(DISCLAIMED)

Chp.1: The look-alike

"Van, wh-what're you doing?" Fiona stuttered fearfully as Van continued holding her against the wall of her bedroom by the shoulders. He smirked somewhat devilishly at her.

"You are so pretty, Fiona Alisi Lanet. So very…"Van moved very close to her face. She turned away and screamed out.

"You're not Van! Get away from me! Who are you?!" She cried. "What do you want from me?! Why'd you come in through my window?!"

He let go of her shoulders and stared at her irritated. He walked over to the window and looked over at her. He winked tauntingly with a smirk and stepped back, hopping out the window. Fiona breathed in heavily and slid down the wall. Just then she noticed that the supposed Van had instead of a ponytail, the boy had a braid that fell to his waist.

She got up and ran from her room. She had to find someone. Fast. Really fast.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"IRVINE!" She yelled out. She found him in the kitchen drinking a soda and reading a magazine about zoid parts.

"Fiona? What's the deal? You look about ready to die!" Irvine exclaimed as he looked at the pale faced, raddy haired, heavily breathing girl with tears in her eyes.

"There was this man, Irvine, and he came into my room through the window and---and he looked like Van! He was so cruel though 'cause he had me by the shoulders against the wall and he-he kept smirking at me. I didn't know what he was going to do. I was so scared!" Fiona cried into Irvine's chest.

"He looked like Van?" Irvine asked.

"Y-yeah, b-b-but he had a-a long braid down his back instead o-of a ponytail, a-and he acted nothing like Van," Fiona said through her sobs.

"It's okay, Fiona," Irvine tried to soothe the girl that he treated like a daughter.

~~~~~~

Irvine walked outside and strolled his way over to Maria and Van's house. After the death stinger, Fiona, Irvine, Moonbay, and Thomas decided to live in a vacant house in Wind Colony. Since then, Fiona and Moonbay had spruced it up to make it look nice, but they didn't usually stay there. They would go to Van's or to the market with Maria.

"Van! Open the door!" Irvine pounded on the door. He was gonna get to the bottom of this.

After a moment he decided to go in himself. After shoving the door open, loud rock music filled his ears. "No wonder he couldn't hear me…" Irvine thought. He spotted Maria out the back window and walked out.

"Hey, Maria!"

"Huh? Hey, Irvine," Maria looked worried about something.

"Where's Van? I need ta talk to 'em," Irvine put his hands on his hips and tried to speak nonchalantly.

"I told him not to, but he's up cleaning the attic," She hung another shirt on the clothesline.

"Since when did Van DO chores when you told him NOT to? I thought it was the other way around…."

"Well, he said he wanted to look through Daddy's old things. I still didn't want him going up there."

"Why not?" Irvine asked. When he got no answer, he just shrugged and walked away. Maria was weird like that sometimes. He made his way into the music filled house and up the stairs to the attic where the music was unbearable it was so loud. Irvine grabbed his ears as he ran over to the stereo and shut it off.

"Huh?" Van looked up from a box he was looking in. "Whad'ja do that for?" Van looked at Irvine as if he had kicked the stereo and broken it. To tell the truth, he really, really wanted to.

"I need ta talk to you," Irvine said as he lifted up a cream colored curtain and looked out a window. Maria was still hanging clothes, Moonbay was just getting home, and Thomas was running from the children who were playing tag. Fiona was locked up in her room with music blaring….just like Van but not as loud.

"About what?" Van looked over at his friend before continuing to look through the box. Irvine paused and looked around. The attic was clean with sun pouring in through the curtains. When Van DID do work, he DID work allright.

"A man broke into Fiona's room this morning…." Irvine decided to begin, unsure of what would happen. Van said nothing, but the shuffling in the box stopped. "She said he looked like you."

"You're not accusing me, are you-'cause I-" Van's anger had started to flare in his voice, and his dear friend could tell he was trying his best to keep it from surfacing.

"No, Van, she said there was a difference. She said he had a braid that went to his waist instead of a little fluffball ponytail," Irvine smirked.

"It's not a fluffball," Van pouted. He went back to looking through the box. There was a very awkward silence. "Looked like me, huh?"

"That's what she said," Irvine pointed out. "It really freaked her out."

"I wondered what was wrong. I came over earlier, but she wouldn't come out of her room. She won't speak to me."

"Don't worry, she'll come around eventually," Irvine smirked at how pathetic his friend was at times. "She can't go too long without you." The silence crowded the air for a few more minutes. Irvine began to worry why his friend was so quiet. He slowly peaked over his shoulder.

"Wh-what the-" Van muttered, staring at something in his hand.

"What is it?" Irvine asked in awe.

"L-look-" Van handed a picture from which he'd found in the box to Irvine.

"What the-" Irvine copied his friend's gaze and shock. In the picture was a cute five-year-old Van in a blue shirt with red stripes. Beside him was another Van in orange and green stripes. The other Van looked much more devilish with a little squintier eyes, a smirk on his face, and a braid that went down his neck.

Irvine then remembered what Fiona had said. He gasped for a moment. "Th-that's him, Van! That's the guy who scared Fiona!"

"Well, I kinda guessed that, but we don't even know who he is," Van said putting his index fingers together and moving them in a twisting fashion.

"Then why is he in a picture with you…?" Irvine sweatdropped.

"I don't know. I feel like we've met before, but I have no memories with him in them, and this is the first picture I've seen of him," Van said.

"I bet….I bet Maria knows exactly who this guy is," Irvine stood, grabbed Van by the ponytail, and dragged him outside to where his sister was.