Chapter 1

"Hey, Ally! Wait up!"

I turned around and smiled. "Hey, Dai!" I stopped walking so he could catch up to me.

Daisuke Niwa was a great friend. His red hair always spiked and his eyes looked just like huge rubies. We were in the same class, but I was fifteen and he was fourteen. He might be small, but he was quick. Even though he was a klutz, he was also kindhearted.

Every morning, we would walk together to the station where a car would take us to the top of a hill and we would walk the rest of the way to school. There was one stop along the way and then the last stop was where we got off.

It was December and the snow fell from the sky and blanketed the ground with soft snow. I exhaled and loved to see my warm breath as it exited from my cold lips. Our school just had a week off and now we were returning to it.

"So, Dai," I always addressed him as that. "How was your week off?"

"Alright," he sighed, obviously tired. "I stayed up late most nights." he shifted his backpack on his shoulder.

"Then you slept in until noon just to stay up late again?" I chuckled. "What were you doing? Calling Riku and having lovey-dovey late night calls?" I formed my lips into a puckered state, closed my eyes, and made a kissing sound.

A second later, a sudden cold feeling consumed my face and I opened my eyes. All I could see was pure white. I heard Daisuke laughing his head off and I wiped the snow off my face.

"I admit, I did deserve that," I confessed, joining in on his laughter.

"Agreed," Daisuke said, now recovered from his laughing session.

"Okay," I sighed. "So, how is Dark? He doing well?"

I heard Daisuke gulp loudly and I chuckled, patting his back.

"Daisuke, Daisuke, Daisuke," I began.

"Don't triple Daisuke me, Ally."

"You know for a fact that I've known that secret for six months now and have been with you on every single mission."

"They're not missions. They're thefts."

"Alright," I retorted, then muttered in a low voice so he could not hear me, "Mr. Perfectionist." I cleared my throat, then added out loud, "You know I meet you at your house and you change into Dark. Then, with him hidden in a hoodie so no one can recognize him, we walk to an alleyway near the target building, yet far enough away from the crowd of people so we wouldn't be caught. When we're well enough hidden, he'll take off the hoodie, revealing his thieving outfit, then Wiz will turn into his wings and Dark'll fly off and, sometimes, Krad would appear and they would fight. Afterwards, Dark would return with the stolen artifact, sometimes beaten up, and put the hoodie back on as I hid the artifact in a bag I always bring and we would walk quickly home." I gulped up a handful of air after I finished.

"I know," he commented. "I just forgot you knew the secret. You didn't have to go into major detail."

"I'm aware," I smiled down at him. "I just love to explain it to you."

He bent down to get another snowball, but I was quicker, for once.

"Throw that and I'll throw mine, Dai."

He paused mid-step and looked at me, surprised by my warning. I laughed as he dropped the snow and returned to his normal stance. "You suck."

"That's what everyone tells me!" I sang as I dropped my snowball and began walking again.

He caught up to me in no time flat. Looking at his watch, he zoomed forward. "C'mon! We only got two minutes until the car leaves!"

I ran behind him. The station was only five minutes away if we were walking, but about a minute and a half if we sprinted. We arrived just as the car was about to leave. Just before the car's door closed, we jumped on and grasped out knees, panting like crazy.

"Stupid…asthma…" I wheezed as I sat on a chair behind me, grasping my chest. "This…weather…just…makes…it…worse…"

A few minutes later, the car pulled into the second stop. When the doors opened, a wave of people piled in, escaping the cold, even if it was for a moment. Four people walked straight up to us.

"Morning!" the girl with the long brown hair greeted us.

"Hey, Risa," Daisuke replied with his sweet smile of his.

The second girl was spoke next. "Hello."

"Hi, Riku," I replied. My lungs still stung a bit as I spoke, but I barely noticed.

"Good morning, Niwa," the blue haired boy adjusted his glasses, then looked at me. "Ally."

"Mornin', Satoshi," I smiled as he sat next to me. Then, with a low enough voice so no one but me and him could hear, I added, "Krad."

I noticed him stiffen a bit, but no one else seemed to notice.

"Hey!" the last girl sang, her blonde hair accented with white drops of unmelted snow.

"Hey, Brianna!" Daisuke greeted her before I could.

Brianna also knew the secret. Most of the time, she would tag along with me and Dark when we went out on one of his thefts. She was kind and a great friend (not to mention that we have the same birthday).

