DISCLAIMER: I don't own Darker Than Black and its sequels. This fanfiction is NOT for profit, only for fun.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, tityuio, InflatedChimp, Dear4Life and Saywer.

Many thanks to Wikipedia…

Ages: Xing/Bai: 8 years (almost 9); Hei: 12 years

Names: Xing means star; Bai means white; Hei means black; Tian means sky

OC description:

Chiang Linh: middle-aged Chinese woman; long black hair; blue eyes

Chiang Fa: middle-aged Chinese man; brown hair; blue eyes


Chapter 8

Day 7

Fa had spent the night at the computer and was now almost sure that his daughter had narcolepsy, a sleep disorder, which causes the affected people to fall asleep spontaneously during the day, even when they slept the entire night. Apparently an EEG during sleep could make sure, so he had called several specialists in the closer vicinity and even Tokyo and he had gotten an appointment for the day after tomorrow. His wife would accompany Xing while he would be needed at the observatory.

Due to their daughter's sickness, both parents would have preferred that Xing stayed at home, but the girl had assured them that she never before fell asleep at school and that she needed to attend because of a math-test. Reluctantly, they brought her to school on their way to work. Linh would take the next days off and would return this early afternoon to pick their daughter up from school, so nothing could happen to her on her way home. Fa also planned to come home in the evening.

Tian was glad that his parents finally took their time for Xing – it was only bad that his sister had to be sick to make them change their priorities. When he returned home, his mother and sister were already waiting for him with the meal. Like the former week Xing was rather quiet and her brother smiled at her, when he looked up from his plate to get a second. "How was the test?"

The small brunette swallowed her bite. "Fine. I'll pass."

Her mother smiled at her and filled her son's plate once again. "You sound sure of yourself, Xing." Usually the girl would pray that she passes a math test – she was bright and a very good student, just not in this one subject.

"I studied and my homework was always correct. The equations were easy." Without her fear nagging on her nerves and attention, the test had been quickly and effectively solved.

Later, when they were done with their homework and Linh had asked about hundred times if Xing was really not tired – she was getting on Tian's nerves – Fa returned home only to find his daughter alone in her room sticking her finger into the socket. "Xing!" He was next to her in an instant and got a little zapped as he pulled her small body away. "Why did you do this?! You could die!" He had her grasped tightly by the shoulders and stared at her terrified as the rest of the family came running. "You know that touching a socket is dangerous!"

"I didn't get hurt." The girl said in her even tone and was about to move from her father's hard grip on her, but with no success.

Her carefree attitude spiked desperate fear in her father. What had gotten into his daughter now? "Are you crazy, Xing?!" He looked straight into her lidded blue eyes. "You could die! You'll never do this again! Understood?!" He needed to reattach the child-safeties to the sockets.

Xing stared at her father. She didn't understand his emotional outburst - she was fine after all. Curious about her abilities, she had touched the two metal clips inside the plastic socket with two fingertips – getting purposely into contact with the conductors was really hard. She wanted to know what would happen, but just as she had anticipated - she had mulled over this experiment for several days – she had felt the energy flowing into her, but nothing else. No pain, no death – those things would be illogical to happen to someone who could produce electricity with their entire body. "I won't do it again," she eventually said to make her father let her go. This was no lie, there was no need to repeat this experiment.

"Good." Fa stared at her with intensity, but his daughter's expression remained unfazed – like she didn't care at all. He was at a loss and decided to have a closer look onto the girl's doings from now on. But for now, he got to his feet and turned to his crying wife and horrified son.

It had shaken Linh to the bones that her daughter would do something like this – she was almost nine years old. What child her age would stick their finger into a socket? She was old enough to know that this was very dangerous. What was wrong with her little girl? She leaned into her husband searching for strength when he came and hugged her while Tian took his sister by the hand, fetched some card-game from her shelf and led her out of the room – giving their parents some privacy to calm down and discuss things.

In the living-room the boy dropped down on the couch and opened the game's box, his eyes on his sister. "Why did you touch a socket? This is irrational." He used one of her words on purpose – there really was no reason why someone would do this.

Xing stared at her brother for a moment, contemplating his words. He was right; it was a highly irrational behavior for someone without her abilities. "You are right, but I knew I wouldn't get hurt."

The boy looked at her like she had grown a second head and stopped to shuffle the cards in shock. "WHAT?!"

