Happy anniversary, happy anniversary, happy anniversary, haaaaappy anniversary! Haha, well, it's been exactly one year since I started uploading this story, probably closer to two since I started writing it out. Definitely the longest that I've been continuously working on a single story. I feel like I've become a much better writer over this time, looking over the original copy of the first few chapters, they weren't too good. I'd like to thank everyone who's followed since the beginning, and anyone else who's pick it up along the way, and don't worry, the secrets of the plot will be unraveled soon.

Chapter 29

She couldn't breath, and she could barely see. They had to keep going though, there wasn't any choice! They just had to keep running… running… running… She couldn't even remember who they were running from, or who she counted in the they were, but if they stopped now something terrible would happen. Up ahead in the hallway it would be easier to breath and see, she didn't know how she knew, but she did.

They couldn't stop running, but without even turning around she could tell her companion had. What was he thinking? They had to keep going and find the others, whoever they were, or they would all die. They couldn't stop now, or they'd end up dead.

As she turned around to angrily voice her complaint at her hesitant companion, a sickening feeling from inside bubbled up, nearly mocking her. It was impossible for them to end up dead, if they already were…

Nana shot up in her bed, panting heavily, with eyes darting around the room. It took several minutes for her body to relax enough for her to even attempt to think. T-that dream… it was just a dream. Just a dream. She didn't believe that in the least, but that's what she had to tell herself. It wasn't real, it had nothing to do with anything Cooro and Husky's been talking about. She's not dead. She's not dead…

The sun was just beginning to lift itself over the horizon line by the time the mini panic spells had stopped. Oh well, that was fine, she needed to get ready and go to school anyway. She needed to tell Husky and Cooro about her dream, they had said several times to tell them if anything like that had happened. It might not mean anything though, Cooro was the one who saw strange visions in his dreams that he drew. Sure, Husky had the one where he drowned… and then it kind of happened… and there was her recurring nightmare… but that didn't mean it had to be something…

Shaking her head, she quickly tried to push all thoughts about the dream out of her mind just long enough to quickly make herself presentable and head out the door. She didn't bother with breakfast, her appetite not very demanding at the moment.

Walking into school, it was still pretty early. There weren't many students there yet, so the brown haired girl took her time as she placed several books into her small locker. The others probably wouldn't show up for a while. Husky probably wouldn't come at all, not that she blamed him. Even though he had seemed to be doing quite a bit better yesterday, it still didn't seem like such a good idea.

Leaving her locker, Nana started to wander around the hallways of the school, not paying too much attention to where she was heading, but making sure not to head too far off into the middle school section incase Cooro decided to come early. She hoped he did, half hoping he would tell her she was being silly with this dream, and that it didn't mean anything. It wasn't even clear what had happened, just running.

Slowly more students began filing into the school, most in a sleepy daze. Soon enough she caught sight of Cooro making his way up the hallway, thankfully alone. Sure, she wanted to tell Husky about the dream too, but she didn't want him to push himself. Cooro had told her about the breakdown he'd had when he came back to school too early last time, and didn't want anything like that to happen again.

"Hey Cooro," the brunette called as she walked up to him, trying to appear calm and normal. Cooro smiled at her and quickly made his way over.

"Hi Nana, good morning," he said as he went over to his locker, Nana following behind him. Now she was starting to get second thoughts. Maybe she should wait until lunch to try and talk to him about it, that way they would have more time. Class didn't start for a little while though, but she didn't want to worry him all class either.

"Something wrong?" the black haired boy asked, startling Nana quite a bit. Had it really been that noticeable? Quickly trying to regain her confidence and footing, she shook her head.

"No, why?" Nana said, deciding it was best to not tell him for now. She would at lunch. When they had more time to talk, and she could explain it better without worrying him, or herself. Cooro didn't seem entirely convinced though, raising one of his eyebrows in question. Nana had forgotten how good he was at reading people.

"Are you sure? You seem kind of out of it," he said, and Nana simply nodded for a second time.

"Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry. Well, talk to you at lunch, I need to talk to my teacher about something before class," She said, not quite sure why she was making an excuse to leave. She should just tell him about it. That's what they told her to do, but she just didn't want to be told it was true. It reminded her too much of Cooro's dream when he'd gotten his wings. She didn't want it to come true too.

"Alright, if you say so. See ya," Cooro said, heading down the opposite direction of the hallway towards his own class, seeing as there wasn't anything else he could do to occupy his time.

Throughout class, Cooro's mind kept wandering back to Nana as he struggled to pay attention. Something was wrong, although he couldn't figure out what. Even if she said it was nothing, she was a lot like Husky like that, and himself, actually. Senri kind of fit like that too, seeing as he didn't tell them much of anything either. The black haired boy frowned a bit at the realization. They really weren't that open with each other. Well, they were more open then with others, but it still wasn't… he wasn't sure what to call it. They trusted each other, but there was still secrets. It seemed kind of pointless and petty considering the huge secret they all held together, but here he was still keeping to himself that Ms. Brighton told him Husky's mom had died before he came.