The six of us were in the same class and were a great group of friends.

As Brianna sat down next to me, Risa, who was nearest the door, snapped her fingers. Almost immediately afterwards, she turned to look at the rest of us.

"Have any of you seen the news yet?" she asked.

I knew she was in love with Dark and I knew what she was talking about. Daisuke, staring at the youngest of the Harada twins, stiffened up a bit.

"Yeah," I replied, trying to change what she was about to mention. "There's that big sale going on at the mall this weekend. Anyone wanna go?"

"I would love to!" Brianna answered first.

"Not that," Risa sighed. "About Dark's stealing spree."

I failed in my attempt. My attention switched to Daisuke's and he was still stiffened.

"That was an interesting story," Satoshi replied suddenly, surprising me. He glared at Daisuke. "Five artifacts in one week. It's a new record. Don't you think, Niwa?"

I heard Daisuke gulp. He was nervous.

"He's so amazing!" Risa chirped. "I love him so much!"

Riku, the older Harada twin, crossed her arms and snorted. "Why do you love him, Risa?" she looked at her sister. "That thief is just another no good perverted womanizer."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Daisuke tense up. His eyes were like they were earlier. Dark, I thought.

After a few minutes, the car stopped at the last stop. The six of us climbed off and walked to the school in the biting coldness of the winter air.

When we arrived at the school, we ducked into the building to find warmth. The hall was crowded and warm.

At the classroom, we all took off our coats and scarves we were wearing earlier to reveal our school uniforms. I sat down at my desk, soon joined by Daisuke, who sat behind me, and Brianna, her seat next to mine. Glancing around, no one was paying attention to us, so I leaned over to Daisuke.

Hey, Dai," I whispered, Brianna leaning towards us to listen. "Can I ask Dark a couple of things?"

Before his answer came, Satoshi walked up to us three, his face showing no signs of emotion.

"Excuse me," he began calmly. "May I speak to you three in private?"

"Um…" I thought for a second, then looked at Daisuke. He was nervous, but he still nodded at me. Turning back to Satoshi, I sighed. "Okay."

We stood and followed Satoshi to the closest janitor's closet, where he opened the door.

"In here, please," he readjusted his glasses.

As soon as we were all in, the blue-haired boy closed the door and turned towards us, leaning up against it.

"So," he looked at me. "How do you know about Krad?"

I tensed up. 'BUSTED!' I thought, balling my hands into fists.

"Ally? You okay?" I heard Brianna ask.

"Y-yeah," I replied, trying to think up of an excuse on how I knew. Daisuke had told me, but I couldn't ever tell Satoshi that.

I sighed. "Okay. Whenever you run off in pain during Dark's thefts, Krad would appear soon after. No one would see you when he was fighting Dark. So I just put two and two together. And then it hit me. You are also Krad. He is coexisting within your body."

Satoshi's face changed almost immediately. He was stunned.

After a few moments of silence, he began to clap slowly. 'Odd,' I thought. 'The Satoshi I know would never do that.'

"Great job," his voice was different. When he looked up at us, I heard a gasp escape everyone's throats, including my own.

His eyes were golden and slit like a cat's.

"Krad," I heard Daisuke mutter. When I looked at him, his hand was in his pocket.

'Must be a picture of the Harada twins,' I thought as I looked at Satoshi/Krad again.

He had already transformed. Satoshi's hair had gone from short and blue to a long, pony tailed blond. His outfit was white with golden lining and his bright white wings jutted out from his back. This was the angel known only by the name of Krad.

He swiftly walked towards me and I put my hands up to defend myself.

The white-clad angel chuckled. "Brave little girl, aren't we?" I flinched when he spoke in a cold voice.

When he reached me, I began to let out a cry for help, but my mouth was muffled by the angel's gloved hand.

"Oh, no," he breathed in my ear. "We don't want anyone else to get involved now, don't we?"

Tears began to appear in my eyes as Krad put both hands on my neck, picked me up off the ground with ease, and began to squeeze his fingers around my neck. I searched for air, but barely found any.

"Dai-su-ke!" I managed. "D-Dark! Bri-a-nna! Somebody! Help!"

I heard Krad grunt. Someone must have hurt him. Opening my eyes, I saw Brianna, who had a hold of his long ponytail. This caused Krad to loosen his grip on my neck.

"LET HER GO!" she yelled as Krad tried to get her off.

