Hey, peoples! People like this! YAY! XD Ah, and there's a visitor who reviewed last time and gave a very... Interesting idea for a chapter or a story or something... Since I can't actually reply to you on that, I'll just say it here... I'm sorry, but I don't really write stories like THAT... *blushes* I appreciate the review, though. :) But I'm glad to hear that people like this so far! This chapter is gonna be kinda long, so be prepared for that. It'll be going on for a while, but this just so happens to be one of my favorites. Don't ask why. I don't know. (Layla: It's because you're probably internally sadistic. Which is why I'm here. 8D Ivory: I agree with Layla. Me: D: ) Aside from that, let the story begin!

Shugo Chara: Ikuto Returns

Chapter 14

By the time we made it back to the apartment, Chess had fueled my flames even more than before. There was an menacing smile on my face. My fingers were itching to do unspeakable things to Ikuto face and neck.

"Are you ready, Amu?" Chess whispered in my ear. Her tone made my malicious grin even bigger.

"Ready? I can't wait." I walked into the apartment with my fists clenched in excitement.

When I glanced around the living room and kitchen area, he wasn't there. I gave out a low snarl. So he was in my room. I almost wished that he would've gotten out of my house the second I did. But then, it would be a lot harder to find him if he did. Taking a deep breath, I strolled into my room.

Ikuto was lying on my bed, flat on his back, deep in thought. I slammed the door and he shot up, staring at me with wide eyes. His features quickly changed from surprise to relieved. "Amu, you scared my half to death."

My lips curled into a mixture of a snarl a and a smile. "Maybe I should beat you the rest of the way there."

Ikuto stared at me, bewildered. "What?"

Yoru appeared over Ikuto's shoulder. "Ikuto-nya..." Chess flew over my shoulder and growled at Yoru. He screamed. "Dog! Dog! Run, Ikuto-nya!"

Ikuto unwillingly Chara-Changed and yowled, jumping out the window like a cat being chased by a dog.

"Chess," I said. Brown, scruffy dog ears and a tail to match appeared out of nowhere. A low growl crawled out of my throat and I ran out of the apartment since, unfortunately, dogs aren't able to always land on our feet like cats. But that's okay.

Because I would catch the cat I was after.

Because I wanted to.

Ikuto had better run for his life. Because otherwise, he was going to lose it.

Ikuto P.O.V.

I didn't realize I was running until I reached the park in town. I froze in place and my Chara Change was undone. "Yoru," I said stonily. "Come here."

He slowly and nervously floated in front of me, playing with his paws. "Yeah?"

I flicked his forehead. Hard. He went flying as I said, "Why did you do that?"

Rubbing his forehead, Yoru replied, "There was a dog, and she growled, and I was scared... I liked Chess better when she was a cat-nya!"

I froze. "When she... was a cat?" No,I thought. No, no, no, no, no. Just no! This can't be happening! Is Amu's egg-?

"I found you, Ikuto."

I jumped away from Amu and landed lightly on my feet. My eyes scanned her.

The dog ears on her head and her brown canine tail proved me right. The dog Chara had been Chess.

Amu's eggs were X-ed out.

"Fight me, Ikuto," she growled. I want to show you the pain that you caused me.

I breathed in deeply. Amu was still smiling at me sadistically. Take it all in stride. Pretend this isn't Amu. This is not Amu. But it was Amu. And her eggs were X-ed. And she wanted to kill me.

What was I going to do?

I Chara Changed and stared at Amu. There was a menacing look in her eyes, a frightening smile on her face, and an evil aura surrounded her. It was so unlike the Amu I knew. "Only a Chara Change?" Amu taunted. "Are you really that confident? Bad choice, Ikuto."

Amu leaped at me and I slipped away. This pattern continued for several minutes, each time the same thing happening. But the grin on her face never disappeared. I knew it,I thought. Even if she has X eggs, Amu is Amu. She wouldn't hurt a fly. Amu tried to jump at me and I smoothly dodged her.

And then, she disappeared. My eyes widened. What?

"Boo."

I whirled around and saw Amu standing there, smiling triumphantly. I tried to get away, but for once in my life, I was too slow. And it couldn't have happened at a worse time. Amu's fist collided with my jaw.

I literally flew back a few feet from the force of her hit before I hit the ground. I rubbed my jaw painfully and looked at Amu. "What the...?" I muttered. She made a humming noise in the back of her throat.

"Like it? That's one of Chess's new moves. Super speed. Really handy, huh? You never even saw me coming. Literally."

I stood up shakily and said, "Well, it's not going to work this time around. Now that I know what to expect, it kinda ruins it." Amu smirked. She smirked.

"We'll see about that." She disappeared again and I turned around, preparing myself to defend. Like I expected, she appeared in front of me with her fist raised. And she was smiling.

What? I thought, my mind in turmoil. Why is she smiling? I've got her right where I want her. So why is she smiling like I did exactly what she wanted me to do?

That's the last thing I saw before she was once again lost from my sight.

I turned around, expecting her to try and attack my from behind again. But after a second, she still hadn't appeared in front of me. Where was she?!

Pain exploded in my back as Amu punched me from behind, right in the middle of my back.

Once again, I flew a few feet before landing on the ground. Face-first. I coughed up a little bit of blood and grimaced. "I'm disappointed, Ikuto," Amu mocked. "I thought you said it wouldn't work that time."

I spat out the remaining crimson in my mouth. Taking a deep breath, trying to strengthen my resolve, I stood up and said quietly, "Yoru."

