Disclaimers: Since when have people cared?
Warnings: Walking around, bashing characters for their stupidity and… yeah.
Other: So they all run around… waiting for something to happen. Joy.
000
"Thirteen years, thirteen stars. Four separate souls destined from the start. One dreaded prophecy; waiting to come true…"
Fragment Thirteen: Take One Last Step
Gathering around the piece of rock that was still smoking, Dark rubbed his forehead and pointed accusingly at it, although it looked stupid doing so. But he wanted to have his say in the matter, so that was what she was going to do.
"That's the thing that hit me over the head in the first place!"
Krad rolled her eyes, "Gee, I wonder why. You were always stupid enough to get run over by a parked wagon."
"Wagons have nothing to do with this!"
"It will soon!"
"And what do you mean by that?"
"I mean that I'm going to go and hire a wagon and prove it to you!"
"What? You would seriously run over me!"
"No, I would leave it parked close by you and you'd get hurt!"
"Huh!"
The vampire blocked his ears for a moment, "Those two just never shut up."
"Maybe that's why they get along so well all the time," Daisuke suggested helpfully, ignoring the arguing and yelling in the background as he did so. With was sitting on his head and staring at the rock, but they didn't pay any attention to it for the time being.
"And maybe that's the reason as to why I want to kill them so badly."
"Oh, come on; they're not that bad and it is rather fun to hang around with them."
"Maybe for you, mortal."
"Aah… Hiwatari-kun…"
"What?"
"Why are you always so mean…"
"That's just me. You shouldn't worry about it."
"Then why do you always argue with Dark and don't talk to Krad-san and…"
"I think I get the picture."
"See; you're doing it again…"
Unfortunately for them, Dark had jerked briefly out of his argument with Krad and instantly began yelling random things at the two of them; where Satoshi ignored him completely and the redhead merely turned red and looked away, trying to remain as calm as usual.
The blonde put a stop to it by poking him in the ribcage and then turning their attention back to the smoking thing on the grassy floor. "You must be absolutely stupid to not notice that we've got bigger things to fry," she stated and pointed a finger at her friend; "And the fact remains that I can incinerate you to the point of oblivion, so leave those two alone."
Miraculously, he actually listened to her without complaining and they all gathered around the small, smoking rock that looked like… a rock. Well, that wasn't shocking, actually. The purple-haired teen poked it with a stick and then blinked at it with a perplexed look stamped on his features.
"How are you so sure that it's the thing we've been looking for?" he asked the younger two, who stared back at him, "I mean, it looks like any other rock we've walked past… except this one is smoking… and looks like a lump of metal…"
"And how does that make it any different?" Krad mimicked him sarcastically, "Well, you never were the smartest person alive, sadly, but if you knew your magic priorities, I suggest you try and identify them." Like the other two, she had instantly felt the vibes that screamed overly strong magic that could only mean the fragment they were looking for, but Dark was just so stupid that it wasn't much of a surprise that he couldn't tell one rock from another.
Said purple-haired teen blinked again and scratched the back of his head, "What about magic priorities? How does that make any difference?"
"…" the blonde hit her forehead as Daisuke took over and tried to explain, "The only guy I considered a friend after tripping him down the stairs is just so… impossible to comprehend… damn, he's an idiot…"
000
Taking the rock with them, the four trudged on until they reached a town that was quite a way away from where they had been standing with the giant castle/dungeon-like-prison place and were all grateful for the stop. During all this, at some point Satoshi had gone off and transformed into his little bat-like state (not that he liked it, but he wasn't in the mood to walk anymore), and was being his non-talking self, which was good since that meant that no one was trying to tear the throats out of another person who was walking right next to them.
"Well, now that we've got this… piece of rock, what do we do now?" asked Krad, taking a look at it with half-closed eyes. The fact that they didn't have their weapons and all their items was a blow – although all they really had was some food, clothes, and Krad's hairbrush – but they carried a good amount of gold with them, so it had been easy to pay for a room. It was all the rock's fault that they had lost everything, and she knew it. Although blaming an inanimate object seemed kind of insane, so it was best not to talk about it.
"I have no idea," Daisuke replied, sitting on his own, separate bed and staring out the window. It was a small, musty-smelling room with one window, four beds, and not much else, but it was comfortable enough for one day. They had already eaten and the vampire had gone off for the night, but the blonde's question had gotten the redhead thinking again. Now that they DID have the fragment piece they'd been searching for, what WERE they supposed to do? Sure, they could have mistaken it and that wasn't the thing, but it didn't make much of a difference in the end, if they didn't know what to do. Dark was already asleep, snoring loudly, and there wasn't much to see outside.
