The early morning skies seemed unusually bright that dawn. The day had finally come. It was meant to be a day of both bittersweet farewells, and great rejoicing.

The highest of the angels, the upholder of the heavenly laws, was officially stepping down.

The Archangel, King Solomon, was finally retiring. His heir, Prince Yugi, would become the new chancellor of their holy realm.

There would be many various ceremonies and celebrations, to honor the old and herald the new. The most festive events were built around the ascension ceremony for the young angel.

But their was also a third event taking place this day: an ancient ceremony of great importance. After all, the new leader would need a guardian to help protect him. Therefore, the holy counsel had been brought together; and it was divined that the strongest of the Powers clan would serve this task. Akefia, a rather wild but brave fighting angel, would become the next High Guardian of their people. He was a high commander of his people's army, and a very spirited warrior.

Prince Yugi was quite unnerved when he realized who would be his body guard for the next several centuries- Akefia could be a bit, erm, destructive. As in, "that new recruit insulted me, so I stole all his personal items during training practice and buried them in a thundercloud."

But the tradition was clear: the leader was to be a kind and sage angel of honorable standing; and he would be joined by a strong and battle-wise angel to act as his enforcer.

As the preparations for the occasion continued, one small angel was dashing about like mad. His hickory-tinted eyes were wide with fear. The pale cherub went largely ignored as he rushed about, searching for something.

The principality-class angel cried out as he finally saw what he sought. "MALIK!"

The white-haired cherub was gasping for breath. His confused friend, Malik of the protector-class, quickly ran to his friend.

"Ryou! What's wrong?!"

Ryou was the younger half-sibling of Akefia. Despite this, he was a rather small and clumsy angel. He seemed to have none of the boldness and physical ability of his elder brother. Indeed, he had inherited the more intellectual tendencies of a scholarly-type angel. This was not entirely odd, as they were technically only half-brothers. However, they were so close that they (and many others) felt no other title would suit their bond than that of 'brothers'.

From a young age on, the shy youth had found that he greatly enjoyed working in the Great Library. All the knowledge of their celestial kingdom was contained in the ancient tomes, and Ryou revered them as the greatest treasures in all the realms. He was quite content to leave the limelight to his older, warrior sibling- Akefia always enjoyed being under the public eye, whereas Ryou found the mere thought terrifying. But they bonded quite well over their common interests, and bickered playfully over everything else.

Unfortunately, Akefia's stubbornness sometimes did cause problems. Problems that occasionally became disastrous.

The white-haired angel spoke in an urgent whisper that screamed of tension. "Malik- it's bad. It's Akefia- he's gotten worse."

Malik's eyes widened- he was one of the only two angels who knew the secret that Ryou meant. A secret that even Ryou himself was not even supposed to be aware of.

Akefia had been temporarily crippled.

Ryou's muscular half-brother had been injured while saving a younger warrior during a training practice. The adolescent angel was only on his second real 'flight' above the clouds, and made a deadly mistake. The inexperienced youth had flown too high, and developed wing cramps from the icy air. He had fallen so quickly that Akefia just barely caught him. But the guard's right arm had been broken in the process. He was able to hide it from the rest of his comrades, but it would take at least a week to heal without the aid of another angel's healing powers.

And he never told anyone- Ryou only discovered the injury when he accidentally walked in on his brother making a crude splint. Akefia had not seen him, but Ryou could deduce what had happened.

And when he learned of the battle part of the upcoming ascension ceremony, he was horrified- his brother was in no condition to stand up to a demon! 'Ceremonial' or not, demons were not known to take their fights lightly. In fact, many angels considered them to be nearly barbaric due to the large emphasis their culture placed on physical battle. So Ryou had quickly raced off to find his best friend.

"Malik, I need your help!"

The blonde combatant quickly nodded. "Anything- what do you need?"

"I need you to find your sister's apothecary supplies- we need fennel, lavender, and poppy extract."

Malik's older sister, Ishizu, was a very wise and highly-regarded healer- she was skilled in both holy incantations and natural cures. She could heal a broken arm, sure enough; but it would be impossible for two adolescent angels to force a messenger to go to her chambers without asking any questions.

But even if they managed to trick Akefia into willingly seeing her, there was still a major problem. It would be her duty to report to the prince that his future guardian was harmed; and Ryou knew that could not happen.

It was imperative that the transference of the leadership came with the impression of strength and stability. In reality, the war between the angels and the demons was still on-going- no actual treaty had ever been forged between the two sides. If the angel's strongest warrior appeared to have been injured in a mere training exercise... well... such a conveyance of weakness could lead the demon king to launch an attack and take advantage of such vulnerability.

Malik was usually far more carefree, but right now he was panicking as his friend explained his hastily-hewn plan.

"But Ryou, you don't even know how to fight!"

The paler youth shook his head nervously. "I'm the only angel who looks enough like him- if I can just make it look convincing for a few minutes, then maybe the demon king won't care!"

"..." Malik's golden wings drooped slightly as he sighed. "I can't believe it- you're the one with a reckless plan." He gave a feeble laugh before adding, "but, I'll help. I should be able to get the herbs from her store without much fuss- everyone's really busy preparing for the ascension."

"Thank you." Ryou's voice was trembling with gratitude as his friend turned to head down the stone hall. "The ceremony starts at mid-day. I'll put the herbs in his morning tea- he should sleep for a few hours."

The darker-skinned angel sighed again as he walked briskly down the well-lit corridors.. Usually he was the one to come up with the 'crazy' plans.

'D*mn, I hope this works.'

~.~.~

Meanwhile, the resigning king was looking out over the arena which would hold most of the major events of the day. His silver hair was wildly spiked under a nearly matching crown of white gold and blue diamonds. His aged eyes were staring intently at the field below. His beloved grandson would soon be standing there, ready to take the role he was born to-

"Your highness?" A middle-aged seraph politely addressed the still-current leader. "Is something troubling you?"

"Oh, nothing-" King Solomon managed a light chuckle as he spoke, "-just looking forward to my quiet retirement."

The adjutant smiled knowingly, and left the older royal to his thoughts. The ruler had many loyal subjects, and his kingdom was flourishing. But still... King Solomon felt a weariness in his heart that had grown heavier every day. Normally it would be his son who would be ascending the throne... but the incident at Northern peaks had taken the life of his only child eons ago.

'Such foolish bickering... so many lives were lost that day. And for what? Nothing has changed between our peoples..." The monarch closed his eyes and shook his wrinkled brow in contemplation. "I can only pray that my dear Yugi will be able to help unite our sides one day... though I may not live to see it...'

For thousands and thousands of years, the angels and the demons had been on very tense ground. Their had been a terrible war eons ago, and countless warriors died on both sides. So the two realms came to a very tentative agreement that they would not go to war again without a powerful reason.

Unfortunately, an unexpected deception was soon to provide them with such a reason.