Chapter 9
Disclaimer: I don't own DN Angel. Just in case you thought I did, I don't.
"Satoshi?" I called down the dark, dank passages. I was lost, there was no doubt about it, and I was terrified of running into Argentine. My wings were wrapped tight around my shoulders, but I was still shaking, though whether it was from fear or cold, I didn't know. I had tried calling for Fenga, but she'd never come. I didn't know how long I'd been down here, it could have been anywhere from an hour to a day. I was tired, but I guessed I was in a different time zone, so I didn't really use that for a measure. "Daisuke? Emiko? Towa?" I whispered, my voice echoing eerily. My feet were freezing, (I didn't have my shoes) and more than anything, I wanted to stop. "Ryoushi? Fenga?" I heard a soft clip, clip, of nails on the floor, and my hopes lifted. I ran towards the sound, sure that I had finally been found, but, when I turned the corner, I sighed. There was no one there. Clip, clip. There it was again. "Okay," I said to myself, "My ears aren't playing tricks on me…" Clip, clip. I whirled around, my right hand dropping to the handle of my whip. I still saw nothing. "Hello?" I called, my eyes darting around. They still hadn't changed, so I could barely see anything. "Show yourself!"
"I still don't have an answer."
"Argentine?" I asked, my eyes wide. "How- where are you?"
"You were a bit easy to follow, seeing as you were calling for your 'friends' every few minutes. Haven't you wondered why they haven't found you?"
"If you hurt them…" I said, "I will kill you, then seal your remains and destroy those!"
"I would say the same to you, Gray Light, but there will be no remains when I am done with you."
My stomach lurched. He knew about my last name. In Finnish, it meant light. Of course, that wasn't the reason my stomach was now doing a series of back flips. My whip was gone, and I still didn't think I was strong enough to fight. Why did this happen to me? "What do you want?" I asked wearily.
"To know how you became Kokuyoku, the same as before." Argentine's voice was pleasant, but it sent chills down my spine.
"And how will you get me to tell you?" I asked, "There is no one's life for me to bargain for." I tried to keep my voice light, like I wasn't really concerned, but I was sure he could see straight through me.
"Simple. You will not leave these passages until you give me an answer, or perish wandering in circles. You have no magic, and you will stay that way until you tell me what I need to know."
I turned and ran. Argentine was lying. He had to be, I couldn't be trapped here, I had to get out, I had to! Suddenly, everything was bright again. My eyes had changed out of fear, and I stopped dead, my nose inches away from a solid wall. I put both of my hands against it, and then my forehead. Krad would realize I was missing, and Emiko and Dark, and they would come find me. All I had to do was wait.
"They aren't coming for at least a day." Argentine was nowhere in sight, but his voice echoed off the walls. "And by then, you will have told me."
"I don't know!" I screamed, "I don't know why I have wings! I don't know why they're gray! And I don't care! Let me go!" Like I have said before, I hated small enclosed spaces. With a passion.
"That won't be possible, I'm afraid to say…" I screamed. Argentine's voice was right next to my ear! I looked over at my shoulder, and saw a lizard sitting on my shoulder. I tried to brush it off, but it bit me. "Ah. I see you don't know about my other form." The lizard said, and then hopped off my shoulder. It turned into Argentine, and I jumped back.
"Stay away from me!" I whispered.
"Tell me what I want to know, and I will never bother you again. I will let you and your friends go free." Argentine said. "Oh, and you've been here for about three hours. Krad isn't sure why you've been gone for so long, and since you told only him, while he was unconscious, he doesn't have the slightest idea where you are."
"Three hours!" I said, "Argentine, you have to understand, I don't know how I became Kokuyoku! I don't know! I got the necklace for my birthday, and I got my wings later!"
"Gray, it was not your wings that told me you were Kokuyoku. It's your personality. You have two halves to your soul, two complete halves. I am… a failure. My masters created me to be like the black wings, but I was… they called me a demon. They told me I could never be a human, because I couldn't love. I know only pain, hurt, and hate." Argentine's eyes bored into mine, and it struck me how they didn't really look like mine. They didn't look like Krad's either. They just looked… confused.