Krad frowned and shoved the rock into her pocket before pulling the blankets over her, turning away to stare at a wall. "Night."
"Goodnight."
Minutes passed in silence (although Dark's snores really weren't helping) and eventually Daisuke fell asleep as well; minus the loud snoring, thankfully. But the blonde just couldn't get herself to fall asleep. There was just too much on her mind to allow herself to actually go and rest, so she say up, pulled her shoes on and left the room.
As soon as the door closed behind her, Dark ceased snoring and opened one eye instantly, not looking the least bit sleepy. Not wanting to get involved in any conversation which involved intellect – which Krad put so often, he didn't have any – he had decided to take the easy way out and pretend to already be asleep. But they were all thinking along the same lines now, about what they were supposed to do now that they had the stupid rock. If it was so important and special, how come nothing was happening? Sure, there had been the odd earthquake, the portal had blown up and there were those annoying huge black-thingy-winged-things, but that was about it. No mass armies swarming and terrorizing the place, nor was the world collapsing on top of them. No, all they got were four beings who argued and hurt each other a lot – although Daisuke tried to keep them at peace – looking for a rock that they now had and that was it.
…
What a waste of time!
Rolling onto his back, the purple-haired teen stared resolutely at the ceiling. Okay, so he and Krad came to this place for no real reason other than to get away from the authorities, but then they had to get dragged into this. It wasn't like they were going to do much else anyway, but it just seemed so… strange. Neither of them had any other close friends than each other – which had been separated by thirteen long and boring years – and got along scarily fine. Sure, there were the arguments and the fights, but they always made up in the end… and yet, ugh, he didn't even know what he was thinking anymore.
Did he like Krad?
Sure, as a friend and all. They got along fine.
But did he like her more than that?
He wasn't sure; and at this point he didn't care.
But would he want to marry her?
That was a rather odd question to ask, and they were still too young to think about it anyway.
But if they WERE of age, would they marry?
Who the hell was asking all these questions?
Sitting up and shaking his head, Dark tried to get those thoughts out of his head about if he liked Krad more than that and whatever else was there and got out of bed. True, he was no good talking about what their next move should be, but just lying there with his brain for company wasn't a very comfortable thought for him at the moment.
Glancing across the room, where Daisuke slept, he shook his head, pulled on his shoes, and left, closing the door softly behind him. Maybe after all this was over, he would question his feelings a bit more and then come into a conclusion; for now, they had more important things to take care of.
Whatever they were.
000
The sky was miraculously clear and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Well, except for the ones on the other side of the inn, but that wasn't the point for the time being. No one else seemed to be awake and the wind seemed to pass by her lazily, rustling the leaves and whipping away curtains as it went.
Krad wasn't in a good mood; not only had they hit a road block that involved a rock with magical properties, but lately her brain had been telling her things that didn't have anything to do with their mission. Who cared what she thought about Dark and whatever the hell her feelings were? She certainly didn't, and knowing Dark, he was more intent on eating food and insulting her than to care about her feelings. That was why they got along so well; she never was the type of person to go off and vent her feelings because she couldn't handle them.
But the fact that it was tugging at the back of her mind made her want to scream. Staring at the moon and stars was the only way to distract herself from it, and to think about what their next move was going to be.
So here they were, in the mortal realm, with monsters, with no weapons, and she no longer had her brush. Maybe it was the loss of her brush that was really getting on her nerves, seeing that… that… argh, she needed to brush her hair sooner or later because it wasn't going to brush itself, that's for sure.
Interrupted out of her thoughts as the entrance of the inn creaked open, Krad turned around and saw Dark step out. He caught sight of her and walked over, and she raised a brow.
"I thought you were already asleep." She pointed out.
"I was."
"Then why the hell are you out here then?"
"I could ask you that same question."
"Well, I couldn't sleep, okay? So leave me alone." She turned away with a small 'hmph' and went right back to staring at the twinkling sky, which wasn't all that interesting after awhile.
Of course, Dark being Dark, he didn't leave her alone, but merely stood silently next to her, allowing the silent tension to increase to the brink of awkwardness. Eventually Krad snapped and gave him a glare, who smirked back in return.
"What do you want here anyway?" she asked furiously, "Some people like to be left alone."
"And some people like to enjoy someone else's company," he replied calmly, "Besides, what difference does it make if I'm just standing here?"
"Oh, I don't know," she said sarcastically, "Besides the fact that you're standing right next to me might mean something to you. I don't like people invading my personal space."
