mystified others, except for her best friend. But even her best friend didn't know her that well at moments in her life. This one night changed four unsuspecting people's lives forever. One memory triggered another, but who caused it? A tale of treachery, love, and hatred unfolds.

Burning Intensity
By xAvenging Angelx

xXx

And suddenly, the world isn't just black and white

xXx

She always hated the dark. She always left the light on in her house before going to bed. She never knew why, but she detested the shadows of the night. But tonight… The lights flickered and darkness overpowered the light. Most people would assume that it was just a power outage, but this was a sign of bad omen for the troubled teenage who just 15 years of age.

Her golden honey colored hair was matted to her forehead from perspiration trickling down from her hairline. Her delicate long eyelashes gave her an angelic look, but something made her frown and furrow her eyebrows. She twisted and turned in her bed sheets. An outsider looking in from her bedroom window chuckled manically. He was in the comfort zone being draped in endless folds of shadows. It was the best way to travel for creatures of the night like himself.

He let out a grumbling laugh and spoke up in his hissing bass voice, "It's been 635 years…. Come out. Come out, Miss Mikan."

With that, he cackled and the lights mysteriously flickered back on. It didn't help the girl's state as she began to moan. The turning ceased and her arms fell limp to herself. She never felt so weak before in her life as she let the nightmare overtake her to make her face something she didn't want to see. She was done fighting it.

She saw a brunette running through the pouring rain. The brunette was wearing a light pink kimono with gold embroidery for decorations. A bow was at the back of it with a sword neatly tied up in the material. Her face was grim with determination even though tears spilled to her cheeks. She didn't know what was happening, but she felt all of the emotions of this scene. And God, was it horrible. She felt sick to the core from the depression that was emitted. The sadness, the terror, and the feeling of her heart being wrenched out made her paralyzed to the spot as she watched the brunette continue running. Her strides became longer and longer, but she suddenly paused.

A worried looking lady was showed. Her violet eyes looked at the brunette in sorrow as she rushed over and wrapped her arms around the brunette. She had a light blue-violet kimono on with silver embroidery over it for decoration. She looked a duplicate of the brunette only in different colors. They both had long flowing hair and kimonos that were styled like each other's. The two ladies collapsed to the ground crying. It intrigued Mikan a lot as she flew closer to inspect the scene.

"It's okay, it's okay, it's okay. You're here… That's all what matters, Mi-Chan. You're here alive and unscratched," the midnight haired lady with violet eyes said gently through her sobs. She stroked this Mi-Chan's back and tried to calm her down.

"So many lives were taken, Aru-Chan… I saw Anna stabbed in the back by her lover. I saw little kids being tortured because of their parents. I saw their parents beg on the ground so that their children would be spared. I saw my comrades fall before my eyes. The war… The war was so horrible," Mi-Chan clutch to Aru-Chan tightly as she revealed what she had saw. It made sense to Mikan. All the despair, all the sorrow, and all of the fear. These people were fighting in a gruesome war. Mikan understood everything just from one sentence. She predicted what was going to happen next, but she couldn't warn the two troubled teenagers in front of her. The danger bells rang in the back of her head, but she couldn't do anything about it. She knew that Mi-Chan got drafted in the war in order to protect her sister from harms way. She knew that their father was dead and that's why she had to go. She felt like she already been in this situation, but in reality she knew that she didn't.

"Sh… It'll be okay, Mi-Chan," the other girl sniffed. She too had seen a lot of scenes that made her collapse to her knees in agony, even if she didn't know the person, it still hurt. Aru-Chan was an empathic person so she felt despair even if she wasn't the one in the circumstance. All she needed to do know was to comfort her sister.

A feral growl escaped from Mi-Chan's throat as she launched herself in front of her sister and whipped out her sword. She of all people could recognize the scent of this one. She spent many summer nights with the guy. It pained her when he left, but who cares now? He was the enemy and she needed to protect her own kind. That was just how it worked. She'd go as far as to kill the man that she loved. She stood in a defensive position as she snarled, "Come out traitor."

"So, my little tangerines made it out of the war," a husky masculine voice chuckled darkly and possession was hinted when he said me, "How lovely."

"Get the hell away! You joined the others, you bastard!" Mi-Chan yelled as her heart felt like it was stabbed a million times. How could he betray her like that? They had planned their future together before this mess had started. They were to wed and have little babies. They were supposed to have love, but that all changed when someone raged war. Destiny, it was an unpredictable thing. War was an ugly creature to, it could change everyone's lives for the worse.

"I asked you to join us," the male said in a slow drawl as his jet black hair was detected from the shadows that he preferred to being in the light, "I asked but you declined, my lady. We could've flourished in the other community just a few hills over yonder."

"Never! You betrayed us!" the brunette screamed as Aru-Chan watched everything that was happening from behind her sister's protective stance. So rumors were right when they said that the 3rd greatest had fallen into enemy hands. She felt horrible for her sister, but she should know what the heartache was like, the 4th greatest had fallen into the betrayers' clutches too. Her lover was her enemy like her sister and her lover.

