A storm settled over the city, the sounds of thunder echoing through the streets like an abrupt and unwelcome visitor. Tokyo-2 never seemed so dark as this night. The storm had already managed to take out power to four major sections of the city, causing the city to seem dark and foreboding, especially from the skyscraper where three dark occupants sat, enjoying the spectacle as they continue to discuss the current business at hand.

"So, you are saying then that you can in fact return Lord Dracula to life," asked a young priestess. Her golden hair arranged into two large sets of curls down either side of her head. Her outfit of white robes and golden vestments spoke of her holy origins, though those in the more popular catholic beliefs would likely see her as a heretic.

"As a matter of fact," came a female voice from the darkness, "we can. I know we technically exist on opposite ends of the spectrum, but we both want the same thing… We should work together."

"This assumes the claim you have is genuine," came a male voice in the darkness. "Do you truly have a candidate for the Dark Lord in your employ?"

"Not one," the priestess corrected, "two. One is still in Europe and will be for some time, but I have summoned the other. He will arrive tomorrow before noon. The real question is can you get rid of the current candidate… this, Shinji Ikari?"

"We admittedly have had problems in that regard," the man in the dark lamented. "We may have to concede that he will eventually become the Dark Lord."

"No!" the girl in the dark emphatically responded. "Unacceptable. After what his little vampress concubine did to The Circle, we can never trust him to fully give in to his role."

"There is a spell I can try," the man admitted. "It could tear the souls he has under his command away from him, weaken him enough to be defeated. But there is no guarantee it will work."

"If we can't get it to work, perhaps I can find a way to persuade him to take his rightful place," the priestess responded. "My congregation has more tools at its disposal than just a couple of Candidates. If it comes to that, I am more than willing to get directly involved. For my congregation, With Light, to succeed… I am willing to sacrifice even my own life. You crave your Lord's return… I crave the balance restored. No reason both can't be attained."

"You seem willing," the man replied. "Very well. I will see if I can knock Ikari down a few notches."

"What an alliance," the dark woman mused. "The Circle of the Moon, The Order of Infernus, and With Light are working together. This can't fail."

"I'm not so optimistic," the Priestess admitted. "But options are short. No matter what happens, we adjust and move forward… Besides… his luck must end sooner or later."

Archdruid Sephiroth Presents

Part Three of the Symphony of Shadows Saga

As Nightshade

I: The Root of All Evil

Hikari sighed as she looked out the window of her office. It was another rainy day, but at least the stormy part had passed. Turning her attention back to her computer, she noted the progress on the calculations for her spreadsheet were still compiling. She hated this part of her job; double-checking the calculations for the last fiscal quarter was a task that was beyond boring, but it was essential to her function.

After middle school, Hikari ended up entering the work force. Her father was among those that disappeared after the Angel Wars ended, which left only her and Kodama, her older sister, to keep the house afloat. Nozumi being far too young to work yet, was only expected to keep at her schooling.

Once it became obvious that they would have to fend for themselves as the Japanese Government's equivalent of Child Protective Services was far too inundated with work to ever reach them, Hikari tested out of High School, allowing her to declare herself legally an adult despite only being 15 years old. This allowed her to take a few online classes in accounting and get picked up by her current employer, Takadami Financial, as an accountant. They even helped her get officially certified and has been one of their top accountants ever since. She was so good in fact, that she managed to take over the corner office after the old head accountant in her section retired.

While this kept her plenty busy, she was more than happy for the continued employment. She made very good money in this position as her skill and attention to detail earned her a 7.25 million yen a year salary (around 73,000 USD), which between that and Kodama's close to 9 million meant they easily had enough money to take care of the house and Nozumi.

She switched to another screen and worked out a few smaller spreadsheets as she waited for the main one to complete. Though she always managed to overhear office talk, such things rarely interested her. Today however, she overheard someone talking about the strange happenings in the city. Tokyo-4, where her office was located, had had more than its fair share of strangeness in the last few months. The latest rumor talked about a strange house they found reduced to rubble in the forest north of the city and signs that it might have belonged to some occult group.

Hikari sighed. Ever since the strangeness began, she lost contact with two people she cared about deeply; Asuka who was her best friend in middle school, and Shinji who was troubled but always managed to save the day no matter what. With both missing and wanted by authorities, it worried her that they got involved in things they should not have.

A beep from the computer caught her attention: her main project was finished. Switching back to it she looked over the numbers carefully to ensure they were within expectations, and smiled. Her predictions fell within 2% of the actual, and she actually underestimated this quarter's earnings. The VP would likely be pleased at the results. Saving her projects, she sent an email that her work was completed and that she would see everyone at the meeting on Monday to discuss the results. For now, it was time for her to call it a day.

As she made her way out, she caught sight of one of the TVs on a bracket in the corner of the break room. They showed footage apparently taken from a raid on an occult hideout. Seeing men in dark robes, tatoos over their faces and hearing them screaming at the onlookers about the coming darkness was a bit much to take, and she found herself hoping that Shinji and Asuka were not a part of this madness.

Not much information was available over public media anymore though, even if Hikari wanted to know more. Recently, a new agency was set up by the government to control the information and investigate occult activity. This special unit was referred to as Darkwatch, and they have been heavily suppressing all public knowledge. It was their job to make sure the public believed that this was just a bunch of religious fanatics, but many people were starting to believe that something unnatural was happening.