Sitting down in his usual spot in the cafeteria, he smiled towards Nana as she walked up to him. Yep, definitely something wrong. She looked on edge for some reason, and barely took any note of him as she sat down.

"Did something happen?" the black haired boy asked. He didn't want to pry if she really didn't want to tell him, but that didn't mean he couldn't be worried and ask just one more time. Maybe she just didn't have time this morning to tell him, she had left in kind of a hurry. After a moment Nana shook her head.

"No, nothing happened…" she said after swallowing a bit of her sandwich. Cooro deflated just slightly, hoping that the brunette wouldn't actually notice. It wasn't really all that fun having his theory proven right. "I had a dream last night…" Nana mumbled after another small hesitation, catching Cooro's attention almost immediately. Something was bothering her, he knew it. It was a dream too. From past experiences, he could already tell this wasn't going to be good. No wonder she was acting strange.

"You don't think it was a normal one?" he asked, just making sure out of some unlikely hopeful chance that it had just been about her running out of quarters while on a ski trip. The green eyed girl shook her head though, and really he couldn't say that he was all that surprised. "What happened?"

"Not much… I was just running. I think it was a burning building, because there was smoke… I didn't know who was with me or anything, but there was someone, but he wasn't who I was running from. Then I woke up," Nana summarized, Cooro making sure to listen intently the entire time. A burning building… He'd had dreams kind of like that, which he was sure Nana had realized by now. "You don't think…" she said, trailing off to allow Cooro to fill in the blank himself, which he promptly did, shaking his head in a confused and submissive manner.

"I don't know… but we should get together after school. All of us," the black haired boy suggested, and Nana quickly agreed. She guessed she should be thankful that she had a warning and people helping her. Husky and Senri hadn't gotten that luxury, even though Senri couldn't even remember, but that probably wasn't a good thing, though.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," the brunette said before the bell rang, signaling their required return to classes they wouldn't be able to concentrate on.

"Okay, I'll call Husky when I get home then tell you what time, see ya then," Cooro said as he threw the remnants of his lunch into the trash. Nana nodded at this and waved slightly as she turned to head away.

"Sounds good, see ya," she said, and the two both went their separate ways before any danger of being late started to creep in. They really didn't need a detention right now, and Cooro already knew his grade was suffering due to the constant distractions and danger that kept showing up at his doorstep and in his head.

Ms. Brighton didn't keep his after again today, which he was thankful for, since he really wanted to get a hold of Husky so they could all meet up. Well, if the silver boy could that is, no telling what might be coming up there, or if he would even feel up to it, but he still wanted to be able to check as soon as possible.

Reaching the church, Cooro went inside and straight to the phone, dialing in the number Husky had given him in case he ever needed to contact him, for emergencies and otherwise. The black haired boy listened to the ringing go off several times, hoping that someone would actually pick up. If they didn't, then it probably wasn't Husky's fault, he'd just have to call Nana and tell her that he couldn't get a hold of Husky, and they'd have to do it another time.

Before he'd just about given up and was ready to move the phone away and back into it's charger, the eleven year old heard the clicking sound signaling someone had picked up.

"Hello, Sandori residence, Husky Medici speaking," the silver boy said dryly into the phone. Cooro smile at the voice, glad that not only did he get someone to pick up, but it was the person he wanted to talk to too.

"Hey Husky," the black haired boy said happily, and Husky wasn't that surprised at who it was. At least, it was better then if it was somebody from his father's work, or school for that matter. He knew Keane was upstairs in his room, and school had let out anyway, but you never know.

"Hi Cooro. Everything okay?" the silver boy asked, sitting down on a chair that was close by.

"Yeah, kinda. Well, Nana had a dream last night, and it was kind of similar to the one I had, and I thought it might be a good idea for us to all meet up in the park or something to talk about it. If you're able to, that is," Cooro explained, trying to make it out as not being a big deal. Husky nodded as he stood up again, already planning to leave as soon as they were finished talking.

"Sure, when do you want to meet?" he asked, and the older boy thought about it for a few moments before answering.

"Nana said she could come by whenever, I just have to call her after this and tell her when, so maybe a half hour from now?" Cooro decided. Husky glanced over at the clock before nodding again. It had just turned about three now, so three thirty was fine by him, he didn't think there was anything he needed to do today anyway, besides look after Keane, but he should be alright by himself for just a few hours, if that.

