Disclaimers: That guy behind me is poking me with a gun, so shut up.

Warnings: Odd writing, things that don't make sense… oh, the usual.

Other: I… don't know what to think.

000

"When they meet again, something more terrifying and evil will awaken. Something long since sealed away will break free: leaving death and destruction in its wake. Will they be able to handle it again? Or is this the end of the road?"

Phase One: One Step Forwards

"I have long since come to believe that this was the most ridiculous idea you've ever come up with, Dai-chan, and I'll say it again," grumbled Daichi as she watched her brother run across from one room to the other as he gathered random items; "You're a moron to be going back. I mean, for one thing, there's a VAMPIRE there still! And the last thing I need to know is that you died due to blood loss!"

"He won't hurt me and you know it," the redhead rolled his eyes, With sitting on his head, and continued his packing, "And you're not coming anyway, so what difference does it make in the end?"

"Well, for one, I won't have a brother anymore," she snapped. "And then what am I supposed to do about it?"

"Don't you mean that you'll have no one to copy the answers from anymore?" he corrected her, "And that would mean that you would most definitely fail or something similar and you don't want that to happen because Aunt will hurt you or otherwise."

His twin snorted at this and slumped on the couch, grabbing a pillow and poking it moodily; "I can't believe that we have to go through this and argue about it all over again."

Straightening up, Daisuke raised both brows and frowned just slightly and then returned to his packing; although there wasn't all that much that he had to bring anyway. Three years hadn't changed his appearance all that much; although looking slightly older meant that people would think twice before attempting to bully/kidnap or pickpocket from him. "Look, you already know that I want to do this. They're my friends and although I only did know them for a week, true, we just… connected. It just seemed to go so well… although there was always a lot of arguing." He smiled just slightly at the memories.

"… Daisuke, do you know how dangerous this may be?"

"What do you mean by that? Nothing's dangerous about it at all. We get to see each other, catch up with what's been going on, and that's about it, right? I told you that."

Frowning at this, Daichi couldn't seem to work out if she should punch her brother in the face or do something otherwise. So she did the only thing that seemed right to do in their current situation; she sulked. Daisuke chose to ignore this and was soon finally complete with his packing. Leaving the room – and his sulking sister – he walked up the stairs and into his room. Daichi had been forced to share a room with Hikaru – despite all protests – and the redhead ended up with a room that was too big for him necessarily, but it didn't really matter. With had a tendency to ruin things when he was bored out of his mind.

"Kyu!"

"I know, I know. Aunt and Uncle aren't going to be all that happy about me leaving for a few days; especially during the middle of term and all," he sighed to his rabbit-spirit-monster-whatever, "But what can be done about it? I really do want to see them again and all."

"Kyu!"

Rummaging through a number of items, the redhead retrieved a couple more items he thought would be useful, tucked one of his ceremonial knives into his belt safely, and was back down before he knew it. Picking up his knapsack and slinging it over one shoulder, Daisuke glanced back at his sister. "Daichi… seriously…"

"I know, I know," obviously still stuck in a sulk, his twin got up and patted him lightly on the shoulder, "You better not take too long, or I'm going to have to kill you."

"Okay," hugging her lightly, Daisuke waved once more and left the house. As the door swung shut, Daichi could only shake her head with suppressed emotions; she was so worried and she didn't know why. Okay, her brother was the sort who hated to fight as such, but there seemed to be something more to it. She obviously have something against the vampire, but that wasn't exactly her case either – although she did hate his guts for some reason. But… urgh, she couldn't work out what or why.

"Just be careful…" she whispered.

000

First off, Krad was bored.

Second, she had been walking for three hours straight and hadn't reached her destination.

Third, it was a damn hot day and she hated this sort of weather because she was sure that one day she would end up sunburnt and with cancer, which was not a good thing at all.

Fourth, she hadn't met a single freaking person or monster at all.

And fifth, she kinda didn't want to have to come face-to-face with Dark and claim some undying love that might not truly exist in the end.

…

……

Oh yes.

She wasn't stupid as people might thought of her as. Blonde or not, she had had to face the world from many different perspectives, and this one was quite obvious that only the blind might have thought otherwise. She knew that her old childhood friend was quite handsome, attractive; an asshole, but all the same, his physical appearance was quite appealing to females. And maybe others, but she would rather avoid that thought for now.

And the fact that she had booted him off to the outside world, it could only mean that there would be village girls chasing after him; unless he'd gone off and lived in a ditch. Or something.

To hell with it.

This was the only way to see if he really did have any feelings for her and vise versa. Sure, she'd met a few cool people, but all they did was stare at the most and couldn't even hold a proper conversation, so they'd been crossed off the list. Daisuke and Satoshi were definitely not anywhere near that area, so that left Dark, on which her brain had been annoyingly consistent for some reason…

And it was still annoying her. But she wasn't all that worried.

The sun beat down on the single lone figure on the dusty footpath. Barely a breeze rustled the leaves and grass, and Krad's hair whipped around her, yet she ignored it all. The rays of light reflected off the golden strands as if they had a life of their own, and yet she was not interested at all.

Locked in her own thoughts and wondering what would become of them in the end, the blonde walked on.

Always walking.

There was nothing more to say on that topic.

Yes, she was looking forward to the reunion; seeing as she had been the one with the suggestion, and of which they had all agreed in the end.

And now it was time to see them once more and see if they'd changed even the slightest. Somehow, Krad doubted it highly, but if Dark managed to be less of a jerk or at least capable of defending himself, then she wasn't complaining all that much in the end.

