Dark Souls and Dark Confessions
An Angelic Layer fanfic written by Blade Skydancer

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any part of Angelic Layer, it is owned entirely by its creator CLAMP. As a result of this, I do not wish to be held responsible for any copyright infringements that may take place in this fanfic, as I will be using some original characters.

Chapter 1: The Soul of an Angel

Darkness surrounded her. Was she awake? No, it was certain she was dreaming... It was a near-sticky blackness that seemed to cling to her, as if it was a child desperately clinging to its mother for life. She then heard a voice that pierced the silence, that not even her own voice could be heard in. Absolute silence until the voice...

"Misaki...Misaki...come to me..." the voice beckoned.

This made the girl afraid, but then out of the darkness, a blinding pinpoint of light broke forth. This pinpoint grew and grew until it was the size of a small ball. Perhaps even an Angel Egg...

"Misaki...Misaki!" The voice grew louder, and out of the bright ball of light, a tiny peach-colored hand emerged, bathed in a golden light. It was too small to be a child's hand...

"Hi...Hikaru?" Suddenly, Misaki's voice came back, as she spoke timidly.

"Your shining star has come to save you, Suzuhara Misaki..." The voice spoke once more, before Misaki gave enough courage to reach out and touch the small hand. Suddenly, the blinding light flashed and left behind a faint afterglow... That's when Misaki was taken by surprise. She herself was clothed in her school uniform, but Hikaru...

The Angel known as Hikaru was a small one, only being about 6" tall. She weighed almost unimaginably light, only about twelve grams. Her head was covered in somewhat untamed, short pink hair. She smiled as she looked upon her Deus with soft, pink eyes.

Hikaru's tiny hand was held within Misaki's, the nude Angel smiling and looking in to Misaki's eyes. In this dream, Hikaru had a pair of wings; she was a true Angel...

"Hikaru..." Misaki sighed and smiled softly. Then, she closed her eyes and awoke. She shook her head and looked over to the Angel's Egg...when she gasped in surprise.

"Hikaru, are you...?" She spoke as she held the egg close to her breast and peered inside. There, Hikaru was curled up into a tiny ball, shivering. She had shed her clothing in the night, and it seemed as if the Angel had somewhat of a nightmare.

"Poor thing." She smiled and extracted the comatose Angel. As she tried to uncurl her to reclothe her, the Angel didn't move.

"Oh, Hikaru, stop being stubborn!" The Deus had sighed once more, managing to pry Hikaru open with her brute strength. That's when she went limp and was clothed by Misaki. She, then, heard a call from the hallway, definitely Shouko's voice.

"MISAKI!! SOMEONE'S AT THE DOOR FOR YOU!!"

"Oh!" She then hurriedly gets dressed, simply throwing on a mid-summer dress and a couple of other things. She hadn't even bothered to place the hair-clips onto the tendrils that came down in front of the ears, so they were splitting into long locks of hair. She quickly combed the mess atop her head and rushed to the door.

As she looked in the mirror to fix her hair somewhat, she saw herself. Gazing back at her was a pair of sapphire eyes that were set into a soft pale face. Upon her head was a crown of nearly unkempt brown short hair. In front of her ears, along her cheeks was a pair of dark brown tendrils, which were clipped at the end to prevent them from splitting up. She wasn't all that tall, hell she was shorter than most her age, standing only 4 feet and eleven inches from the ground. Her dress wasn't all that impressive, just a small, light greenish dress that desperately clung to her. After fixing her hair some, she went to the door.

"Suzuhara!" It was Kotarou, but it wasn't exactly him...He had this semi- glazed over look in his eyes, and Tamayo had it full-on. She wasn't her usual energetic self, just simply staring straight ahead.

Kotarou was a bit taller than her, about 5'7" He had short, messy deep blue hair, and a pair of dark blue eyes. He didn't wear anything spectacular, just his school uniform which consisted of a pair of long, white pants, dark blue shoes, a white jacket with blue buttons and cuffs, along with a cuff around the upper part of his arm. He also had a ribbon and crown badge hanging from his left breast.

Tamayo was three inches shorter than Kotarou, and she had short blonde hair. Her glazed deep-purple eyes stared straight ahead and she looked almost zombie-like. She, too was in her school uniform, which was similar to Kotarou's, except for the fact that she was wearing a skirt instead of a pair of pants. She had a pair of white boots with the toes and heels being deep blue, and a pair of long, dark blue socks that stretched up to just above her knees. The same badge was upon her left breast.

"Kotarou-Chan! But...what's wrong with Tamayo-Chan?" Misaki gasped slightly in surprise, she feared for her best friend's sake.

"I don't know what's wrong with her. I found her curled up in the middle of the park, and worse, I found her nude!" This made Misaki blink.

"Strange, that's how I found Hikaru this morning, too!" Misaki sighed in concern.

"Something strange is going on, here, Suzuhara...and it's not exactly pretty. I heard on the news that Setoh wouldn't get out of her bed this morning!"

"Miss Ringo? Wow...what's going on?" Misaki gasped

"I don't know...but you know today's the final match of the Kanto Games, don't you?" Kotarou smiled and Misaki smiled as well.

"Right." And the two, nearly dragging their zombie-like friend along with them, went down to the stadium which contained the tournament's Layer.