"Yet you still love me," the male drawled as he slowly came out from the shadows that he was hiding in. He glanced at Mi-Chan one last time before he left. This time it was a face unlike most of his stoic looks, but one that told her that he still felt the same. The war torn apart two lovers just like that. Their little love thing didn't conquer all because war did.

Mi didn't say a word as her shoulders shook.

Her sister tried to comfort her as she brought her closer into the community borders for they had stood a few centimeters off of it. All what Mi-Chan would said repeatedly was, "Natsu, Natsu, Natsu, don't do this to me."

"What the hell?!" Mikan woke up in a sweat and her heart raced with a desperate attempt to beat hard enough to get out of her ribcage. She was confused, yet she knew who those two ladies were. She had a sense of knowledge, but yet she didn't know anything. She rubbed her hazel eyes as she sleepily reached her phone and went down to the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee. God knows that without she'd fall asleep in class. Well, she's not going to sleep after that awful dream. Two shots of coffee sounded very appealing to her.

In another part of the town that she was in… She wasn't the only one plagued with nightmares.

"Why the hell did you come back, traitor!" a woman in a light blue-violet kimono said fiercely. Her long midnight black hair was held up with a pair of chopsticks. Her violet eyes that were accented by her kimono were narrowed down in slits and her arm was raised in order to use her powers on the man who stood before her. She stood by the doorway of her house and the man was standing a few feet away from her.

"To come get you, my dear. Don't you see? We could live and flourish in my new lifestyle. The change of scenery is wonderful," the blonde haired man begged. His dirty blonde hair was tousled up in a way that the dark haired lady used to adore. His cerulean blue eyes sparkled with a charm that made his ex-lover want to melt. He was trying his best to convince her to leave with him.

"Never! Not now. Not in a thousand centuries from now! Not since the dawn of time. I will NEVER be a fucking traitor," the black haired lady hissed with venom coursing her tone without skipping a beat. There was no way in hell that she was going to come with him. This life that she led was way more important than him.

"Please? For me?" the blonde haired man whispered in a heartbroken tone.

"Nothing will change my mind, Ruka. You're dead to me," she hissed, but she let her arm drop down. That was a signal to the blonde haired man that she was close to defeat.

"We had it all, though Aru-Chan," he persisted.

"Keyword, HAD. Get the hell away from me," she snarled as she slammed the door in his face. With that note, she stumbled a bit before dropping to her knees in sobs. How could he do this to her? Didn't he see that he stabbed her heart way to many times? Didn't he see that she was suffering without him? Why did he join the others and leave her? Life was a bitch.

"Ruka, Ruka, Ruka…" she mumbled through her weeping. All hope was lost for her and her lover. She felt like there was no point in living now…

A girl with short midnight black hair that was cropped to her chin woke up with a jolt. Her violet eyes had a faraway look as she propped her head up with the palm of her hand. That was a very interesting dream that she had. She glanced at her clock, which read: 4:50. It might seem like a good idea for a light cup of coffee. She trudged down to her kitchen when she heard her cell-phone ring. She had 20 dollars down that it was going to be Mikan who called her.

"Mornin' Hotaru!" a chipper voice said from her phone. Yes, she was right when she thought that Mikan would be on the other line. She got out a cup and closed the cabinet.

"What do you want, idiot?" she responded in her usual stoic monotone. There was no need to alert the stupid idiot about the dream that she had. Mikan would probably blow it out of proportion.

"Well, I sort of had this really weird dream last night and I don't want to fall asleep now so I called you," Mikan replied bluntly. Typical her. Hotaru poured her coffee from her coffee-maker as she shook her head. Only this idiot would call 4 in the bloody morning to talk about a weird dream. But of course, Hotaru had a pretty interesting one too…

"So you called me up right now to tell me about it? Have you looked at the clock recently?" Hotaru replied in a tone that made Mikan picture that she had her eyebrow arched in puzzlement or dark amusement. Indeed was Mikan right with the picturing Hotaru with her eyebrow raised up.

"Well…" Mikan trailed off.

"You know, I had a weird dream last night too, Mikan," Hotaru finally spoke up from her quiet reverie to herself.

"Really? Can I hear about it, Hotaru?" Mikan asked in her usual cheerful voice. It reminded Hotaru of a child asking about candy. The child like qualities of Mikan Sakura just made her smile to herself. Not that she would ever let someone see her smiling.

"Why not?" Hotaru sighed as she stirred her coffee idly. She began to tell her best friend about the vivid images of the woman and the man. She spoke about the despair that she felt from watching them and finally she spoke about how she collapsed to the ground in sobs. It built up a sob in Hotaru's throat, but not once she let her voice quiver. She ignored the sob building up and waited for Mikan to comment on her dream.

"Aw, that sounded so tragic. I feel so bad for the poor lady. Though I don't think the man was worthy of tears. If I were her, I probably would've stabbed the man," Mikan spoke up after she swallowed all of the information that she heard from her best friend.

"Agreed," Hotaru replied.

"Oh so the famous Hotaru Imai is agreeing with stupid little Mikan Sakura?" Mikan teased lightly, which earned a small smile from Hotaru and a chuckle from Mikan.

"Possibly."