"Alright, I'll see you guys there then," he said, and Cooro quickly said his goodbye before hanging up. Well, that was easy, and Husky seemed to be doing alright too. Now he just had to call Nana and tell her three thirty. Hopefully Senri would already be at the park. If not, at least they kind of had a place they could check now. Which happened to be somewhere in the park… but still.

Turning his attention back to the phone, Cooro redialed with Nana's number. It didn't take as long this time for someone to pick up. "Hello, is Nana there?" he asked into the receiver.

"Hey Cooro, it's me. Did you call Husky? What time do you want to meet up?" she asked, and the black haired boy nodded slightly before answering.

"Yep, I called him. Is a half an hour okay with you?" he asked. Hopefully it wasn't too soon, but she did say she could meet them at any time, and he wanted to try and get down to the bottom of this again.

"That sounds fine, see you there," the brunette said without any hesitation.

"Okay, bye," Cooro said before hanging up the phone again. Looking at the clock, he still had twenty five minutes before three thirty, but he still had to walk there, and try and find Senri if he wasn't in plain sight, not to mention it was always a good idea to try and be a little early. Glad he hadn't bothered to take his shoes off, the black haired boy strolled off towards the direction of the park.

It didn't take him very long to reach it, only about ten minutes. He didn't see Husky or Nana waiting for him yet, so he decided to go and find Senri before they showed up. The best place to look would probably be the clearing the teen had showed them, so Cooro quickly made his way down the path and into the forest.

He didn't end up getting all the way down to the clearing, luck deciding to actually be on his side today and Senri happening to be coming up the path towards him. Cooro smiled and ran up to the grey haired teen.

"Hey Senri, you're not doing anything, are you?" Cooro asked happily, and Senri shook his head in response. "Okay, do you think you can come out to the main park with me? Nana and Husky we'll be there in a few minutes, and we wanted to all get together and try and figure out what to do about the animal powers again. You remember that, right?" the younger boy explained, and Senri nodded, briefly glancing at his arm to show that he really did. "Good, let's go then," with that, the two headed back towards the main park area before sitting down at one of the picnic tables.

It was maybe five minutes later when the two saw Husky walk through the park gates. Cooro waved him over happily, and the silver boy made his way over and slid in on the bench next to Cooro, a weary look on his face.

"Hey, how ya doing?" Cooro asked, looking his friend over a bit. Husky simply shrugged, not appearing too focused on the question.

"Fine, just a little tired. Didn't sleep much last night," he explained, and the black haired boy nodded, decided not to mention the fact that he was still in the same clothes he had been wearing yesterday, too.

"Why?" he asked, and Senri had started to take a small notice of their conversation, watching the two boys back and forth now.

"Had to help my dad with a few things, it's nothing," Husky said, not appearing to want to delve too much into that topic. Cooro simply nodded, and the three boys were quiet as they waited for the last member of there party. Twenty minutes later, and there was still no sign of her.

"What is taking that girl so long? She's the one who wanted this, right?" Husky asked, laying his head on the table in boredom. The black haired boy shrugged slightly as he looked over at his watch for the fifth time in the last five minutes.

"She's only ten minutes late, maybe something happened on the way here, like another broken kite guy, only more persistent this time" he suggested, and Husky groaned slightly.

"Then she should tell him to leave her the hell alone because she has people waiting for her," he grumbled, and Cooro couldn't help but laugh slightly. Senri just continue to periodically sweep his gaze along the park looking for the brown haired girl, although it proved just as fruitless as all the other times.

"I'm sure she's on her way right now, don't worry," the black haired boy reassured, but despite this, Husky only rolled his eyes from his spot on the picnic table.

"Who ever said I was worried? I'm just tired of waiting…" Husky mumbled, and Cooro decided it would just be easier to agree with him. Fifteen minutes later, and there was still no sighs of Nana. "… you don't know where she lives, do you?" the silver boy asked, a hint of concern emanate in his voice. Cooro shook his head sadly.

"Nope. Maybe we should go see if she's somewhere close by," Husky nodded and stood up from the table, Cooro and Senri following his example.

"You sure you told her to head to the park?" the younger boy asked, and Cooro nodded his head several times. He knew that wasn't it, it wouldn't take her this long to figure out she was in the wrong place even if he had told her the wrong place.

"Positive," Cooro said as the three made there way out of the park. Something wasn't right here, and it sent a sickening feeling all throughout Cooro's body. Please let everything be okay. Please let everything be okay. Please let everything be okay. There was only so much a group of kids could handle at once. They had to figure out what was causing these animal powers before they all went insane or died from the stress.

Everything had to be okay.


Hurray, suspense and drama and cliffhangers oh my! I meant to upload a bonus chapter today as well, but some stuff happened when I went to write it, so expect that to come up within the next few days instead.

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. As always, please review and thanks for sticking this out with me for so long. And to think, we're still not anywhere near the finish line. I hope nobody minds that.