I'm sooo sorry about the wait. Please forgive me!

Disclaimer: I do not own DNAngel, yet…

Chapter 5

Dark groaned as he slowly came to. Something small and furry seemed to keep butting against his head. Slowly sitting up, he took in his surroundings. It only took him a few seconds to recognize where he was, despite subtle changes to the room.

"Kyu!" Wiz cried, trying to get his master's attention. Dark stroked his head absently.

However as Dark tried to get his stiff limbs to work, he did notice perhaps one of the strangest outfits he had ever transformed into. Daisuke had always been a little strange, but it was a first for him to be dressing in drag. He would have expected as much from Satoshi…

Rika slowly felt her mind become conscious. She tried to move her arm to rub her temples to try and alleviate the strange presence in her head, but her arm wouldn't obey her. She tried to turn her head, her eyes, get anything to respond, but it was as if she was paralyzed. Then she felt her head turn to look out the window, even though she had not tried to move it.

Feeling the other presence in his mind, Dark asked 'what the hell happened Daisuke?' Dark could vaguely remember a few events of what he guessed was the last time he was conscious. He remembered the weather had been strange, and Riku running after Daisuke…

'I could ask the same!' a very different, feminine voice responded, 'I don't know who you are, but what are you doing in my body?!' it asked, somewhat frantically.

'Well I suppose that would explain the schoolgirl outfit' Dark thought. Rika of course heard this, ignored the remark, as she was not sure if it was directed at her. She was about to demand again who this stranger was that had taken over her body when she heard footsteps racing up the stairs. Her body slowly got to its feet.

'Was I really this tall?' she thought as she saw that her head was almost as tall as the doorframe. 'I must be having a dream' she decided. 'A very strange dream. Maybe dad will start singing opera and Wiz will start talking next' she thought with amusement. Dark also began to wonder if it was all a dream too. But before he could form another thought, he heard a very, very, high-pitched squee. Sighing, Dark turned to face the door completely. He had heard that squee more times than he could count, confirming that unfortunately, this was not a dream and he could not go back to sleep.

"Hey Emiko…" he broke off. This was not the Emiko that he remembered. The Emiko that he had known hadn't looked over her late twenties, but this woman had white hair and a much thinner, smaller, frame. 'Wow, grandma used to be really pretty' Rika couldn't help but think after seeing Dark's memory in her mind. But then the woman sprang forward in a lively manner and hugged Dark with surprising strength for an old woman, confirming that this was indeed Emiko.

"Oh Dark! You look sooo adorable in the schoolgirl outfit!" she exclaimed, crushing him so that it was difficult to breathe. When he didn't respond she abruptly let go, realizing she was smothering him. "Oh right, sorry" she grinned and apologized. Daichi scuffled from where he had been timidly peeking into the room by the doorframe to hide behind Emiko. 'Grandma! What's going on?!' Rika tried to ask Emiko, but no sound came out of her traitorous mouth.

'Your grandmother, huh?' Dark thought. 'It appears I have been dormant far longer than I realized'.

Out loud he asked Emiko, "What's going on, Emiko? It seems I have a new host, but I have no recollection how all of this came about. Care to explain?"

"You don't remember anything? Anything at all?"

"No, I remember up to sharing a body with Daisuke, and inhabiting his body for awhile. But my memory draws a blank after that" he frowned. His suspicions were confirmed, his memory wasn't complete. Something had happened that he couldn't remember.

'What about my body?' Rika tried to scream 'What the hell is going on?!' she demanded. If they wanted to sit back, drink a cup of tea, well then fine. But she wanted her answers first. It was after all her body that was now being used by a stranger.

"Ow!" Dark winced. Rika's outburst had been very loud in his head.

Emiko looked at him with concern, but Dark just shook his head. "Your granddaughter is a little confused, and she's taking it out on me," he informed Emiko.

"Oh Rika! I'm sorry, just a moment sweetie!" she exclaimed. She all of a sudden disappeared, then reappeared with a bundle of clothing in her arms. Dark was relieved to see that Emiko had not lost her energy.

"Thanks," Dark said as she handed the bundle to him.

Emiko sighed, "As much as I know Riku and Risa will enjoy seeing you dressed like a schoolgirl, it does look a tad uncomfortable," she said, referring to the fact the uniform was at least two sizes too small for Dark. Rika realized then that she must not be in her own body after all, and that this was indeed reality. A sense of awkwardness rushed over her as she realized that the body belonging to the deep voice must be male. She wasn't sure then whether she should be grateful or angry that she had no control over where she looked.

While she didn't think this out loud where Dark could here, picking up on her silence, he teasingly told her as he shut the door, 'Sorry, I know that I am unbelievably sexy, but it would be far too scandalous to let my young female counterpart watch' and then, Rika's limited vision went black. She realized that he must have closed his eyes. Fortunately for Dark, Emiko had handed him the black turtleneck and pants that he normally wore, so no vision was required to change. Finally Rika's vision returned, and she and Dark noticed that there was something in his pocket.

