Chapter 3 - Feather Mist

The clock tower's chime resonated through the air: 1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…

Dark grinned. "Almost there."

15 minutes later, the Phantom Thief caught sight of the museum. He swooped down low, narrowly missing an officer's head. Landing on the roof, he laughed. Right on time.

He felt relaxed again, doing the thing he loved. Sure, others might not like his occupation, but it gave him such a thrill… Something to make his life feel significant and full of purpose, even if he only felt that way for a short while…

Daisuke was eager to start, too. Though he always protested about these kinds of things, he couldn't help but feel the same thrill as his other half. 'Ready, Dark?' he asked.

Dark flicked a few long hairs out of his face. A smirk tugged at his lips, and his eyes shown with a content peace. "It's show time."

…..

Riku sighed, breaking the silence. Perhaps 20 minutes had passed since their conversation had taken place. She turned towards her sister, hoping her apology would help the tension between them to melt away. Risa was trying to make one of her dreams come true. And even though Riku thought it was one of her stupidest ideas yet, she wanted Risa to at least be happy by the time they reached the museum.

"Risa, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said what I did."

The girl's downcast face lifted, and her brown eyes shone, as if she was still trying to hold back tears. She rubbed them away, appearing to be irritated at them. She gazed back at Harada the elder. "It's alright, Riku." She paused. "You were right."

Riku shook her head. "No, I was wrong. I had no right to say what I did."

Risa took a step towards her. "You did have the right. You're my sister. And you're supposed to say something when you think I'm doing something wrong. Or something… And I was thinking about what you said." She turned away in embarrassment. Red colored her cheeks, and she grimaced. "It was completely true."

She looked at her sister again, reaching out her hand. "... Forgive and forget?"

Riku smiled, taking it in her own, shaking it. "Yeah."

…..

Loud shouts and the usual bedlam bombarded his ears. Ugh. Those so called "professionals" were proving more and more everyday that they were nothing but a band of fools, always making everything harder than it was. When would they ever learn that the secret to capturing Dark was not simply lunging for him, but using an intelligent strategy?

His head throbbed with annoyance. There was another shout of shocked surprise, and he rubbed his temples. How could those men have graduated from the police academy? By the way they were acting, it was like they had graduated from clown academy.

"Commander Hiwatari! How nice to see you!"

He didn't bother turning around; he recognized the voice. And no one talked like he did. "Dark. Glad to see that you've resurfaced from your deep sea of despair. Your self-pitying tears almost got me worried," the young blue-haired boy replied. His words were thickly smothered in sarcasm. His expression remained… expressionless.

Dark laughed nonetheless. "Thanks, Commander. Any emotional reaction coming from you is a great compliment."

Satoshi frowned at yet another of his annoying comebacks.

The Phantom Thief smiled. No, smirked. Heh. He's annoyed…

'Dark, you shouldn't intentionally aggravate him. It's not very nice.'

Ah, Daisuke, c'mon. What's a little fun without the insults?

Daisuke could only sigh at the comment. He seemed to have forgotten that he had been depressed only half an hour ago. And no matter how old Dark was, he still had that childishness of his.

'Let's just get this over with, okay?'

Yokie dokie!

Dark's nerves tingled with anticipation. With Daisuke, the feeling was doubled over. Like having 10 cups of coffee floating in your blood stream and wanting to bounce off the walls.

'Well? Ready?'

Set… Go!

Dark sensed the faint presence of a magical art piece, most likely the feather, and took off at a sprint down the long, dark hall, past the young Commander. Satoshi immediately took chase, easily slipping back into their little game.

Their footsteps echoed down the corridor, echoed in their ears. Quickly made twists and turns brought a slight lightheadedness to them. Soon, the sounds of sirens and excited squeals from several fan girls faded away, and all they could hear was their haggard breathing. Still they ran further, down the many hallways, then descending down a set of stairs, a sudden chill reaching out at them.

The Phantom Thief skidded to a stop. Before him, a large vault door loomed in the darkness. He panted for air, his breathing quickening with exhilaration. Behind that door was the Feather Token, and it beckoned to him, called to him.

He quickly glanced behind him, scanned his surroundings. Satoshi was nowhere in sight. He had lost him.

He turned back towards the door, noticing a flash of silver in his peripheral vision.

He jumped to the side, narrowly escaping the handcuffs and Satoshi's grasp.

That was a close one.

The Commander stood before the vault door, blocking Dark's way of reaching it. "Don't tell me you're already letting your guard down," he said.

"No, I just wanted to see if you could even get close to catching me. And apparently, you missed by a mile."

Dark could've sworn he saw the fourteen-year-old roll his eyes.

The two stared each other down, daring the other to move. No one did. A thick silence fell upon them, smothering them. And all the while, the Feather called to him, almost driving him mad with yearning.

I have to get to it!

Dark jumped forward.

…..

The Harada twins had reached the museum, just in time to see Dark fly overhead and jump into a window, his black wings disappearing with him.

Risa sighed in admiration. "That took skill, Riku! And he's so very skilled…"

Riku rolled her eyes in disgust. The lovey-dovey look in her eyes made her want to hurl. What kind of force could make a girl turn all googly-eyed like this? It was amazing. But, oh, so very scary. She hoped that never happened to her. It would be the end of the world as they knew it.

