Ha! Before nine months! Just as promised!

This is in anticipation for the 12th DNAngel manga coming out. It's coming out sometime in February.

Or, so I heard last night from Dana. :D

Chapter 21: The Number One Queston

By the time Dark found a suitable place to land, the sun had already fallen for the day. And it was snowing. Hard.

Saki, who had fallen into a deep, and somewhat troubled, sleep, had begun shivering hours ago. Dark hated to admit it, but he almost dropped her twice because of it.

The snow was soft underneath his too-small shoes. "Dammit, Daisuke. You're too small, sometimes." Dark muttered, wrapping his arms around Saki.

"Sorry!" Daisuke cried. He looked around. "Where are we?"

Dark looked to the left and right. Trees. A single road disappearing into the blackness in front of him. Snow. "I have no idea. Though, maybe it's better this way."

"Why?" Daisuke asked.

"This way, that guy…whoever the hell that bastard was…won't be able to find us himself." Dark said. He swung Saki's legs up, catching them with his forearm under her knees. "And maybe Krad won't either."

"Dark, stop it." Daisuke scolded. "He's saving our lives right now."

"Yea, yea, yea." Dark sighed. "Don't remind me."

"So…what do we do now?" Daisuke asked.

"What choice do we have?" Dark said, taking a step forward. "We go this a-way."

Dark walked for an hour, all the while watching their surroundings. They must have been in the sticks…nothing ever changed! There were no houses, no streetlights, not even a car drove by them!

The snow was getting heavy now. But it was strange, Dark noted, that the road – that he now saw was concrete, asphalt, dirt gravel…anything you could think of – was never touched by the snow. Only the surrounding woods. At one point, just out of curiosity, he kicked some of the snow on the side of the road onto the gravel. It disappeared in an instant.

"Odd…" Dark mumbled. Daisuke nodded in agreement. Suddenly, Saki gasped and opened her eyes, staring up at the sky. "Hey, you. How was your nap?"

She relaxed then, looking at Dark with her normal goofy grin. "Better than you'd think it would be, given the circumstances…um…" she looked around. "Where are we?"

"Wish I knew." Dark said, placing her on the now dirt road.

"Well, when you said that we had to leave town, I didn't think you meant something like this." Saki said.

"I didn't think I meant something like this either." Dark said, shrugging. "But we'd better find somewhere to spend the night soon or we're going to freeze."

"Good thing I wore long sleeves today, huh?" Saki laughed as they began forward. Dark stared at her. "What?"

"Are you okay? Like, really okay?" Dark asked. "I mean, what happened at the school…it's understandable that you would be…you know, scared."

"Yea. So?" Saki asked.

"Well…you don't sound scared anymore. At all. Which is weird in its own right." Dark said.

Saki looked at the ground for a moment before swinging her head one hundred and eighty degrees upwards towards the sky. "I don't know…I guess it's…it's just that…I'm here…with you. I…I feel safe."

She reached out her hand and grabbed Dark's. He smiled. "Well, that's good, I'd presume."

She looked at him and smiled. Suddenly, the smile disappeared and was replaced with confusion. "Hey…have you heard any animals since we've been walking?"

Dark paused. There was no sound. Only the wind blowing snow through the trees. "…nope. None yet."

"Hm…that's not normal…" Saki muttered.

Dark couldn't help but laugh. "Saki, what of this situation is normal?"

The wind kicked up, blowing dangerously around them. Dark pulled Saki towards him, hiding her face in his shirt and ducking his head into her hair. Snow and ice whipped at their legs and arms. The trees howl with resistance as the wind continued.

The wind finally died a few minutes later. Saki and Dark looked at each other with confusion. "Dark…" Saki muttered, reaching up to touch his neck. Despite hiding his head, he still managed to get cut by a piece of ice on his throat.

"Are you okay?" Dark asked, ignoring the cut on his neck.

"Yea." Saki sighed. "What the hell was that?"

"Damned if I knew." Dark said, looking up the road. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something was different. The snow was still falling heavily on the black forest, but there was something…

Something flashed at the end of the road.

"Dark!" Saki said, obviously seeing the same thing he did. Dark tightened his grip on Saki's hand as he took a step forward. She didn't complain, instead, she just followed silently. As they walked, the scenery seemed to get brighter with every step. "Huh. Must be dawn…"

Dark knew better. It'd only become dark half an hour before they had landed. "No, it's not. Saki, stay close to me."

Saki obeyed, never getting farther than six inches away. Within ten minutes, it was as bright as daylight out. Saki stared into the forest as they walked. There were no animals. No sign of life in the trees at all. Even the trees themselves looked completely dead, out of place even, under the snow.