"What do you want from me?" I asked, wondering if I could help him. "How can I help you?"
"Teach me how to love." Argentine said.
I wasn't really sure whether I should laugh or pity him. "Love is not something that can be taught." I replied, "It is a feeling, an emotion, towards a particular person."
"I don't understand."
"Can you feel friendship?" I asked. Better start basic.
"Yes. Though I have never felt I have had one, I have felt what you would call friendship."
"Well, how do you feel about Towa?" I had always thought that these two would make an adorable couple, if Towa could get past her fear of snakes and other reptiles.
"Towa?" Argentine asked me, thinking, "I don't entirely understand her. I would like to get to know her, but it feels… different, I suppose than how I feel for Daisuke, or any of the other Niwa's."
I could've jumped for joy and punched the air, I was so happy. But the ceiling was low, and my feet hurt. "I believe that the emotion you are feeling towards her is love. You'd look cute together. Can you please let my friends go?"
"Hmm? Oh yes. Follow me." He walked straight through the wall I had been leaning against. I followed him through quickly, afraid of being trapped here. "Oh, and here's your whip." I took it from him, and wrapped it around my waist.
"Where was I?" I asked.
"That is where I live. The wall is a projection that is solid unless I touch it." Argentine didn't turn around as he said this, but stopped suddenly, turned, and asked, "If you love someone, do you think about them almost constantly?"
"Yes. Krad hasn't left my mind since I came down here. But I have a question for you. Why did you threaten him?" It was something that was puzzling me, with reason.
"Like I said, I only know pain, hurt, and hate. I am quite sorry for the condition I put him in." He seemed to be telling the truth, and I wouldn't gain anything by not believing him.
"Could you heal him?"
"Healing is… impossible for me. I do not have much magic to begin with, and it is all for combat and repairing artworks."
"But Krad… Krad is an artwork." I whispered the last part, because if he was an artwork, he wouldn't have bled.
"When he and Dark got their own bodies, they became humans. Well, half humans, anyway. They are like you, possessing magic and wings, and not requiring food or drink, but they bleed and can die like humans."
So that was why I still wasn't hungry. "So, this is their last life?" I asked.
Argentine turned and began to walk again, answering, "Not their last, no, but they will experience a sort of death. Their bodies will age and die, and they will be reborn with the next of the Niwa or Hikari line, and will have to live within them for fifteen years. That is the curse, from what I understand, that your mother laid on the black wings."
"So they're still connected to their family lines…" I muttered. "What about me?"
"I would not be at all surprised if you lived up to your title." Argentine was walking quickly now and I had to jog to keep up.
"My title?"
"The Eternal Maiden." he replied, "Here we are." It was a small wooden door, with a brass knob. It would be impossible for a human to get in or out, but for a lizard, it would be like a palace gateway. Argentine turned into his lizard self, and opened the door. I lay on the floor, and looked in after him.
The room looked comfortable enough, though maybe a bit cramped, and I wondered how Argentine had gotten anyone into it. I saw Towa step away from Argentine as he entered, and mentally assigned myself to getting the two of them together. I liked a challenge.
"I'm letting you go." Argentine said, his voice strong and commanding, as he turned back into his human self.
"How?" Lumi asked him, hate dripping from her voice.
"Simple." Argentine said, and reached over to the doorway, grabbed the frame, and pulled up. The doorway grew in height, and I stood up. No need to lie on the floor now, I could see everyone clearly, and they could see me.
"Gray!" Towa said, "Run and get help! Hurry!"
"You don't need help. He means what he says." I gave a small smile. "He's no snake." Ha, double term. I mean, he was a lizard, not a snake. And he was being honest.
"Don't you understand? Birds and snakes are natural enemies!" Towa turned into a bird and flew out of the door, turning almost sideways to fit through the still narrow opening.
"He's not a snake, Towa." I said to the bird that perched itself on my shoulder, "He's a lizard. Lizards symbolize all that we hold dear." (1)
"How- how do you know that?" Towa asked as Argentine widened the doorway.