The purple-haired teen shrugged lightly at this, but still didn't leave, making the blonde fume some more. But knowing Dark, he wasn't going to leave anytime soon, and she didn't plan to leave either, so they fell silent again and just stared at the sky with nothing more to say.
What would be the point of that? They would just start arguing again and the worse case scenario included waking up the entire village and getting kicked out, but their worst horror would have to be them talking like… normal-like. That was something that neither one of them wanted to face.
So they said nothing.
Of course, this also meant that the voices in their head – conscience, perhaps? – would not leave them alone now and that was just bugging the hell out of them and it was worse seeing as they were standing next to each other. Sure, they had never shown any interest with the people who had proposed to them before, but it didn't mean that they were going to show interest in EACH OTHER; that would just be too scary to comprehend.
And the stupid voices were still there; it was taking a lot of self-control to not bang one's head against something solid, but it was just so tempting. Better than anything else that could happen, and it was a damn boring night. Cold, too, but that didn't really matter.
Krad cursed slightly due to the fact that she had forgotten to bring her cloak with her, not wanting to go back to their room anytime soon. She was going through a self-reprimandation muse, only to be cut off when Dark gave her his own cloak.
"You sure?" she asked blankly. He nodded, not really giving her much of a glance because the voice was saying such stupid, stupid things. The blonde snorted but took it, and then commented, lightly, "If you stay out here for too long, you'll turn into Frosty the Snowman."
"And how's that gonna happen?" he asked.
"Oh, a few spells might do the trick, for one."
"Shut up."
She laughed for a moment and then fell silent again.
…
…
…
…
Geez, there wasn't much going on, and it was just so damn awkward when they weren't arguing. Way too awkward for its own good.
They had been standing there for a good half-hour until they both agreed that it was best to retire for the night, and most of that time had been silence between them as they argued against their brains and their feelings.
They also failed to notice that Satoshi had already returned, but was merely standing around, watching them intently. Not saying anything to each other, they retired for the night, and then there was silence.
000
Next morning proved to be a rather gloomy, considering the night/day before, and the village provided very little in the weapons department. Making do with what they had, they were gone as soon as possible and it was, once more, out to who knew where once more. But it seemed that Daisuke seemed to have a grasp of his surroundings now.
"I remember this place!" he commented to the other three, who were looking blankly around, no idea on what else to say. "I never thought we would end up here!"
"Huh? It looks like every other place, if you ask me," mumbled Dark, and indeed it was. It had the same path, trees, rocks and all other objects that the outside had, and how the younger boy could place this as anything of importance, he had no idea at all.
Krad was in silent agreement.
"Yeah, I suppose they all look the same," admitted the redhead, thoughtfully, "but there's the odd thing here and there I recognise and… well, it's just a feeling, I guess."
"So where are we headed for?" asked Satoshi, looking around him under the cover of his hood and cloak.
"Well, I'm guessing that we'll make it to the next town in a few hours, if we don't dawdle for too long," calculated Daisuke, "And from there… well, I have no idea where we're going to go next. Maybe if we drop by one of those bookstores or something, they might help us…"
"How are books going to help us?" the blonde blinked, not getting it.
"There are some useful books around, you know. And at this point, I'm willing to look up about this whole 'Star' concept. It may help a lot with this."
"Right…"
It was blissfully deserted, although the lack of sound could mean something, but there was not point in thinking about it. Of course, being bored and knowing that they really didn't have a proper weapon between them wasn't helping matters much. And it was very, very, very boring for them, but at least it wasn't cold.
Twenty minutes later found the group running after each other as Dark had gotten bored and had insulted Satoshi, who then decided it was time to kill him, and Daisuke and Krad chased after them, trying to calm everyone down before the vampire did some serious damage.
Restraining the vampire, the redhead decided it was time to ask him something random, if not only to distract him; "Hiwatari-kun, when vampires take blood from another living being, do they… you know… turn into a vampire as well?" he had been wondering about that for a long time, but it had never occurred to him that he could ASK.
"…? What an odd thing to ask…" mumbled Satoshi, but at least it stopped him from thinking about tearing Dark's head off; mainly due to the fact that Krad seemed to be doing a pretty good job without his help.
She shook him violently as he struggled for air, "Why must you ALWAYS think of the stupidest way to get people to want to kill you!" she yelled, "You moron! Idiot! I can't believe you're still alive after all this 'cause I'm going to KILL you when this is over!" She would have yelled some more, but a female's voice hailed them and they all ceased doing whatever.
"Hey, look who we found!" Sitting on the back of a wagon-type-vehicle-with-horses-or-something-of-the-like, Riku and Risa waved to them from the footpath. Both girls looked relieved on catching sight of them, but the four were lost, as always. Why was it that whenever something happened they were never told about it until it was too late?