Ahead, Dark could see the strange road ending. The road just…stopped. It didn't turn onto another road, or even go into a driveway. Past the road, Dark could see a meadow. That's where the bright light was coming from. As they got closer, they could see that, in the meadow, there was no snow. Instead, it looked like a warm spring day. There were still no animals that Dark could see, but that didn't matter. The contrast between where he was on the road and where he was going was completely insane.

"Dark, is that…?" Saki asked. She'd seen the differences too.

"I don't know." Dark squeezed her hand. They continued walking, somehow able to find confidence to move forward in each other's presence. They reached the end of the road, which turned out to really be the end of the road – it stopped in a perfectly straight line! – and stood there, wondering if they should continue.

"Come now, come now! Don't be shy!" a humorous voice called out of nowhere. Dark looked up, expecting someone to be floating above them.

"Oh my God!" Saki shouted, letting go of Dark's hand and running forward. "Krad!"

Dark's eyes widened. Krad was lying in an unnatural position in the grass. Cuts were all over his face and arms, his shirt was practically in shreds, there was a pool of a dark liquid on the ground around his torso. "What the…"

"Krad! Krad!" Saki yelled as she came upon Krad's form. She fell to her knees beside him, gathering him in her arms. She felt a faint pulse in his neck and the small rush of air on her wrist as he exhaled.

"Happy now, Phantom Thief?" the voice was suddenly beside Dark. He spun around to see the man from the school, smiling his manic grin, come walking towards him out of the lighted trees. "You have her all to yourself."

Dark looked back over at Saki. She wasn't crying. Yet. She just sat there, Krad in her arms, pushing the blood-stained blonde hair off his face. "No."

"No. You're not happy?" the man looked sad for a moment. "And here I tried so hard…"

"Where are we?" Dark asked.

"What's it matter?" the man asked. Suddenly, he seemed annoyed. Or bored. Or both. "You tried to escape with my prize. Lucky for you, I'm good at finding things. So it wasn't too hard. I even brought my own gift to you." He motioned to Krad. "That way, we can make a trade."

Dark narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"

"Ah, now there's the number one question!" the man smiled again. He clasped his hands behind his back and walked forward, towards Saki and Krad. Dark was about to leap on the man, tear his legs off so he couldn't get closer, but he looked at Saki first. She was angry, he could see that clearly. She tightened her grip around Krad's body with one arm, placing the other arm over his chest, just in case the man decided to attack, she could attack back. She was in defense mode. He wouldn't need to tear that man's legs off. By the time Dark got to the man, his entire bottom half would be gone. "You ask who I am…almost as if you don't remember me!"

"…what?" Dark asked. The man had reached Saki and Krad and was slowly walking in a circle around them. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Truly, I'm hurt!" The man put his hand to his heart. "I feel so unloved!"

"Just answer the question!" Saki spat. She didn't sound like herself. Almost demonic, like a tiger about to strike.

"Ah, fine, fine." The man said. "I shall get past personal feelings for now…Saki, my dear, do you remember, a few months ago, when you learned to use your powers?"

"What?" Saki asked.

"You were sent somewhere…a graveyard, perhaps?" the man said.

"Oh…yea…what about it?" Saki snapped. Krad's breath suddenly came up short. Saki looked down on him and checked his pulse. Still there, but weaker.

"Well, I created that place. And that little blue thing – Chibi." The man said. He looked down at Saki with a smile. "As a matter of fact, I even created you."

"What are you-" Saki began. Suddenly, Krad's arm moved, like lightening, grabbing Saki's hand. She looked down, surprised and hopeful.

"Saki…" Krad muttered. His eyes weren't open. They were closed tight, but his face was contorted into pain as sweat began to appear on his forehead. "Saki, don't ask him questions…he doesn't like it whe-"

The man was suddenly beside Krad. He slammed his foot down on Krad's elbow. There was a loud crack and Krad screamed. He didn't let go of Saki's hand, though. He clung tightly to it, as if it were his life force himself. And who knew? Maybe it was.

The man removed his foot and stood there, watching as Krad whimpered quietly in pain. Saki held him tighter as she looked up at Dark. She could tell that he didn't know what to do. Krad may be his enemy, sure, but what the man had just done…that was…what was that?!

Dark took a step forward. The man turned on him and stared at him, his eyes wide, silently threatening him. Dark went white, but took no more moves forward.

"Anyway," The man took a step away from Saki and Krad, a smile back on his face. "Where were we again?"

Mhm. That dude's one messed up mo'fo'

Read and review, please!

BlackAngel