Dark, suspicious of what Emiko had probably put in there, drew out the folded piece of paper. Sighing, he unfolded it. As he had suspected it was indeed a photograph. But the face on the faded black and white picture caught him by surprise, and he felt himself immediately loose control over his body.

Rika felt their frame shrinking, until she regained control of her limbs. Although the process took only a few seconds, it felt strange to feel her body slowly start to respond to her will again. Finally in complete control, Rika looked at herself in the mirror. For once, she was glad to see her own face looking back. Rolling up her too long sleeves and pants, she bent over to retrieve the picture that had fallen. It was a young woman, but other than the fact that she was very pretty, Rika couldn't find anything special about the picture. She seemed familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Whatever it was about the picture that had caused her to regain her body, she was grateful for it and replaced it in her back pocket.

Still though, she could sense another presence in her mind. She tried to reach out to it to see if it was the strange boy, but he seemed to be ignoring her. She could feel something strange coming from his presence, regret maybe? But he continued to ignore her. Shrugging to show she didn't mind a lack of voices in her head, she made her way downstairs to get answers from her grandmother.

Wiz jumped onto her shoulder from the railing on the stairs, kyuing at her. She wasn't sure if he was protesting her replacement of the strange boy, or if he was begging for her to go fix him a bowl of strawberries.

'He's probably begging for strawberries' the voice answered her thoughts.

"Oh dear, it looks like that turtle neck is trying to eat you" Emiko said to Rika as she walked into the living room. Rika had sunk onto the couch, with Wiz beside her. However seeing the bowl of strawberries Emiko was carrying, he quickly jumped over to the coffee table to eat his body weight in fruit.

Rika waited. She knew her grandmother was only trying to lighten the mood. Emiko sat down and seemed to collect her thoughts for a moment. She heard the voice chuckle in the back of her mind.

"Rika, for generations the Niwa family has guarded a secret. In our genes lies the DNA of the phantom thief Dark. In previous generations males in our family would transform into Dark after being rejected by their first love. It was those romantic feelings that caused the transformation into Dark, and allowed them to return to normal. The Niwas were once a family of great art thieves…" she broke off, but continued, "this line included your father, Daisuke. However one day a seal on a dangerous piece of art was broken. Your father and Dark fought to re-seal the art, and eventually Dark sealed himself away to contain the piece. We had thought Dark was gone for good and that the line of art thieves had ended," Emiko finished.

Dark felt his memory of that day come back in a rush. He remembered now. Careful to hide it from Rika as this was all new to her, he recalled fighting with Krad and beginning the seal, and then darkness.

Rika just blinked. She wasn't sure whether to laugh her grandmother's wild tale off, or to pull her hair out in frustration at the weirdness of it all. She wanted to believe that her grandmother was just crazy, but she couldn't forget that feeling when she felt herself loose control of her body, and the boy's voice inside her head.

'Not that a voice in your head probably counts for much, but for what it's worth you're not entirely insane' the voice, Dark, told her. At least now she had a name, even if her grandmother's story had only raised eighty billion more questions.

Rika settled for the biggest one looming in her mind, "Grandma, you said all the males in the line were the ones who transformed. If that's so, then why was I the one who this happened to? Why didn't happen to Daichi?" Rika wasn't wishing this on her younger brother, but she was really wondering if something was wrong with her.

"I don't know" Emiko said, slightly exasperated. "Dark?" she asked.

'I don't know either,' Dark told Rika to relay to Emiko. 'I can only guess that the breaking of the seal must have messed something up, since Daisuke would have been freed of me by now had I not been sealed and could not be my host. I'm guessing since your grandson was too young, I ended up in Rika's body because she was the only teenager with an unrequited love'. Rika relayed this to her grandmother, even though she didn't entirely understand.

"A Niwa no longer transformed into Dark after winning over their true love" Emiko briefly explained to Rika.

"So is that why you always set up those obstacles for Daichi and I when mom and dad weren't home? Because you thought there was a possibility Daichi might transform one day?"

"No," Emiko said and grinned, "It was more of a habit really. Like I said, we had all thought that Daisuke would be the last of our line to change. I had trained in the same manner when I was young, and I had trained Daisuke in the arts of thieving, and I saw no reason to let those skills die out just because we wouldn't be using them to steal art any more".

Rika recalled a few times when she had darted out of the house without grabbing keys to the school's after school rooms set aside for clubs. True enough, her ability to break into any lock was useful.

Just then, they heard the front door click open. Daichi forgot that he was supposed to be hiding behind the couch, eavesdropping, and rushed into the other room to greet his parents.