"Harada-san?" Daisuke inclined his head and blinked curiously.
Risa squealed and hugged him, "You're so cute!"
"Uh…"
"Risa, you can be so random at times…" groaned Riku as she pulled her long-haired sister away before turning back to them, "We were hoping that you hadn't gotten too far."
Krad approached them, having let go of Dark, who was now sitting on the ground and muttering to himself, "Why? I mean, how did you know that we'd be here?"
The short-haired twin raised one finger at the sky airily, "Oh, you know, word gets around," she pointed at them at this, "And walls being broken down in giant castles don't happen on their own, you know." The blonde shrugged at this; it wasn't like it was anything major they blasted through; although it now had a hallway right out next to the entrance.
"But what are you doing here NOW?" asked Dark, emphasizing the 'now' as he rubbed his neck and grimaced.
"Oh, we're supposed to take you to the next town, 'cause Towa-san said so," Riku replied vaguely, looking up at the sky while the driver muttered something at random about wasting time. She ignored him and tapped a foot on the ground, waiting for their reaction. When none came, she just shrugged, rolled her eyes, and then pointed at the wagon, "Get on, then."
Exchanging looks, but not saying anything, the four clambered in and were followed by the twins, and the driver, still looking rather pissed off, didn't say anything and didn't even give them a backwards glance.
And so passed a very uneventful morning for them… and in which Daisuke and With somehow managed to make a game of cloud pictures, despite the fact that it was clouds all around them and no sky at all.
000
Looking up from her reading-cards-something-similar-like, Towa smiled faintly when she saw the four arguing heatedly about something while the twins just chose to ignore them. Standing up and adjusting her cloak, she walked over to greet them calmly.
"I see that you are well," she greeted them as they all tumbled out in a heap, "And I am glad of that, for one thing."
"That's nice and all," Krad snapped as she struggled to sit up, "But what are we supposed to do now? Not to mention that we got absolutely nowhere due to the fact that we weren't given any directions and then we got trapped in a stupid castle, only to lose our weapons, then got out and then HE," she jabbed a finger in Dark's eye, who yelped, "gets hit in the head with the stupid rock we've been searching for this whole time! How does that make any sense!"
The driver and his wagon-thing had already left, but as they were standing in the middle of the village, most of the residents had heard the blonde's rant. The seer blinked at this and then scratched the back of her head apologetically.
"Dear me, I forgot about that, didn't I?" she asked herself, "Well, that's the reason why I'm here then, correct?" She didn't wait for them to answer, "But of course. This way, come on, we don't have all day. And I'm glad that you found the final fragment, because if you hadn't by now, I would have been very worried about how slow you travelled."
Krad was still grumbling under her breath, but chose not to say much about it as they finally disentangled themselves away from the heap and then followed, somewhat sullenly to something closer to that, as they were led to some building…
"Are we going to a haunted mansion?" asked Dark.
"Where the hell did you get that idea?" the blonde muttered as she elbowed him hard in the stomach.
"…"
"…" Daisuke blinked and sweat dropped.
"…" Satoshi acted as if he had never met them before in his entire life.
With smiled. "Kyu!"
As it was, Towa did not take them to a building, but just a little way out of the village, while the redhead was turning his head to keep the building in sight. Satoshi would have asked WHY the mortal cared so much about looking at some buildings, but couldn't be bothered. So there they were, walking to an empty looking field were no one was and, eventually, the seer turned to face them, indicating for them to stop as well.
It was only then did they realize that Riku was missing.
"Hey, where'd-" began Dark, but fell silent at the frown he received.
"Now, back to the prophecy at hand," she began in a business-like tone, holding out a hand, "I'm assuming that you have the fragment with you?"
Stepping up silently, Krad passed the rock over and the seer inspected it for a moment before nodding, as if to confirm something. Placing it on the floor, she dragged each person/being one by one to a different area and commanded them to stay there. It wasn't exactly a far distance from each other, but, in the end, they ended up forming what looked kind of like a square… or something.
Risa frowned, inclining her head, as if sure that if she took another glance at it, it was going to look right; "Are you absolutely sure it's safe for them? I mean, aside from the fact that one of them DID blow a tunnel through a castle…"
The blonde scowled at her for this, but Towa was already answering the question, she there was no chance of her getting into an argument with another female, which would definitely lead to different results than just the current exchange of verbal abuse that she'd been doing for the past week. But it had been a lot more exciting for her than just being stuck at home and arguing with a mirror, so she really couldn't complain.
"We won't have to wait long… Riku said she would be back with… ah, there they are."
