Disclaimer: Don't own Mountain Dew. Don't own Baten Kaitos. My life has no meaning… (cries)

Chapter 2: A Break, a Friend, and a Monster

"School is hell on earth. Whoever invented homework is one sadistic bastard," Astarael groaned, tossing her bagged lunch onto the table and collapsing into the green plastic chair, twisting the top off her third bottle of mountain dew. Aaah, the sound of pressurized air being released in the early afternoon…

"Someday, that crap is going to kill you, Astarael," commented her best friend, Selih.

"What makes you say that? I run off of sugar and caffeine!" scoffed Astarael.

"Exactly. Can you say unhealthy? Plus, that crap is carbonated. Ugh!" Selih exclaimed with a theatrical shudder. Astarael only shrugged and took a huge swig of the cherry liquid, which prompted Selih to roll her eyes.

Selih and Astarael had been best friends since seventh grade, but most people wouldn't get that just from looking at them. If you judged by appearance, they were total opposites. Astarael was thin, almost frail-looking, and exotic with her blue, brown tipped hair and golden eyes. Selih was barely an inch taller, but stocky, with normal brown hair and dark brown eyes. Even though they were both fairly intelligent, Astarael lacked Selih's drive to succeed, and usually ended up with grades a full mark lower, when she bothered to hand anything in at all. This didn't bother Astarael in the slightest.

She didn't care about school. Often, she wondered why she hadn't blown the whole building to bits yet…

"I'm failing Biology."

Selih almost choked on her chocolate milk. "Excuse me!" she spluttered.

"You heard me the first time. Otherwise, you wouldn't look like you were going to have a heart attack. Breathe, Selih, breathe," Astarael replied with a hint of a grin.

"You. Failing. Subject. Bad," Selih choked out.

"Yeah, it's clashing with the whole 'save the world from the ignorant fools' campaign. STWFIF."

"You need more vowels in there if you want a decent acronym," Selih responded automatically, giving herself time to think. "Astarael, this is serious. I know you're not very keen on school, but you've never actually been in danger of failing! Have you even been DOING your homework this marking period? And… you're STILL not sleeping, are you?"

"Oh, I sleep…"

"An hour a night is not 'sleep'."

"Am I dead yet? No."

"Well no duh… but you need to sleep. You're going to lose your edge if you keep on trying to survive on caffeine and candy alone. Promise me that you're going to get at LEAST six hours of sleep tonight!"

"Or else…?"

"I'll tell your mother about…"

"GAH! ENOUGH! Fine, I promise." Which would be more embarrassing for her mother to find out about? The grades? The boy? Or possibly the fact that she could now sprout wings when she felt so inclined? "Hey, with that out of the way, will you help me think of a decent name for my mission?"

"How about Operation Crimson Rain?" Selih suggested, with a pointed glance at Astarael's purse.

"You're just jealous because YOU don't have a whip that tears things into bloody pieces," Astarael teased, sticking out her tongue. Selih rolled her eyes and they both laughed. The people at the nearest table stared at them like they were crazy. Perhaps they were…

Class. Class. Study Hall, where she actually did her math homework for a change. Selih would be proud of her…

Class. Bell.

Bus ride home.

"Hey, it's the freak!" exclaimed one of the stupid boys who sat near her claimed seat, the very last one in the back, on the right. She glared at him, and he winced.

Gutless Freshman. Not worth a retort, freshmen were too stupid to be worth her time, anyway. (A/n: No offense to freshmen! This is just the way Astarael thinks, 'cause she's a senior. Plus, she's in a bad mood, which makes her 100x more likely to insult people in her thoughts.)

She glided to her seat and sat down, tossing her backpack into the seat next to her. No one had ever disputed her claim to these seats. Last year she had sat with her other two closest friends, Kala and Alys, but they had graduated the previous year, and none of the scum that rode the bus now were worthy of taking their places. Oh, they'd like to, certainly, but none of them could match her glare. Her golden eyes and blue, brown-tipped hair unnerved them all. I wonder what the likkle children would think of my Wings of the Heart…

In addition to her exotic appearance, she was one of the few seniors who didn't drive to and from school. Which made her a goddess in her own right, as far as the lower classmen were concerned.

Stupid high school. After June, I'll never have to waist time in a classroom again. Blessed be God!

She stiffened. She sensed trouble.

"Is anyone sitting next to you, girlie?" asked a big, stupid-looking guy she didn't recognize.

"Yes. My imaginary friend. Now piss off, stoner asswipe," she snarled, not bothering to check her language, the way she would have for another (presumably) new kid. He really did reek of what she was fairly sure was weed.

"Hey, girlie, that wasn't really a question…" a gut blow and her not-so subtle shove convinced him otherwise. The bus filled with mocking laughter as the hulking boy staggered off to an unoccupied seat in the middle of the bus, glaring death at her.

"This isn't over, bitch!" he gasped.

"Really? Then bring friends. You'll need the help. And don't insult me by coming to fight me unless you're clean and sober, or I swear to God that I'll send you to the emergency. Ambush me, and I have no responsibility to any misfortune that might befall you." Astarael smirked at him. Stoner's eyes went wide. Was he expecting me to burst into tears when he called me a bitch? Hah!