"It was the logical conclusion." The girl said and turned the TV on with the remote just as their parents entered the room.

Their mother still had some tears shimmer in her blue eyes, when she sank down next to her children onto the sofa and hugged Xing. The girl on the other hand didn't hug her back and only flipped through the channels until she reached a news channel. Linh frowned. "You can watch your Sailor Moon, sweetie." She had just caught sight of some of those pink haired characters with the ridicules large eyes.

Xing shook her head. "No, I don't watch them anymore." She said in her emotionless tone – her parents had finally registered that not only the words she used differed but also her voice sounded a little different – the always happy and high tone was missing.

Tian had seen the suspicious gazes his parents threw each other, but kept the reason he had eventually figured for her disinterest to himself – there was no need to give his mother another reason to cry. He just hoped that his sister would refrain from explaining how time-wasting and irrational card playing was. It was seldom that they played something together as a family. Most games were for more than two players and though they were both popular at school and had friends, they still had spent most time at home with chores and studying. And now since last week, Tian was the only one with friends left – and a few female classmates, who just won't stop ogling him.

Xing took the offered cards and was about to say that she saw no point in playing UNO, when she saw the intense gaze her brother gave her. "We don't have anything else to do and we can still watch the news while playing." Her brother explained. The little brunette concluded that he had a point – a weak one – and looked down onto her cards while listening to the television. Their parents looked startled about their son's words for a moment before they also took their cards.

The news were like always about the lost sky and the two Gates – the Brazilian one was now officially christened Heaven's Gate in response to Tokyo's Hell's Gate. But now more local events got larger time-slots and so it happened that the anchor summed up the three tornado-incidences in Tokyo that occurred the former day and this morning just as he was interrupted by the message of yet another tornado taking place just in that very moment.

Only then Fa's cell rung and he immediately answered it. After a moment of listening, he gave the order to further keep taps on that particular star. When he had closed the connection, he saw the questioning gazes of his colleague a.k.a. his wife and his son. "Apparently that instable star, that nova, that pulses the entire time in a different spectrum than the other bright and duller stars do, has just started to shudder violently again."

"If it will also turn to a duller star like the other two did…" Linh mused aloud, while her son's attention was back on the news when Fa's cell received a text message just as the news-anchor gave the all-clear that the storm was over.

"The star just returned to its normal abnormal pulsing spectrum." The man explained after he had read the message.

"Uno." Tian placed a card on the table and grinned. "You know it's funny that the star stopped its activity in the same moment that tornado has vanished." Suddenly the eyes of both his parents were on him. "Umm… did I say something wrong?"

His father shook the head and got to his feet, his cell in his hand. "No, Tian. On the contrary." He dealt the number of the observatory and gave instructions to compare the activity-times with the appearances of tornados in Tokyo - maybe his son had just found THE connection.


Later that evening, Fa returned to his work, when he had gotten a very startled and surprised call from one of his subordinates that the times would indeed match down to the second. This was a quantum jump. He needed to have a look at the data and have his team search for events matching the timing of the other two strange stars that were now shining constantly duller from the sky.

Meanwhile his wife stayed at home, though Tian could tell that she was somewhat torn between her worry for Xing and the riddles that awaited her at the observatory.

She had just brought her daughter to bed. It had saddened her that the girl didn't want to hear a fairytale from the book Linh usually read to her when she was at home. But this was not as hard as the circumstance that Xing didn't hug her or kiss her good night on the cheek like the girl used to do. Her daughter was distant and cold.

"Is she like this every day?" Linh asked her son when she returned to the living room, where the boy watched some American detective story. "No smiles and happiness."

The boy contemplated for a moment – he didn't want to worry his mother even further, but he wouldn't lie. "Yes. One day she woke up and it was like she couldn't feel any emotions anymore." This information made his mother very calm, but he felt that he had to say something. "She's still Xing. She's still your daughter and my little sister." The boy said with determination in his voice.


A/N: Before questions arise: In the manga (Black Dandelion) there was shown that Dolls (Champ) also have stars (my interpretation of the shooting-star). In my Darker Than Black universe the stars of Dolls are constantly a little duller than the ones of contractors. Moratoria were told (in ep3&4) to be pulsing constantly, but when active even wilder – before they turn to Dolls (with THE exception of Mai) (another reason why I think Dolls do have stars).

Thanks to InflatedChimp to point out an error.