Yoru understood my meaning. He stared at me with wide eyes. "But Ikuto-nya, this is-"

"I know!" I exclaimed, my tone sharper than I'd intended. Yoru winced. I sighed. "I know. Just... do it."

Yoru stared at me for a moment before resigning himself and said, "Okay, Ikuto-nya."

My heart thumped hard as I whispered, "My heart: Unlock."

Power flooded through my body and I suddenly felt lighter-so much so that I could jump over buildings if I wanted to. But it felt pointless. Because I wasn't fighting to protect someone I love. I was trying to save myself. Looking over my high collar at Amu, I murmured, "Is this really what you want? To destroy me completely when I'm at my strongest?"

Amu smiled. "Exactly. Now I can show you Chess's Character Transformation." Chess flew in front of Amu's face and growled at me. Inside of my chest, Yoru literally started crying.

"My heart: Unlock!"

Right away, I felt the difference between this transformation and her normal ones. When she transformed before, she emanated an aura of light and happiness. But now... It felt dark and malicious.

"Character Transformation: Lone Wolf!"

Normally, seeing so much of Amu's skin would've affected me. Greatly. She wore a white belly shirt with the Amulet Fortune symbol on it. But it wasn't the same. The sign was red and black. A black, leather shrug covered her shoulders and upperarms but cutoff at her elbows. I could just barely see the big, white X on the back of it. She had on dark gray, almost pinstripe shorts that barely reached her upper thighs. Dark crimson high-tops adorned her feet. She still had her brown dog ears and tail.

And there was a tattoo of a black dog paw print on her cheek, marked with a large X. I stared at her and sighed.

I'd try not to hurt her too much.

I put my claws in front of my face and said, "Are you sure you want to do this, Amu?"

She raised her fists on which she wore black, leather, fingerless gloves. She replied venemously, "There's no doubt in my mind."

I sighed and said, "Okay."

Suddenly, Amu disappeared in front of my eyes. I waited until I heard her breathing behind me. Then I easily backflipped over her and grabbed a handful of her hair. Her soft, pink hair that was so silky smooth-

No, I scolded myself. This is not Amu. It is not her. Telling myself this, I placed my claws by her neck in a fashion that they weren't touching her skin, but if she were to move too much, she would be cut slightly. It was a virtually inescapable hold. No matter where she moved, she would be hurt in some form. And she knew it. Her scruffy brown dog ears bent backwards and pressed against her skull, showing her terror.

"Don't move," I whispered. Amu was frozen, but not from shock that I'd caught her so quickly-well, maybe that had something to do with it. But that wasn't the main reason. My voice...

It was as hollow and unfeeling as it was when I'd destroyed X-eggs long, long ago. I knew she was scared; she was absolutely terrified.

And I'd forced myself not to care.

"Don't move," I said again in that cold, hard voice. I didn't expect her to, in all honesty. "Amu..." I whispered. I had no idea where I was going with that sentence. But I didn't have to.

Because at that second, she elbowed me in the stomach.

On any normal occasion, I barely would've been in that same place. But this wasn't normal.

Because just the day before, I'd been stabbed in that same exact place.

I loosened my hold on her hair as I struggled for breath and Amu pushed my claws away. She was so frantic to get away from me, she didn't even try to take advantage of my weakened state. Knowing that she could attack me at whatever time she please, I leaped into the nearest tree I could find, albeit painfully.

Amu's ears slowly lifted back up until they were sitting straight again. She laughed lightly. "Wow. You almost had me there." I stared at Amu. She was smiling again. "I'm lucky that guy attacked you yesterday." As if in response to her comment, my stomach began bleeding. Knowing I couldn't take any more physical attacks, I tried a different approach.

"Amu," I panted, clutching my stomach. "It's not me you're mad at."

Amu's face morphed into a mask of rage. "What?!" she screamed.

"You aren't angry, okay? Listen to me! You aren't mad at anyone! I upset you by telling you about Tadase because you didn't want to believe he was a bad person! And also... Something happened after you left, didn't it?" Amu went still. "Something bad happened with Tadase."

"No," she whispered, but I could tell she was in denial. "Shut up."

"Tadase did something stupid and you felt alone. That's why your Character Transformation is called Lone Wolf. Then you blamed me because you felt like you had to blame someone besides yourself and you became so focused on hating me that all your Charas became-"

"No!" she screamed. "I told you to shut up!"

Suddenly, a darkness surrounded Amu to such an extent that I couldn't see her. It was like she had been absorbed by a black storm cloud. "Amu!" I yelled anxiously. No, terrified would be a better word.

The clouds around her cleared and my eyes widened.

Amu was wearing a dark tank top with yellow diamonds running down the front and a gray pinstripe pencil skirt. Her hair was in a beehive-like style and a blackish-yellow colored diamond with a white X over it adorned it.

But I wasn't worried about that.

I was too caught up on the fact that I didn't feel the aura of a Character Transformation from her. I didn't even detect Amu. All I sensed was...

My heart stopped.

This was not Amu.

X-Dia had taken over Amu's body.

Dun dun DUN! Amu has been taken over by X-Dia?! What?! Who on earth could have expected this?! (Layla: Stop it, you baka. You wrote it. Of course YOU saw it coming. Me: Actually, I really didn't. I didn't even think about that until I'd actually written it out. I read over it and was like, "What the heck?! When did I write that?!" It happens a lot. Layla/Ivory/Lena: -_-' ) But what did you guys think? Good, bad, awesome, terrible? I'll assume bad if no one reviews! (Ivory: No pressure, of course. Me: Of course not. I'm not THAT evil.)