"I know a lot about animals, and the mythology surrounding them. You as a bird, for example, represent freedom, and being limitless. Birds don't have limits, and that means they have no fears." I wasn't sure of that, but I knew Towa had absolutely no reason to be afraid of Argentine.
"Really?" She asked me, brightening a little.
"Well, I think so." I replied with a light smile. Everything seemed to dim around me, and I realized my eyes had reverted back to their usual gray and gold.
"Gray!" Lumi tackled me, and I smacked the back of my head against the far wall. "Thank you!"
"Thank Argentine…" I muttered, rubbing the back of my head and blinking stars away from my eyes. "Though maybe a bit less forcefully…"
"Oh, are you okay?" Daisuke poked his head out of the door, and I laughed.
"Fine." I replied, "Um, is Satoshi here? Or any of the familiars?"
Fenga bounded out of the door, jumped on me, and started licking my face. "Ger-rrr- roof! Rrr, Gurrr-ruff!" Gr-mistress! I was so worried about you!
"Please Fenga, call me Gray. You act just like a house pet!" I laughed, and shoved her down.
"Grrrrrrrrrr gurrr, gerof… Mmm." I don't know where Satoshi is… Sorry.
"Argentine, where's Satoshi?" I asked. Maybe it was because I was Krad's Maiden, but I was thinking more and more of Satoshi being a brother I had never had.
"I thought he had gone back to Krad, since he felt the dragon attack. I suppose I was wrong." Argentine muttered a few words under his breath, and he must have seen something, or felt something, because he started walking away from us. "Come." He said, beckoning for us to follow him.
We followed Argentine back upstairs, and then back to the second floor. He reached the room I'd woken up in, and opened the door. "Where is he?" Daisuke asked. Satoshi was nowhere to be seen.
"He's right…" Argentine walked over to Krad, "Here."
"Um, Argentine…" I said, my heart pounding, "That's Krad."
"This is where he is. I have never failed at tracking yet."
I ran over to Krad, and gently shook his shoulder. Emiko had looked over at me, but then continued to try and revive Dark, muttering about probably having to take him to the hospital, and how she'd have to disguise him. "Krad." I said, "Krad, wake up!" He twitched and stirred, but he didn't open his eyes for another five minutes, when I'd plucked a few of my feathers and with a bit of magic I didn't know I had left, lit them on fire.
"What is that?" He coughed, and then saw the burning feathers under his nose. "I hope those aren't- what?" I gave him an odd look.
"Did I do something wrong?" I asked.
"Satoshi!" Krad gasped, and he sat up, "What happened?" He sat still for a few seconds, then shook his head. "Gray, why do you look so upset?" His hair shortened a bit, and his eyes took on a distinctly blue tint.
"You and Satoshi…" I said, "You… and… Sa-Sato-"
"Were we a pairing?" Krad asked, wincing and covering his right eye, "On that one site? You know that's… aah!" His hair was blue now, and so were his eyes.
"Krad?"
"What?"
"Is Satoshi there?"
This was apparently all the invitation Satoshi needed, and Krad's form shrank, his hair turned blue and shortened, and his wings disappeared. "Yes?"
"You- no. No, this is not happening. No, no, no!" I felt sick.
"Krad? What the-? Oh, haven't I suffered enough?" Satoshi screamed, and without really thinking about it, I went over to the mirror, which had a thin crack on it, and took it over to Satoshi. I held it in front of him, and Krad appeared in glass. His face was a little distorted by the crack on the glass, but other than that, he seemed fine.
I took a deep breath, then turned towards the group in the doorway. "You know, if you want to come in… Krad and Satoshi are one again."
Krad shook his head, muttered something that sounded like 'kuso' and then spoke aloud. "This was Pheo's doing. I should have known she would do this. No offense Gray."
"Some taken, but, erm, how did you know it was my mom who did this?"
"She has a very distinct form of magic." Krad said, "I should have seen it coming. Why would she give me freedom?" I was glad, truthfully, that Krad was on the other side of the mirror. He was a little scary when he was murderous.
"Can she reverse this?" I asked carefully, "Or could I? I'd be more than willing to help."
