Chapter 11

Ryo grinned as he maneuvered his way through the crowd at what was called 'The Devil's Dance Floor.' The Dance Floor, as Ryo and all his friends called it, was the best club near their school and probably the best for an even further area around. Tt was the best place to be on a Friday night like this one.

Ryo looked through the crowd and caught a flash of silver, which he assumed was Riku. Kaz and Kerrak had refused to come with them, unsurprisingly. Ryo hadn't expected (nor wanted) Kerrak to come and Kaz had become real close to Kerrak real fast so his declination to come wasn't really a shocker. Sora hadn't come either. Ryo wasn't really sure how to feel about that. Since their little performance in 's class, Ryo and Sora had become closer, certainly, but there were still times when Ryo felt the same as he had that first day, when he and Sora had headed for chemistry. He just couldn't feel trustful around Sora. It was like there was something... Different about him. Ryo always tried to ignore this, but it was hard.

As Ryo got closer to Riku he saw who he was with- Selphie. No much of a surprise, but still... Ryo couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy at Riku's closeness with the brunette. Ryo pushed the feeling away. He didn't even know why he felt jealous. He did not like Selphie. Not in that way.

"Hey, Ryo!" Riku and Selphie exclaimed as Ryo approached.

Ryo smiled, although it wasn't a real smile. They didn't seem to notice. They'd been deep in conversation when Ryo had come over to them, and he figured they probably wanted to ge back to that.

"Um... I'm gonna go out back for some fresh air, kay?"

"Yeah, sure!" Selphie said while Riku replied with, "Go to it."

Ryo stumbled out the back door and took in a deep gulp of air. He couldn't tell himself if he'd come outside to get away from the musty smoke-filled air of the club, or if he just didn't like seeing Riku and Selphie so close. He convinced himself it was the smoke. Ryo began to step forward but froze. There was a sound. Coming from just around the corner. It was like... A muffled sort of whimpering.

Ryo cautiously walked down the alley he was in and glanced around the corner into the next alley that headed up alongside another building. This one could only be accessed from the one Ryo was standing in now or the building it was behind.

Ryo wasn't surprised at what he saw. A girl had her back pressed against the wall with some guy on top of her, tongue wrestling each other. Ryo shook his head when he saw the bottle in the girl's hand. She was obviously drunk and probably had no idea what she was doing. Poor thing would probably end up ruining her life by getting pregnant. Ryo had to stifle a gasp as the guy shifted his weight and he got a good look at the girl's face. He wasn't sure what to do. The guy here looked pretty big...

But Ryo knew of two other guys who would be really upset if she did get with this one. Before he could stop himself, Ryo had stalked up to the guy, pulled him off her, and thrown him to the ground. Ryo grabbed the girl by the wrist and dragged her back into the Dance Floor, ignoring her pleas to let go of her and her shrieks of "What the hell?"

He pulled her over to where Shuyin was, explained what had happened and said he was leaving.

"Good idea," Shuyin said quickly. "Try to avoid... Him. kay?"

"I will. He's probably out, anyways. I bet all three of them went out after we left for here."

"Maybe," Shuyin mused thoughtfully. "Don't let him see you with her. He hates you enough already. He would murder you."

Ryo shrugged and dragged the girl out of the club. He began to pull her up the street. Eventually they reached their school and headed inside. Ryo headed in the direction of the dorms.

"What are you doing?" she whined, pulling away and digging her nails into his arm.

"What am I doing? What are you doing?" he hissed. "Did you even know that guy's name?"

"Yes! It was... I knew what I was doing, okay? Leave me alone!"

Ryo shook his head. He dragged the girl to her room and pushed her inside.

"You're such a jerk! I knew what I was doing!"

Ryo sighed as he closed the door behind her.

"I swear to God, Kairi, you are psychotic."

"What?"

Ryo spun around.

"Kerrak... Huh. What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?"

Ryo opened his mouth but couldn't think of anything to say. "Well... Um..." He pointed at the door Kairi was standing behind. "Saving her life."

"Doesn't look that way."

"Ask her!" Ryo exclaimed. Kerrak raised an eyebrow and pushed the door open, hitting Kairi, who was still standing right next to it.

"Ow!"

"Where have you been?"

"Out," Kairi pouted.

"Out getting drunk and making out with guys you don't even know in alleyways!" Ryo added.

Kairi glared at him and slammed the door shut in their faces. Kerrak stood there for a moment as if contemplating what to do next. Then he turned and left.

"You're just going to let her do that?" Ryo asked.

"There's no sense trying to reason with her- if what you say is true- and she's drunk."

"Of course it's true," Ryo muttered.

He sighed and trudged down the hall. He didn't think about it until the next morning, but it had been the first civil exchange he and Kerrak had managed since...