Risa grabbed her sister's hand. "Come on, Riku! Let's go find a bench to sit on to wait for Dark to come back out!" And with determined enthusiasm, she ran around the loud crowd, avoiding moving bodies, and branches swaying in the light wind, dragging poor Riku behind her.

…..

"Do you think Dark's okay?"

Kosuke turned at his wife's worried tone. He cocked his head to the side. Why was she so worried? She had never so much as broken a sweat before, even the times when she knew fully well that Dark was probably going to come back home with a few cuts and bruises.

"Don't worry, Emiko. He'll be fine. He's always come back in one piece before, right?"

Emiko shook her red-haired head. "No, I'm not sure about this time. Maybe I shouldn't have sent him. I keep feeling like something bad is going to happen. I felt it before, but I didn't think too much of it. Now it's stronger, and I can't shake the thought that he might not be 'alright' when he comes back."

She fell back into the couch, her face growing pink with worry.

Kosuke sat himself next to her. "He'll be fine, Emiko. He'll be fine."

She could only sigh.

…..

Satoshi stepped in front of him, reaching out to grab him. Dark spun away from his grasp, barely avoiding a collision with the hard, concrete wall.

He felt a cold hand grab his arm. Instinctively, he wriggled out of its grip, knocking the hand's owner away. Satoshi was thrown into the far off wall. His head rolled to the side. He was now unconscious.

'Satoshi!'

A bit of concern pulled at the Phantom Thief, but he brushed it away, deciding to ignore it so he could focus on more important matters. Relax, Daisuke. He's only unconscious. He'll come back around again, maybe with a bump or two… Hopefully he won't be coming around for a while…

With that said, Dark turned towards the vault door. Hmmm… Now how to open it… He examined the large hindrance. It was made of stainless steel, and obviously, you couldn't just open it without having to go through some kind of security. There was a bit of technology on the face of the steel. Its blue screen glowed faintly, and a number pad and letter pad was placed beneath it. Great. They made it even more complicated by adding letters into the code! It doesn't even tell you how many characters are in the password! There could be, what, hundreds of thousands of combinations?

After a few moments, Dark pushed away the thoughts and decided to just attempt to crack the code. A few minutes passed, and still, he couldn't figure it out.

Any ideas, Daisuke?

'Maybe it's related to the Feather?'

Dark frowned. That didn't help much.

The minutes crawled by.

He groaned in frustration. "It's probably been 15-30 minutes since we first entered the museum, and we still haven't gotten through this door to the Feather! It's never taken this long before!" He slammed his fist against the cold steel.

Then came searing pain.

His eyes widened in surprise, gazing at the burn marks on his left arm. He lifted his head and looked up into golden eyes.

"Dark, how nice to see you."

The Thief's stomach curled in revulsion. An eye twitched at the sight of the demented creature before him. "Krad," he hissed.

"Are you ready to get caught today, Dark?" he asked.

Dark snorted. "Don't you ever get tired of saying things like that?"

The tainted angel jumped forward, sending a punch into his stomach. His breath was knocked out of him, and his lungs gasped to replace the lost air. But the golden-haired man didn't wait for Dark to recover. He quickly landed another attack, kicking the Thief against the vault door. The sinister laugh that escaped from his throat sent a chill down Dark's spine, sickening him to his very core.

That's it. I'm using magic.

He gathered the energy from within him, hastily launching the magical attack against Krad. He was thrown through a wall. Swiftly, he unleashed a larger amount of magic onto the surface of the steel door. The door exploded, and Dark made it through the dust and debris safely, having been protected by a magical shield.

Daisuke?

He was met by silence. Shock from the immense pain had made his Tamer lose consciousness. For now, he was on his own.

Dark sighed. Sorry, Daisuke…

He waited for the drifting dust to clear. Then, when it did, he finally had a glimpse of the vault's interior.

It was a plain room. Completely empty.

But then he felt it. The Feather's presence.

He turned his gaze upward, breathing in sharply when he found what he was looking for.

Above him, floating just below the ceiling, was the Feather Token. It was nothing special, really. Only a large dark feather, seemingly drifting on an invisible wind. But looking closely, Dark saw that when he looked closely enough, he could see little flashes of misty silver.

Abruptly, another memory invaded his mind.

"A Feather, so black,
But yet shines with mist.
A magic attack -
But can you resist?
Touched with an evil
That will slowly invade;
The feather's final upheaval -
You cannot evade."

Dark's eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen.

Then, burning pain.

And a blackness creeping around the corners of his vision.

…..

A chill swept through her, and she shivered. What was that? There was no wind at the moment. And it was a warm night, even for fall. Why had she suddenly felt so cold?

Risa glanced at the museum nervously. What was happening in there? Almost an hour had already passed, and still no sign of Dark coming out.

Was this concern she was feeling, or a deep premonition of something yet to come?

A/N: Hope you liked it! I came out with this one sooner cuz you guys are such awesome readers! Your reviews made me happy :) And anyway, my writer's block has seemed to have gone away for now, so this chapter was longer than the others. Yay! Till next time! Please review!