So what was she to do about it?

She was no different from those years back; still highly independent and ready to bite someone's head off with a sarcastic remark, but that was about it in the end.

Nope, she hadn't changed at all.

Attempting to tuck some stray bangs out of the way hadn't worked and it was beginning to get on the blonde's nerves, no matter what she thought at all. Okay, it was all a bit odd in the end and she was bugged now and walking around with absolutely no company at all was bugging her a lot as well.

Damn all this in the end.

And yet, there was something else that she wouldn't put her foot on; something that was supposed to make a lot of sense and yet did not. Or something close to that situation. It was there, but not there, and that was also lingering around her consciousness and that was just so… annoying.

What was it? What could it be?

Should she be worried? Did she care?

Well, she would have to in the end, wouldn't she?

…

She really was at a loss now.

Goddammit, nothing better happen or she was going to kill something for no reason at all. She just wanted to meet the others, see where it went from there, and then they would go home.

Oh, yeah, home.

It had been over three years since she'd last been there. Who would have thought.

Ever since the Gate had blown up on them, it had been obviously clear that no one would follow them to the Surface World, but it had been claimed that it had been in the process of fixing it up, so how long would it be before the search parties came out?

That was, if they still believed that she and Dark were still alive after all this time.

But they were also only children, so that meant they were the only heirs. Which, in turn, meant that they HAD to live.

Oh joy. She was really looking forward to that reunion. It was bound to be… interesting.

Very interesting, as long as she didn't bite Dark's head off too much. As in, slicing it off. Ooh… decapitation sounded like fun now; but no, she wasn't supposed to be all that insane. Argue with him, yes, but not kill him.

Killing him would just be too easy.

Poking the lump slung over her shoulder, which was her broadsword, the blonde continued on the path of nothingness. Or just the little fact that she couldn't see anything aside from fields, trees, grass, and… yeah. Stuff like that.

Really, the scenery was so bland and she was NOT about to start talking to herself.

So…

Yeah, Krad was still bored.

000

Poking Locke in the eye, Dark wondered how it was possible for his friend and comrade to suddenly get knocked out by little kids who had been throwing rocks around. Ah well, he was already recovering, so everyone was happy.

Okay, that was just an exaggeration; the brunette looked bloody pissed off now.

Holding his head – where the rocks had hit him – Locke shook a fist at the little five to seven year olds, who shrieked and scattered off in an instant. Then he rubbed his eye for a moment; "I don't remember a rock hitting my eye…"

"It was after you fell," the purple-haired adolescent lied coolly. He offered the brunette a hand up and once that was done, they looked around the village. Like every other place, it was shabby-yet-homely, with a couple of people and children wandering about. Kind of odd, but then again, what were they expecting to see.

And they had a job to do, but… er…

Yeah.

"So who are we stealing from this time?"

"Some evil old lady that wouldn't give to the poor or something similar to that."

"Would that make you Robin Hood?"

"Would that make you an asshole?" Locke shot back.

Shaking his head at their common arguments, the two moved around the village, looking at the stalls without all that much interest and the like since they weren't around to shop. Not that there was anything of interest hanging about anyway.

So Dark had a job to do.

And then he had to get out of there and reach the other village/town in which they promised to meet once more.

Then it went from there.

Oh joy.

He was really looking forward to it.

Sorta.

He had a feeling that Krad would be kicking his ass again, though.

Would that be a good thing or a bad thing?

Or something in between?

Okay, now he was confused.

That was probably the reason as to why he rarely listened to his brain in the first place.

Well, on with the show.

Dark was jerked out of his thoughts when Locke tapped him on the shoulder; "Well, here we are. Let's just get this done so I can go home and terrorise the little kids… or my friends. They're both pretty good options."

He sniggered at the brunette's choices, "And I always believe that I was the only one who was insane."

"Dream on, Dark. You're not all that great. Remember the last time you smashed the wall when we were trying to get out of that place."

"Well, you were the one unconscious, if I recall!"

"Shut up, you!"

"Just try and make me, why don't you, huh!"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

"Hey, aren't you the older one of the two of us?"

"We're freaking here already! So pipe down!"

Oh yes, Dark knew that this last mission was going to be utterly hilarious, if not only for the fact that Locke was getting himself all hyped up and annoyed and very impatient; he was looking forward to terrorizing people, huh?

000

Geez… everything around him looked the same.

Like… all the same.

How long was it going to take him to get back?

Satoshi sighed and hung his head.

He didn't want to have to turn into a bat again…

000

So I get another chapter done… kind of in a hurry… but yeah. Couldn't think of anything else so that is what you're stuck with. Hopefully it wasn't too bad. And they're getting there! Slowly but surely! So yeah.

Replies:

chrnoskitty:D Such a nice thing to say. I suppose I just had to put it up because if I don't, well… either I'll forget or other people will forget about it. I'm a very random person and I look forward to your reviews!

Hakudoshi-chan:)

Chi: Okay. ;) I'll update as much as possible… that being once a week… but yeah.

0.o K-chan: I'm working on it… I'm stuck in the thinking stage though…

neko-nya: I just had to shove him in, didn't I? I doubt he'll be around much… but it's all good. And they all have feelings for one another but can't admit it! Yet XD The update mobile broke down. o.O It'll be a while…

kyo's little koneko: Thanks.

Koway Oceshia: We'll just have to see, won't we? (evil grin) The world is doomed! Doomed we say! But now I have to go back to planning… XD Thanks!