The short-haired twin was, indeed, approaching them, and accompanying her was…
"Daichi!" Daisuke just stared in shock, while With blinked, lost for… words. If that was possible for a demon-bunny of sorts.
The redhead grimaced at her twin brother as they finally came within hearing range, a bandage still wrapped firmly around her injured leg. But as she came closer to her brother, he stepped back swiftly, out of reach. The grimace changed to a grin.
"I thought you'd know that I'd choke you once I found you," she muttered, giving him a long look, "And leaving me and that blasted Hikaru with all the sleeping villagers in OUR room, what were you thinking!" She stepped forward quickly and shook him by the shoulders, "Not to mention that the VAMPIRE was there and god knew where you were and--"
"You really shouldn't do that." Satoshi advised blankly, one eyebrow raised beneath his hood.
Daichi blinked, her mind processing who it was, and then shrieked, hiding behind her brother in the process, "What's IT doing here!"
"You never change, do you?" asked Daisuke calmly.
"Oh, shut UP Dai-chan!"
Dark smirked, catching Krad's attention, "Now I'm beginning which one of you girls are more psychopathic, you know?"
The blonde growled and was about to teach the purple-haired teen a painful lesson, when the seer stepped in quickly; pulling Daichi away, she placed the distraught girl close by them and admired her handiwork. Riku nodded as well.
"Star formation, I should have known," she muttered. The five were now standing where the five points of a star would have been, with the fragment sitting in the middle, looking like a rock, as usual.
"Uh… did I miss something?" Daisuke looked around, as did the others, who were completely lost now.
"Well, to put it simply, you five have to do something and then the star's all okay and we can go on with out lives," prattled Risa, waving a hand around.
By the looks on their faces, they didn't understand a thing she had said.
"Thirteen Stars," grumbled Riku, elaborating, "Now that we have all the fragments, we have to 'repair' the star, which requires you four and the final fragment. As for your twin," she added, seeing as Daisuke had opened his mouth, "is like you, a part of you, so she also has to be there. Oh, and it completes the Star Formation, which will be most successful in this task that… well… I don't know what we do now. Towa-san?"
Frowning, the seer shrugged, "Let's just stand here and wait for something to happen then, hm?"
Daichi rolled her eyes at this, Dark grumbled, and Krad just sighed in tired defeat; she was going to have to kill something soon. Daisuke just gazed at the others in bemusement and then, eventually, Satoshi just gave up and muttered something at random.
Unlike the others, he was in tune with the lines across worlds and dimensions – damn him for being an abnormal vampire and all – and the stupid spirits of the dead were beginning to bug him with various instructions on what to do now, and he was just getting sick and tired of it. So he did what he was told, and then there was a flash of light and…
Nothing honestly happened.
Dark blew up at this.
"ALL THAT FOR NOTHING!"
Everyone else present decided not to say anything.
000
And there we have it; bringing up the suspense, only to shook it down once more! Am I amazing or what! And Daichi came back and Satoshi got fed up with everything… oh, and Krad and Dark are being bugged by the voices in their heads, talking about their feelings for each other. Which they refuse to believe (cough). One chapter left, though! The epilogue!
Reviews… er… apparently they're not allowed? I really shouldn't care, but when I first started here I got the whole warning thing cause one of my 'fics' was in script format. I never got over that. ANYWAY, to put it simply, I love all reviewers and thanks for taking the time to read and review!
That is, very special thanks to Koway Oceshia (Krad is very stubborn to her feelings; why else would she have pushed him down the stairs when they were young?), neko-nya (subtly is overrated most of the time, and your dog better get better) and kyo's little koneko (Satoshi would probably blow someone's head off before joining a circus… unless Daisuke was with him… XD) for reviewing this chapter! You all get cookies!
And… er… just the epilogue left so… it will explain all…
Important! (in my eyes, anyway) Please read: Okay, this is kinda stupid and I suppose there's no point doing this, but I've got a new DNAngel fic called The Night Never Ends and I really want you to go and check it out. Er… kinda gothic-based and in medieval times and… yeah.
Summary to story: It was just a simple task… collect information was all they had to do… but there was more to the village that was abandoned so many years ago… so many secrets that had to be unraveled… and they were trapped there. The spirits of the dead haunt the village and no one wanted to hear them… until now. (parings are DaiSato and DarkKrad, obviously) AU.
So… I'm begging you… please read and review (think of it as a Koudelka/Resident Evil crossover of sorts). It would make me very happy… oh, and if you're a regular reader, if you want me to put up a chapter from one of my other stories, you can tell me and I'll try… to update… dang it all.
End important notice.