Suddenly, I felt only one hand on my now hurt neck and began to breathe again, but gasped at the sight. The white-clad angel had smacked her in the face and she laid in a ball on the ground.

"No…" I breathed as Krad's head turned to me again.

"Where were we?" he asked as he put his free hand back on my neck again and resumed choking me.

My eyelids felt heavy as Krad choked the living daylights out of me. Suddenly, I saw Daisuke change into Dark. His purple spiked hair was the same color as his amethyst eyes almost hiding behind his long bangs. He wore loose black clothing around his slender body. His attention was turned towards us.

"You know what, Kraddy?" he asked in a calm voice. His hand was practically thrown behind his head and balled up into a fist. "You're always such a jerk!"

Dark's hand flew forward and hit his counterpart right in the gut. Krad immediately withdrew his hands from me as he staggered back, hunched over in pain. My body hit the ground as I gasped for air. I saw Dark punch Krad over and over again as Brianna crawl over to me.

"Ally!" she began to cry. "Are you alright?!"

"Yeah," my voice was raspy, but at least I could speak again.

Dark quickly walked up to us. "C'mon!" he tugged on my arm. "Let's get out of here before he wakes up!"

"But everyone would see you!" I whispered. "How can we-"

He pointed to an air vent on the wall. "We can crawl through there and go back to Daisuke's house."

"Oh," Brianna sighed.

"But what about class?" I asked.

"Before we left, Daisuke told Riku silently to put our things outside the door and tell the teacher that we were absent when she took attendance," Dark explained.

"Okay," I opened the door and grabbed our things quickly. After I shut the door, I threw on my winter coat and Brianna did the same. Dark, however, was working on opening the vent. So, since he needed wings to fly home, I just held Daisuke's things.

"Okay, done!" he put the vent nearby so he could replace it later and held out his hand. "C'mon! This should lead to the roof, or at least a stair well."

I took his hand and he boosted me up to the vent, helping me crawl in. As I crawled further away from the scene, I heard Brianna enter the vent, then Dark as he replaced the vent.

We crawled until we reached another vent leading to a stair well.

"Dark!" I quietly yelled back at him. "This vent leads to the stairs!"

"Okay! Move over!" I heard him yell back. I obeyed and moved over as he crawled by me. Using his amazing skills, he began to open the vent silently. I could feel the heat emanating off his body and blushed slightly.

About a minute later, Dark put the vent cover beside him. "Let's go!"

I jumped out first and landed on my feet. Brianna came next and soon after, Dark came out. He replaced the cover and we ran up the stairs to the door at the top.

We burst onto the roof. The winter air sent chills down me and Brianna's body. I looked at Dark and he seemed unaffected by the weather. He went to the ledge of the roof and looked around. Sighing, he turned back to us.

"There's a lot of people walking about. Take off's gonna be hard, but we have no choice," he tensed up a bit, eyes wide, then added, "Krad's awake and he's running up the stairs as we speak. We need to move now!"

I ran up to Dark and Brianna followed. Dark's hand shot up into the air.

"WIZ!" he called. Soon, a white bunny-like animal appeared and transformed into the dark-clad angel's wings. As soon as Wiz placed himself onto Dark's back, the door burst open and Krad walked out.

"Thought you could get away, huh?" he hissed sinisterly. I clutched to Dark's warm body, scared out of my mind. "Think again!"

Krad pulled out a sword out of its sheath and raced towards us. He swung the sword and it landed right on my shoulder. Crimson blood flowed from the wound as I saw the white angel smile sinisterly.

I cried out in pain and flew back to the edge of the roof,. The way I laid made me almost fall off.

"ALLY!" Brianna cried as her footsteps got louder as she ran to me.

I saw Dark try to kick Krad, but ended up being slashed with the sword all the way up his forearm. He punched Krad in the stomach and the white-clad men fell in a crumpled mess, clutching his stomach.

"Let's go!" Dark scooped me up and then Brianna. Spreading his wings out wide, we flew off as I felt my conscious leave me.

"DDDDDAAAAARRRRRKKKKK!" I heard Krad scream as we flew off.

The pain from my wound overcame my body and I groaned as I placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Crap…" I muttered to myself. "I'm losing too much blood…"

"Are you alright?" I heard Dark ask me in a worried tone.

"I'm…fine…" I replied in a low voice. My surroundings became encased in darkness as I fainted.