Stage Five: In Totality

"I will not do that." Their meeting place was dark, but was not affected by the elements. The now three people stood in a triangle, the man that was obviously the leader standing slightly higher than the others. "We allowed Mea to seal herself in the Black Wings and now you want them to kill each other? I cannot condone that." the blindfolded woman objected.

"Will you abandon you orders to watch the Kokuyoku, then?"

There was no answer. No one could answer that question, as the woman was gone. "She will return." the other man, Naem, assured. However, there was no force behind his words, because they both knew he was lying.

Daisuke flopped onto the couch face first. It had been a whole week since Dark came back. About nine days since he ran into that blindfolded woman and six days since Krad attacked. Since then, his grandfather had been going out everyday, looking for artwork that might need to be sealed. Thank goodness he hadn't found any, and his mother failed to think of anything the great Phantom Thief Dark would steal. In fact, he hadn't even turned into Dark since Krad's attack. Everything was pretty calm considering what had happened. Towa was the same as always, and Kosuke was always lost in thought. So Daisuke didn't have to worry about anything.

The problem is that he was worried. He hadn't told anyone really, and he didn't let it get to him, but he was worried about Dark, of all people. It was hard to notice at first, but the angel's voice continually got quieter and more distant. Kind of like when you stand next to a moving car while talking to someone inside. As the vehicle moves away, it gets harder to hear the person, see(or in this case, sense) them, and even hold a conversation. Truthfully, it more than worried him. It kind of... scared him. He commented on it to Dark, and from what he could hear, Dark was experiencing the same thing on his end.

Anyway, it was about midday and, as such, there was little to do. He didn't have to frantically get ready to steal something tonight, which made the overall day surprizingly boring. Maybe he should go out for a walk. Yeah, that would be good. The fresh air would take his mind off of things, or at least help him think better.

Well, so much for that idea. It was cold and raining. The wind today wasn't helping much, either. Sighing, Daisuke looked up at the grey, dreary sky from under his umbrella. It was a little depressing. Starting to walk again, the boy spaced out, wandering the town aimlessly. The pitter-patter of the rain was the only thing keeping him connected to reality as the red-haired boy thought. Could something be wrong with Dark or him? Is that why what everything that was happening was happening?

As lost in thought he was, it was no surprize that Daisuke bumped into the person in front of him, who merely stood there, looking at the boy. "Ah, s-sorry about that, I wasn't paying attention." he said, bowing his head slightly. Then he noticed it. The black robe, he'd seen it before. Nervously, he looked up, seeing the same blindfolded woman from before. She looked down at him, her face devoid of emotion. Actually, strike that. She might have been frowning a little. Last time was bad enough, what on Earth would she want now? "It's you. We need to stop meeting like this."

"That's my line." The woman said with a bemused voice, but her face didn't change. "If... you wouldn't mind, could you please follow me? I have something I need to tell you." her tone was much lower now. Slowly, she began to walk, moving away from the busy, populated main streets. Daisuke followed, uneasy as he was. However, he didn't have a reason to distrust her yet. It must of had something to do with what she said. What would she, someone he's only meet twice now, need to tell him? It put him on edge.

They walked for what seemed like forever in the cold, wind-tossed rain. They stopped when they reached an old, basement style bar. It looked as if it had been abandoned for a while. The sign was covered in dirt and dried mud. He couldn't even make out a name. Silently, the blindfold woman moved down the stairs and entered the unlocked door. Strange. Daisuke followed closely behind, looking around as he realized that there was absolutely no light. The door creaked shut on rusting hinges, closing almost effortlessly despite it's protests. Darkness completely engulfed the entire room.

He couldn't tell when she had removed the blindfold, nor could he tell where anything in the room was, but he knew that she was looking at him. Her gaze was simply too... piercing, for anyone not to notice. "I brought you here to tell you about why Kaitou Dark Mousy returned." How did she know about him and Dark? It seemed impossible, considering the fact that the information was only between the Niwa's and the Hikari's, with the only exceptions being Riku and Risa. "In short, we released him."

What made him say it, he didn't know, but Daisuke found himself speaking. " 'We'? Whose 'we'?"

"My... former fellows and I. Now, I fear they wish Dark and Krad dead. I don't think you or the other little Wing Master would like that." Well, wasn't this sudden. Silence followed, and extended into what seemed like forever. After a little bit, her gaze relented slightly, easing up gently. "Is there something wrong with you or Dark? I can barely see him near you." Daisuke shifted nervously. This woman was creeping him out, what with her apparent love of dark places and stuff.

Should he tell her? It seemed that she knew an awful lot about him and Dark. Maybe she could help. Man, he had never been good at these kinds of decisions. He may as well just blab it out. "Well, it he been getting hard to hear him lately." when he said that, he could tell that the woman looked away. What was up with her anyway? The darkness that filled the room suddenly became deeper and heavier, like a black blanket that covered everything in it's reach. When it was at it's maximum, strangely, the red-haired boy could see his alter-ego. But something was definitely wrong.