Sora rolled over. He thought it really, really stupid that he was already in bed, but he just was. He couldn't go out and have fun because he had so much on his mind. The mythology class he'd had earlier in the day just wasn't leaving him alone.

The teacher had told the class about an ancient legend involving an 'angel kingdom.' One Sora had heard many, many times. A legend that was the reason his life was as it was.

The legend told of four angels. Four angels who would destroy the entire kingdom of angels one day, leaving almost no one alive. Sora cringed, remembering the casual way Kaz's brother had related it to him (probably leaving something immensely important out, knowing him)- "So basically you guys are gonna grow up and open a portal to Hell, and we're all going to run around psyhotic trying to close it... Failing, of course. Eventually you supposedly close it, but I guess you close the demons in along with the angels and we all get massacred...I can't wait."

It was said that the black magic these angels wielded would be beyond the power of any other in existence. The angels' coming would be marked by the colour of their wings. Black.

Like Sora's. Like Kaz's. And Riku's.

They could also be discerned from other angels by their power over the elements... One would control water, one lightning, one fire, and one ice. The elements would literally be a part of the angel controlling it. The ice element strengthened the ice-angel. Likewise, the fire element- opposed to ice- could harm them. Even touching the angel that controlled the opposing element could hurt- it burned your skin away and made it rot. Sora knew from experience- he being the 'ice-angel' and Riku the fire-angel... Well, they had not made direct contact since they were about four. Sora still had a scar from one time when they had.

They were marked. Destined to kill their families and the other angels with horrendous, powerful magics.

Riku, Kaz and Sora had never been taught black magic like everyone else their age, as a precaution. Sora didn't understand it at all. He had absolutely no desire to destroy a kingdom- especially not his home. It was simply a matter of the legend never coming true. He would never hurt anyone there. Riku and Kaz wouldn't either, he knew.

Besides, there was no fourth angel. There were only three. The legend couldn't come true. There were two reasons why.

Sora sighed and rolled over again. One, actually. Despite it being... Forbidden, put nicely, Sora, Riku and Kaz had gone ahead and learned dark magic anyways. Black magic just seemed so... attractive to him. Sora hadn't been able to help but pull book after book on the art off shelves in his home library and spirit them away to where he could read them in private. Riku and Kaz, he'd learned after awhile, had done the exact same thing. It didn't change anything, though. They still wouldn't go around murdering the people they'd grown up with.

Sora jumped as the door to the room flung open and Kerrak stalked in. Sora watched as he stomped across the room and sat on the edge of his bed. Sora lay down again. Kerrak stood up and kicked something over. Sora sat up and watched him storm about the room wreaking havoc on everything. He flinched, looking away as Kerrak mindlessly wrecked the place like it was what he was born to do.

But it wasn't. This was what Sora was destined to do, not him. Destroy things and ruin everything around. He didn't want that. He covered his face with a pillow. Unfortunately the racket could still be heard. The door opened again.

"What the hell happened in here?"

Sora could easily recognize the voice as Ryo's. He took the pillow from his face and rolled over again so he was looking at the door. Kerrak must have forgotten to lock it.

"Nothing, Ryo. Fuck off," Kerrak spat.

Sora sat up. He opened his mouth to ask them to keep it down so he could sleep. He figured it would be best to do that before they even started.

"No." Ryo pursed his lips and continued speaking. "No. I am not going to leave you alone until you say you believe me about Kairi. I don't want you freaking out on me sometime tomorrow in front of probably everyone over something that I didn't do, because I didn't do anything."

Sora's interest had been caught at the mention of Kairi's name.

"What happened?"

It seemed to be the first time either Kerrak or Ryo noticed him there.

"How did you get in here?" Kerrak asked. Sora didn't answer.

"Kairi," Ryo began, about to explain.

"Shut up!" Kerrak snapped.

"Oh, no. I'm telling someone, so that I have another witness. Kairi got drunk and made out with some thug and probably almost got herself raped, and I helped her. And he's being an ass about it."

Sora shifted uncomfortably. He did not want to get caught up in this.

"Why don't you go talk to Kairi about it?" he asked.

"Because she'll lie. Duh," Ryo said.

Sora thought for a moment.

"You know, Kaz is like a human lie detector. You should get him to help."

Of course Sora could have determined whether or not she was lying himself, but he figured it was better Kaz got in a fight with Ryo and Kerrak than him.

"Fine," Ryo said. "We will."

"Tomorrow," Kerrak added.

"Fine!" Ryo said again before turning to leave the room. When he had left, Sora reached over to his stereo, turned it on, and put on some headphones. It was barely audible to him now, but Kerrak had once again begun to freak out. Rolling over to face the wall, Sora fell asleep.