"Oh come on, Hotaru! You so did agree with me," Mikan chuckled before launching into her own tale of an epic betrayal. The name of Aru-Chan jolted Hotaru as she silently made her way to the bookshelf in her living room. She brushed her fingers against each book, before her hand rested on an aging book.

After Mikan finished her story, Hotaru commented softly, "Hold on. I think there's something more to our dreams. I'll tell you at school."

"Okay, bye," Mikan replied hesitantly as Hotaru murmured her own bye. She sat down on the couch and began to read. Her eyes widen from the very beginning of the book. Yes, this was going to be very interesting.

xXx

"Hello!" Mikan said brightly as she entered the class. She wore a light pink blouse with a black camisole underneath it and a pair of dark wash skinny jeans. Her hair was swept up in a high ponytail and her right side bang covered one of her beautiful hazel eyes. She had on a light gold metallic eye shadow with dark brown eyeliner, strawberry scented lip-gloss, and a light dab of blush. The class spoke their greetings to Miss Sunshine, except for Hotaru as usual.

She nodded in Hotaru's direction before taking her seat that was a seat behind Hotaru. She didn't try to hug her best friend, which was an action that confused many. Didn't Mikan always hug Hotaru in the morning? Well, Mikan felt like something major was going to happen and didn't want to waste her energy trying to hug the un-huggable. It was best to be alert and Hotaru felt the same.

Both sat with their hands folded on top of their desk, as they wanted for their homeroom teacher to prance in with his usual gayness. Not long after Mikan was seated, Narumi walked in with a black polo with a filly lace collar and a pair of light blue skinny jeans. His lavender eyes danced with excitement as he spoke, "Everyone!"

People could feel the excitement building up in the man's body and looked up to see what caused his sudden happiness. It wasn't usual for their homeroom teacher to appear to class on time. They quieted down and Narumi said, "We'll be getting two new classmates! Please welcome them with warm embraces. Natsume Hyuuga and Ruka Nogi, people!"

Mikan and Hotaru jolted up as if they were hit with electricity. The names sounded oddly familiar and struck a cord in their bodies.

Two boys strutted into the room. One had shiny spiked up raven hair and ruby red eyes. He wore a black polo with flames dancing at the bottom of the shirt and baggy black jeans. He had his hands stuffed into the jean pockets. The other had innocent features and dirty blonde hair with the clearest cerulean eyes. He had a navy Hollister shirt on with dark jeans that were tight enough to not show his boxers, but baggy enough to make sure that he didn't look gay. All the girls felt like they had fallen in love, except for two girls…

Mikan and Hotaru's eyes narrowed as they felt a strong hatred to them mixed with sadness.

'Why do I feel like this?' Mikan and Hotaru wondered in their minds. They glanced down into their laps, not bothering with the two boys. Whoop-Dee-do, new students. Who really cares? Mikan and Hotaru obviously didn't seeing that Mikan started to play games on her cell-phone and Hotaru began to read the book that she had been reading since she and Mikan hung up.

With the two boys, Natsume stared at Mikan with lust and love and the same with Ruka to Hotaru. They felt so awful every time they cast their gaze over to the two teenagers. They both wished that they could catch their eyes, but it wasn't going to happen. It wasn't much to expect since… Well what happened long ago…

"Introduce yourself to the class, boys," the teacher spoke up after a moment where all of the girls in the class ogling over the two boys. The boys looked at them jealously and those with girlfriends prepared to protect them before they fall for the two boys' charms.

"I'm Ruka, I'm 16 and in class A," Ruka bowed down with respect. Everyone in the class groaned, knowing that class A was one of the toughest classes to get into. Most of the people in the class were found in class C because it was ranked by level of academics with class A being the most advanced. Hotaru thought, 'Ruka?! Like in the dream?!'

"Natsume, 15 and in class A," Natsume said with a slow drawl as if the kids in the class were stupid and inferior to him as he thought, 'Tch. This is gay, I already hate this.'

"Natsu, Natsume… Close resemblance…" Mikan murmured to herself, not taking her eyes off of the game on her cell phone. Surviving High School was a good game to play when you want time to pass by quickly.

"Now, who wants to show these two boys around the school?" the teacher asked the class, knowing full on well what would the outcome would be. As he predicted, almost every single hand of the girls' was up, except for Mikan and Hotaru. He found that kind of amusing; he knew that those two were going to be best suited to tour the two boys' around seeing that the rest of the class would either pummel them or try to have sex with the two boys.

Narumi looked at that fact and spoke, "Mikan you're Natsume's partner and Ruka you're with Hotaru."

Natsume smirked and smoothed his spikes as he walked over to Mikan. At least he got the girl that he wanted in the first place. Mikan just glared with such hatred, that even she couldn't explain. She snapped her cell phone shut as the glaring contest began between Natsume and herself.

Ruka then walked up to Hotaru, with a gentle smile carved on his face, but Hotaru stared with disbelief… What the hell just happened? Did Narumi want a death wish or something?

xXx

Ending Notes: Did you like it? Please REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW! I would like some feedback in order to know whether to continue this story or not. The more reviews I get, the sooner I'll update! ( :