The man looked worn out, like he had been working all day. He was face-down on the floor, and seemed almost to fade in and out of existence. "I feared as much. There isn't much time, then." she said from within the darkness. Daisuke couldn't see her, even when he knew she was right next to Dark. The air above the angel waved and those waves took the form of a hand.

"Wait, what's going on!"

"When you were born, you had both Dark's soul and magic, 'dna' if you want to call it that. That created a bond that your body accepted, since it was all it knew." While she spoke, magic flowed freely between her hand and the winged man on the ground. "But when he was sealed, that bond was stretched thin. Now, your body is rejecting his soul, which has been manifesting itself in many different ways. I assume the other Wing Master is experiencing something similar. But it's degrading faster than I would have thought it would."

Daisuke blinked. How did she know all this? "Then what are you going to do?"

The magic flow slowed a bit before picking up the speed. "What should have been done in the first place. Damn, focus on keeping Dark bound to you until I finish! If the bond breaks before then, we'll lose him forever."

Daisuke had been doing what he had been told to do when he felt this sudden disconnection. Like when Dark had sealed himself. Except, this seemed different. His concentration broken, he opened his eyes to find that the darkness had lifted in the abandoned bar. The door somehow opened while the shadows covered everything and the bar looked ransacked. There were broken tables and chairs, and half the counter was demolished. It looked like a lot more than a simple bar fight happened here. But it was long enough ago that whatever happened, it was impossible to tell now. "You go on ahead. I need to rest. I'll be sure that Dark gets to your home."

Startled by the sudden sound of the womans voice, he looked around. Neither hide nor hair could be seen of her, which was odd, considering the amount of light in the room. Why was he always left out of the loop? With a growing sense of uneasiness, the red-head turned and left, heading home. This had been a long, odd day.

x x x x x

"Master, it's Juki the Soul Seer. She--"

"Yes, I know. I had planned for this. She always had been the weak link in our group, too compassionate for the line of work we had her in." The voice was serious and wise, but the silhouette that the bearer cut revealed them to be young, almost too young to hold the obvious reasoning, logistics, sheer intelligence that was carried in the voice. But behind all that was something else. Something that demanded authority. "I did not, however, expect her to do what she did. As such, a small bit of reworking must be done. Go see the other Wing Master and do the same. We can't let Dark have an unfair advantage, now can we...?"

The other man bowed his head and left, leaving his 'master' alone to think. "No matter what happens, my plan will come to fruition and my dream will be reality."

As soon as Daisuke got home, he was assaulted by his mother. "Daisuke! Good news! I was watching the television and an older man is opening his personal art gallery to the public. And apparently he has a necklace that was used in ancient rituals!" Mentally, Daisuke begged her to say that they were going to see it and nothing more. From what he could tell, Dark was gone, and he really didn't want to go out stealing again, let alone completely by himself. "And Phantom Thief Dark is going to steal it!" Way to crush a dream, Emiko. "Isn't that great?" And grind it into the ground.

The poor Niwa boy was about to point out the flaw in her plan- the missing Dark- when he heard a scream from the backyard. That sounded like Towa. Reacting before everyone else, as he had been trained since he was young to do, the red haired boy was at the door to the yard quickly. By now, the sun had set beyond the horizon, and little light was left to see by, as the moon had yet to show it's face due to cloudy skies. But had could see the artwork just fine, along with what made her scream. It was a wolf. He didn't know it, as neither he nor Dark had gotten a good look at it, but it was the same wolf that had saved them from Krad before. Light covered paws and everything. Only this time, it seemed to have wings.

No, wait. Those wings seemed familiar. There was a slight purple sheen to the black feathers, which sprawled out to the sides heavily almost like dead weight. The canine knelled down, shaking it's body as if to rid itself of a burden. At that moment, both Towa and Daisuke knew were they had seen the wings before. Toppling lamely to the ground was Dark in all his glory. He looked very much asleep, even when in all honesty, he should not exist as he was. As a separate entity. But he did, even to everyone's confusion as they approached the door. The wolf nodded to Daisuke as if to tell him something before letting it's head droop, then dropping to the ground on it's side.

A/N: First, sorry it took so long to up date. I guess I should say that you should expect this, especially with school in session.
Second, I'm sorry for the cliffhanger at the end, but I need the next chapter to explain some plot points that are slightly vague.
Third, and perhaps most important of all, I would like to thank the readers for... reading, and Shinjiru Kokoro for her review. I worked hard, moving a few things around to try and meet her length suggestion. It worked well for this particular chapter(I think), and I'll try to consistently keep them this length or longer. Yeah, I'm going to sleep now. Sayonara until the next stage!