Trying to ignore it, Hikari began to head home. Her apartment was only in the next district, so walking wasn't a big concern for her, especially since the rain was light and her umbrella was adequate. As she got closer to home, she noted the streets were a little emptier than she remembered. Though it wasn't raining, she still had her umbrella out and avoided any puddles she found. Her ears were well attuned, and suddenly picked up another set of footsteps, sounding like they were trying to match hers but just slightly out of sync. Fearing it could be a robber or other miscreant, she picked up the pace, wondering why the streets were suddenly so empty.

Without warning, she was grabbed and pulled into an alleyway. She was about to scream then realized she knew the person.

"Shinji?" Hikari whispered, her heart going a mile a minute. "God, you scared me!" She noted he looked a bit disheveled with his hair a bit messy, and his clothes looked like he had slept in them, a simple T-shirt and cargo pants.

"Sorry," he replied just as quietly. "I need to talk to you, Hikari."

"The authorities are looking for you, as is Darkwatch," she noted.

"I know, I can't go to them… this is over their heads."

"What is it?"

"Hikari," he whispered more seriously. "It's about your superiors at the firm. You need to know this." He was starting to scare her, and he knew it, but he also knew she had to know the truth. "They're working for one of the cults."

"What?" she whispered, hardly able to believe her ears. "How can this be?"

"It's true," Shinji asserted. "Your boss, Nakamura Heeto is a member of a cult called The Order of Infernus. They're dedicated to the fall of civilization to make way for a new order."

"What kind of new order?"

"You probably won't believe this," Shinji noted, "But I swear to you, Hikari, it's true. They are trying to pave the way for the return of Count Dracula."

Hikari looked at him, but Shinji noted no lack of belief in her eyes, as if she were expecting him to say something along those lines.

"You believe me?"

"Yes," Hikari replied. "A few of my friends at work have been trying to piece together what's been happening and at least two of them said it had something to with Vlad Dracul… something about him being the source of all evil. I thought they were crazy, but if you say that's exactly what's happening, I have no reason not to believe you."

"Thank you… but I need to know if you ever heard anything in your firm about the Order of Infernus."

"I'm sorry, Shinji," Hikari replied. "I don't know anything about that. I see the numbers all the time in my work but I've never noted any deficits that couldn't be explained. In fact, this quarter we did better than last."

Suddenly, they both became aware of multiple footsteps coming their way. Shinji stepped out of the alley in time to see multiple cultists wearing red and orange robes, adorned with symbols relating to hellfire and destruction.

"Stay there," he whispered and Hikari nodded, though worried about him.

"Finally, we find you," one of the cultists stated. "Rastur will be pleased."

"I figured that idiot had enough of me back at that hideout off 217th in Canto."

Hikari remembered hearing about that, it happened just last night. Something like a dozen dead cultists but most of the information was again suppressed.

"This time will be different. We're to hold you till he arrives."

"Not happening," Shinji remarked as his feral features came to the surface. Hikari watched in terror as he took on a much darker appearance.

"Stop him!" the cultists yelled, but Shinji was already on task. He threw a hand forward launching a spear outwards impaling one cultist before side flipping away from a stream of fire launched from another. As he landed, he suddenly shifted forward leaving a trail of afterimages and eviscerated two more cultists with his claws.

Hikari watched curiously but also a bit horrified at his brutality. She knew from Kensuke's explanation of what EVA on Angel fights were like that he could be a brutal fighter, but seeing him do such things with his own two hands, and with supernatural power behind him, was another entirely. She knew now that he was firmly entranced in the supernatural intrigue that gripped the world, but also knew doubtlessly that he was fighting it with his gifts, just as he fought the angels during the war.

After another half dozen dead cultists, Rastur showed himself. He wound up some complicated spell and let it loose, a ball of dark energy lashed forward impossibly fast, but Shinji was just as fast. Summoning Final Guard, he blocked the shot, but not dead on, catching it sideways. This caused the ball of supernatural destruction to careen into the alleyway and slam into Hikari straight on. She didn't even scream as it felt like a mass of piercing cold tore into her very essence and her world blackened, as if though a very dark window. She fell to the floor as Shinji lashed out with a blast of energy of his own summoned from a demonic soul. Rastur managed to avoid the attack, but knew it was time to flee. His spell was blocked somehow, and he'd have to find a way to get another shot at him.

Shinji observed the Cultists disappearing in some kind of short-range teleportation spell, but didn't bother tracing them down, instead running to Hikari. He knelt down, picking her upper body up, and noticing instantly that she was dying. There was no physical damage but he saw into her aura and noted her soul was nearly fully pried loose from her mortal shell. Realizing he'd need to do something drastic, he pulled soul energy from inside himself. Sensing the energy was not aligned with anything he allowed it to phase into her, holding his hand just over her chest and watched the white energy flow.

She gasped at that moment, drawing his attention away from his task, but he saw she was starting to breath easier. In that moment however, he didn't notice a blue colored soul leave his hand into her body. Hikari calmed in that moment and slept peacefully, but Shinji kept giving her energy until he was sure she was out of danger. Shinji then carefully picked her up and used a long-range teleportation effect to bring both himself and Hikari off the street and into a nearby safehouse.

Shinji laid her down on his bed. The windows were pitch black to keep the sun completely out as he wasn't the only one who used this safehouse. He watched her sleep noting she still looked pale despite his efforts. She'd have to rest for a day or two he decided and proceeded out of the room into the living room of the apartment.

As she lay there, her hair began to bend and wilt….

Static in sound, Static in sound

Uncurable

You plant the seed, you feel the need

We give to take, we give to take,

Our eyes, they burn

Sensing the feel, feeling the real

-Static X, "Burn to Burn"

"I've always loved plants… my apartment is full of flowers and greenery… but… what's happening to me… am I… changing?"

Next Chapter: Transformation