Well, that was an interesting diversion, she thought, pulling out the latest copy of Shonen Jump (smuggled into school for her personal entertainment)

Astarael was tense at the thought of a confrontation with her mother (there always was one whenever she entered the house) and a little worried about her grades (only because when her parents found out about them, she would have to work around even more restrictions to keep everyone safe) as she was walking home through the brisk autumn weather. Which was probably why she was caught off-guard when she was attacked.

"Kryee!" shrieked the huge, mutated bird that might have once been a crow as it dived down out of the trees at her. She lurched forward in shock, and the talons shredded her backpack straps and the back of her blouse instead of her face and shoulders. The overweight purple backpack dropped to the ground with an angry thudding noise, and several cracks. With only a brief pause to wonder what she'd broken this time (Hopefully not her graphing calculator, those were expensive) she screamed loudly for the benefit of the few people walking home with her and ducked into the brush. She needed to get further into the woods before she drew her weapon or called out her Wings to perform some magic. Luckily, the crow thing decided to follow her instead of attacking her helpless classmates, who were currently dashing for their houses, ignoring her. Well, even though their cowardice bothered her immensely, it really worked in her favor. Without the mask, and the hat to hide her rather notorious hair, she couldn't really do anything about a monster with any witnesses nearby.

"Kak!" she gasped, barely ducking under the talons again. She'd let herself get distracted. Stupid…

She and the onetime crow squared off, circling one another through the trees. Both were at a disadvantage due to the terrain. The crow fought better in the open sky, especially now that it was three times its natural size, and Astarael couldn't use her whip properly because of the trees…

Eh? Astarael thought. The 'crow' had opened its beak wide and was now gathering some sort of black light… aw, crap!

She hurled herself out of the way just in the nick of time. A bolt of black magic hurtled out of the monster's mouth and slammed into her previous position, blowing large chunks out of the tree and decimating the briar bushes, like the one Astarael had landed in. Scratched, angry, and disheveled, the former Guardian Spirit rose from the thorn bush, her pretty face twisted in rage. Suddenly, without warning, three pairs of wings erupted from her slender form, two pairs from her back and one from her ears. Each wing was a different color. The two that had burst from her head were green and sky blue, the pair extending from her shoulder blades were red and dark blue, and the pair that graced her lower back were white and black. Her wingspan was easily ten feet long, possibly twelve. The crow was very bad at judging distance.

"I am the Light, dispeller of Darkness!" Astarael cried. The crow wanted to move as the young girl gathered blinding white energy in her hands and her wings shone brighter than the noonday sun, but it couldn't seem to control its wings anymore. It simply maintained its position, transfixed by the terrible power of the Guardian. "Guardian Spell: Shining Seraphim!"

Astarael grimaced as her sight started to return to her. She had always hated casting Shining Seraphim, because the glow temporarily blinded everyone who saw it, even her. For some reason, the spell hadn't shone nearly as brightly when Kalas or Xelha had used it. Perhaps it was because she was more powerful with her physical body?

I shouldn't be worrying about something as trivial as that, Astarael thought angrily as she started trudging back to her ruined backpack. She was going to have to carry it all the way to her house by the stupid handle on the side… Arrg, stop it! I need to be worrying about why the monsters can suddenly use magical attacks! By the Whale, it was hard enough to deal with them before…

Of course, part of her mind wasn't thinking along those lines. Part of her mind was positively giddy at the thought of a new challenge…

Stop it! There's more to life than fighting!

Oh really? Another part of her mind asked. Like what, school? Homework? Parents? Face it; you'd be bored out of your mind without the monsters to fight. This whole world is boring. The monsters are just fine, they spice things up a little. Existence would be pale and bland without them.

"Shut up, you," she muttered aloud. When she realized what she'd done, she smacked herself on the forehead. She was talking to herself now. Great. Would it be the voices next?

With an unpleasant jolt, she realized her wings were still out. She drew them in with a muffled "Shit!" and glanced around wildly. After a minute or two, she managed to convince herself that there really wasn't anyone out there. Selih's right. I need more sleep…

The black-winged figure smiled darkly. Astarael had destroyed the first magic-using monster she had managed to create since coming to this godforsaken rock, but she had been expecting nothing less from the entity that had been responsible for her destruction. A smile crept across the face of the fallen god. Everything was going exactly according to her plan…

Preview for next chapter

"What!" Kalas exclaimed, his grip on Xelha tightening.

"You heard the Great Mizuti!" Mizuti said happily. It was still a little eerie to see her without her mask. "The Great Mizuti be finding a rift between dimensions! We can go visit the Spirit!"

Author's Note: I know that in the game the spell is really "Shining Seraph", but I always believed that the creators really meant to put in "Shining Seraphim", and it was either butchered in translation, or they ran out of room. Besides, since the opposing spell is "Demons of Darkness", "Shining Seraphim" makes since, since Seraphim are angels.

Annd... YAAY! SIX REVIEWS! I LOVE YOU ALL! Please continue to read my story, and review! I will update if I get two or more (looks hopeful) reviews for this chapter. So review if you want to see the story continued...