Satoshi looked at the face in the mirror that was not his. "What do you think, Krad? Would it be possible? No offense intended, but I'd prefer to have my own body."
"You think I like this?" Krad yelled, "I hate it! God, this is the worst punishment I've faced since my creation!" He pounded on the glass, and I wondered if it would be possible for him to break the glass from the inside. After a few minutes, he calmed down, and said, "I believe that there may be a way for you to help me, but I don't know if I can allow it."
"You have no authority over me." I said, knowing and not caring how harsh I sounded. "I would die for you." Krad gave me a strange look.
"You have known me for four days, and yet you say you would give your life for me."
"I felt that dragon attack you." I didn't know why I'd said that, it had nothing to do with what Krad had just said.
"What do you mean?" Krad asked.
"I mean, I saw what you did, and I could hear what you were saying, and… I felt the dragon attack me. I mean, you." I sort of realized how weird that was about now, and I was glad Dark was still unconscious, because if he had been awake, he would have made some perverted comment, and I would have whipped him.
"That is something Krad and I share." Satoshi said, "Something that began to happen after we were separated."
"Between tamer and tamed." Krad muttered, "Pain must be passed, for they are still one."
"Yet between the maiden and her angel, pain shall come as well," Dark's hoarse whisper carried across the room, "For their souls are intertwined, and their fates are connected, through better or worse."
I looked at Krad, then Dark, then Satoshi, and Krad again. "Um, why do you sound like you're quoting something?"
"That was a part of the enchantment Pheo put on The Black Wings." Krad said.
"Yet the light of darkness will be revealed with The Eternal Maiden, and byakuya will become one with his own precious enemy." Satoshi said. "I heard about half of it. The rest was German, I think."
Lumi gave a slight cough. "Could someone please explain this to me?"
"Like I told you," Satoshi said, "Gray's mother, Pheo, cursed The Black Wings, so that Dark and Krad could have their own bodies after fifteen years."
"Yes, but what I don't understand is why Krad…" Lumi paused, looking for the right word, "Re-merged, I suppose you would call it, with you."
"Pheo knew me as an evil, psychotic demon with no feelings and no respect for human life." Krad said, "She would have done this, giving me a taste of freedom and then locking me away. I was like that at one point, but I have changed. But I shouldn't be surprised that she did this to me. Pheo was pure, and I am tainted. Why should I be released from this prison?"
Was the angel suicidal? "What is wrong with you?" I snapped, "You said it yourself, you've changed. You shouldn't have to live like this, locked away." I was shaking with rage, and Krad actually looked like he'd taken a step away from me, though it was hard for me to tell.
"Gray, you don't understand." Krad said, "I have killed. I have taken lives, and it haunts me. I want… to be pure, I suppose. I hate that I was left with only pain, and though I am a white angel, I am the darkest being the Hikari's have ever created."
I looked at Krad, trapped again in the worst way. "You may be the darkest being ever created by the Hikari's, but you were not left with only pain, only hate. You can, you have, I'm sure, felt love, you care for Satoshi as though you are an overprotective older brother, no offense meant, and you feel remorse, misery for your past murders. You have feelings, but you hide them. Stop." I stared into his eyes, and saw confusion. "Stop hiding your feelings, stop acting like you're only a homicidal maniac. Stop acting like you don't care!" I shook my head and stood up. "Satoshi, if you would tell me if he's suicidal?"
"No, I don't think he could kill himself if he wanted to." Satoshi said, "One downside to being immortal."
I rolled my eyes. "Great. Krad, I'll call my mom, and convince her to let you go."
"She won't agree." Krad said, "I can feel it."
"Fine!" I yelled, "Stay there for the rest of your existence if you want! I, on the other hand, will be trying to do something about… Ahh!" I stormed out of the room. What was wrong with Krad? I tripped on my hair on the way out, and fell to the floor with a crash. Leave it to me to ruin a moment. Even if it was a bad one.
Yes, I looked this up. And the bit about birds.
AN: Krad. SNAP OUT OF IT! Really, Gray meant what she said. She'll get you your own body again. If it kills her. Please R&R! It really makes my day, even if it's just a few words!
