Author's Notes: Yes, that was supposed to be Jou's point of view… Thanks to the reviewers, and of course, Lizzy, for betaing!

Chapter 1: Alar

The straw was coarse under Yuugi's neck, and he brought his hand up to ease the itch. Opening one bleary one, then the other, he thought he could see faces floating before him. He snapped his eyes shut, then opened them again.

He could see faces, he found. They formed a mob, pushing and shoving at each other, peering for a glimpse of something… or someone? They were all staring at him. Yuugi gulped. Bars. There were bars right in front of him. That was what separated Yuugi from the viewers. 'What is this, a zoo?' He asked himself. 'Wait. This is a zoo, isn't it?'

So the question was, not where he was, but why he was here. Why was he a zoo animal? A memory tickled the back of his mind. Add another question to his list of… two: why didn't he expect to see faces anymore?

Violet eyes widened as a scene came rushing back to him. There was a man, his boss, and there was he, Yuugi. They were sitting at a table. Having a discussion of sorts. He blinked his gaze back up to the spectators. He didn't expect to see human faces anymore.

Perhaps these weren't human.

Yuugi had crinkled his eyebrows in confusion. "You're telling me that there are aliens sitting practically in our back yard?"

"Well, they're not exactly aliens. Some DNA-bearing bacteria were clustered on the rock that blasted into space 80-some years ago. They remained alive but inactive all that time… and now that they're back, they've started growing again."

"…And?"

"They landed on earth about 45 years ago. Five years later, the bacteria began growing and evolving… And in 40 years, they've developed humanoid creatures. Don't you understand that? It too them 40 years to evolve to our level… while we've been evolving into all sorts of different creatures, finally achieving humanity after some hundred billion years! If this is what they do in 40 years, they'll have left us behind in no time… We'll lose the race of evolutional superiority, and they'll wipe us all out!"

"And I'm supposed to do…?" Yuugi prompted, staring at his boss.

"I want you to go make contact with them, Yuugi. I know it'll be difficult, but I also know you can do it. Be our ambassador, and earn their trust."

"So we can wipe them out when they don't suspect."

"No! So we can build a friendship with what is, to our knowledge, the only species besides us to achieve our level of intellect!"

Yuugi shook his head to rid himself of that conversation. It had taken place more than a week ago. Instead, he began studying the ones staring at him. They looked human enough, but then again, who knew?

'He's awake!'

Yuugi jumped. The voice had resounded in his head. 'What…?'

'Do you think he understands us?' Another voice asked.

'H-hello…?' He tried tentatively with his mind, but if the voices heard, they gave no indication.

'Hey, you! Can you understand us?'

"They seem to communicate mentally," Yuugi whispered, finally remembering the mouthpiece that he was supposed to use to report back to HQ.

'Hello??'

"I can understand you!" He called.

'I don't think he understands,' one said sadly.

'Aw… he looked like he might be sentient.'

'The Winged Ones!' Another whispered in a reverent tone.

'Yes, the Winged Ones!'

'Bring the Winged Ones! They'll know what to do!'

A mental murmur of agreement rang out through Yuugi's head, and a few ran off to fetch the supposed Winged Ones.

"Some of these not-aliens have the features of animals. Instead of trial and error, they kept the features that would aid them most…"

"What do you mean?"

"We evolved. Birds, fishes, bears, starfish, all these are in our ancestry. But they never evolved to primitive animals in the first place. However, some have claws like birds, or fish scales for protection…"

"Oh. That's bad, right?"

"Bad for us. Good for them."

"Why?"

"Because we had to evolve into billions of primitive animals to achieve humanity, shedding some useful aspects in the process. They jumped directly to sentient, thinking beings, and they never completely shed their most useful parts."

"But that doesn't make them a danger, does it?"

"No. But they're still evolving. Their intelligence is growing, Yuugi! They've already invented buildings! Vaguely automobile-shaped things that use much less oil than ours are already patrolling the streets." The boss sounded hysterical. "The only thing we have that they don't have seems to be written language… or spoken language for that matter, though they seem to be communicating somehow. Besides that, they have everything and more! How long do you think we have until they have their own improved weapons of mass destruction?"

"And blow themselves up?"

"…You're impossible."

'The Winged Ones! The Winged Ones!' A mental voice cried out, followed by several awed echoes.

'Talk to it, Winged Ones! Tell us if it is intelligent!'

"I'm not an it, thank you very much," he muttered, though he knew that they wouldn't hear him. Instead, he directed his attention towards the newcomers.

There were four, Yuugi saw. His eyes widened. How strange. Basically human-looking people… only they had wings.

The first gazed at him with wide chocolate eyes, long white hair falling haphazardly to his shoulders. A pair of feathery white wings arched elegantly from his back, which the others made room for. Another stood next to him, with blue eyes, a strong build, and dark brown wings that spanned twice as far as the white ones.

All guys, Yuugi decided, except the next one. She had clear wings, like that of a dragonfly. With a start, Yuugi realized that they all had wings resembling some Earth creature… the first could be a dove, and the second an eagle. 'Intriguing… and the last one?'

Yuugi's mouth dropped open. How many times had he seen that exact same hair, that exact same face, staring back at him from the mirror? Only minor details, a sterner mouth, darker eyes, set them apart. And the wings, of course. Large, leathery bat wings that intruded into Yuugi's idea that one of these four might be human.

'Do you speak, little one?'

"Yes. But you won't listen." Yuugi muttered.

'Do your mutterings mean something?'

"That's a stupid question. If you can't understand them, how could I tell you?"

'I dunno, Yami. He's responsive, but that could be just coincidence.' Yuugi was pretty sure that the voice belonged the brown-haired, dragonfly-winged girl, though he had no clue how he would know that.

'This is stupid. If the thing can speak, it's obviously through the sounds that it makes, and we can't understand them.' He looked between the dove-winged and the eagle-winged, trying to figure out who had spoken with such contempt.

'Relax, Seto. There's no harm in trying.' That was definitely the dove-winged, meaning that it would probably be in Yuugi's best interest to avoid angering the eagle-winged. Seto, was it?

'Trying what? Trying to decipher some most-likely random sounds? How long do you think that'll take?'

The white-haired cringed away a little.

'Ah, stop it, Kaiba. You always act like the world revolves around you.' That was the butterfly-winged girl.

'Like you don't, Mai?'

'Maybe Ryou's right,' the brown-haired girl spoke again. 'We could try introducing ourselves, and if he can understand, maybe he'll figure something out.'

Throughout the exchange, the non-Winged Ones had kept silent, as if to speak whilst the Winged Ones were speaking was sacrilege. Now, a mental cheer erupted. 'What amazing wisdom! The Winged Ones are sagacious indeed!' Even as the cheers died down, the dove-winged was already opening a section of the bars, presumably the door.