A/N: I can't tell for myself, but my writing might get a little more angsty, at least for a while. My dog was put down last week, and I had him for almost 9 years, so losing him has been really hard on me. I'm sorry if my writing gets depressing. Again, I don't own anything.

I was running through the cave, eyes glowing white, and wings at the ready to erupt from my back. No one took my friends and got away with it alive. No one. I thought of Spyro's light-colored hair, and the way he looked after Muki like he was looking after a sister who was just a bit younger than him, but still didn't want to see her hurt. I thought of Rin. Rin, with trusting, expressive eyes. I didn't have eyes as pure blue, or as light as his for a long time.

Grief at seeing demons everywhere I turned for 16 years took its toll on me. Anger at my brother for becoming something I knew he wasn't, and at myself for not being able to save him. Sorrow for all of the humans that were killed by demons in the woods that I couldn't kill before they did damage. Regret that I almost killed my brother, and that I had to discover my powers on him. They all took a toll on me and my eyes. No matter how happy I was, I always had that tinge of gray and the darkness in my eyes, which made them look empty. I wasn't going to let that happen to Rin.

I took the gold crucifix around my neck and sliced the skin on my collarbone. "Raziel, Angel of Mystery, come-" I stopped myself halfway through the invocation, and the skin already healed. I wasn't going to need help from angels. I, Leigh Nicole Smith (A/N: Leigh uses her mother's maiden name, Schmal, even though her parents are still together) would defeat these demons myself. I thought of my late grandfather, Gerald Schmal. He was an active-duty member of the army during World War 2. He fought at the Battle of the Bulge. He didn't need angels to help him when fighting one of the harshest battles during the War. I was only going against a few demons. I could handle this myself. I let go of my grandmother's crucifix in favor of a knife, the black metal catching and reflecting the pure white glow of my eyes.

Suddenly, I saw Muki. I ran to her, but I stopped when she turned around. I gasped. She didn't have a face. "Don't worry, precious tool of Michael," it said, "I'll kill you quickly." I had no other choice. She was lunging at me, and that wasn't Muki. I took a dagger off my belt and slashed her throat, and kept running. Nine chances out of ten, it didn't kill her.

And then, I heard footsteps. I turned around, eyes closed, so they wouldn't glow. Go back to blue. Go back to blue. Finally, I got the sensation behind my eyes that meant they changed color. I opened them. "Ryuji, what do you want?"

He closed the distance between us, and looked at me, but not directly into my eyes. People rarely ever looked into my eyes, not even my family. They were so dark, and some people feared them. In a way, I was proud of that. After all, how many teenage girls could scare a football player with a glare? "How could you hear me? I was a good 30 feet away."

I rolled my eyes, and gave him a bland smile. "I hear everything. I can even hear your thoughts right now." He looked terrified, until I said, "Just kidding. Stuff echoes in this cave. If you train your ears to hear it, you could probably hear stuff even farther away than you were. By the way, you're going to be completely helpless without a gun. Do you have one?" He nodded. "Good."

We walked along in silence until I heard a bat's screech echo through the cave. Suguro, without hesitation, shot three rounds into the direction the sound was coming from. Not surprisingly, they landed in a wall. "Hey, Ensign Suguro, set phasers to stun, will ya?" He looked at me like I was crazier than usual. I mumbled to myself, "Right, you don't know what Star Trek is, do you?" Then, I said more loudly, "Put the safety on. You probably just attracted some demons with that idiot move." He nodded and did as I said. "Get behind me, and don't get out of earshot. Do you have a flashlight?" He nodded again. "Give it to me. I'll be able to see the most with the limited light." Again, he did as I said.

We walked for a while, and when it was evident that there were no demons, Ryuji spoke up. "So, do you have a boyfriend back in America?"

That question caught me completely off-guard. I decided to bug him by calling him by his nickname. "Bon, this is hardly the time or place to discuss my love life, or lack thereof, back in Pennsylvania."

"So you have a boyfriend?" his face almost fell.

"I don't. Guys back home have all the sex appeal of a penguin." I said, remembering a quote from "City of Fallen Angels".

"Well, since you don't, would you like to hang out with Shima, Neko, Rin, Raan, and I sometime?"

"Sure, why not. I mean, I already talk with Rin a lot, so much that he seems like a kid brother to me, and I hang out with Raan, when I'm with Muki and them, even though he could have gotten Muki killed the other day. But if Shima's going to be there, I am not wearing a tight shirt." He laughed. "We should probably meet up at the end of this corridor, where the path splits in two."

We headed there, and a couple of minutes later, Raan ran at us, gasping for breath. He looked at me strangely, before I realized that I got some of Shadow-Muki's blood on my face, and then looked behind us, asking if there was anyone else. I got that specific sense of human and demon mingling that I usually associated with Hirotaka, before he popped out. I grabbed a knife.

"There's me." I pulled another knife out, remembering Shadow-Muki. "Yukio taught you well, I suppose." Raan almost put his weapon back, but I stopped him.

Glaring at him, I said, "Tell us one thing only Hirotaka would know." I twirled my left dagger to show him what would happen if he couldn't.

"Muki has a stuffed bunny hidden in her dorm room." Okay, I knew that, but there's more than one.

"Something we all would know?" I rolled my eyes.

"Fine. Raan has a Card Captain Sakura outfit in his closet." We all sweatdrop.

Raan said something, but I didn't pay attention because a girl walks out from the shadows. I made another knife. My angel sense was going nuts. Give in, Michael urged. What kind of angel doesn't show their wings? While I was busy telling Michael how incredibly stupid it would be to expose my power, Hirotaka already dealt with the problem. I stopped when Raan said, "Stop pecking my brain!"

No matter what the situation was, the urge was there. Sarcastic remark. Ready. Aim. Fire! "What brain?" I took charge again. "We need a code word so mistakes don't happen."

"Any ideas?"

I smiled blandly. "Tribbles hate Klingons." No one got it. "You don't know what Star Trek is?" they shook their heads. "Oh, you deprived children. I'll have to fix that sometime."

I turned around and walked away. Did I ever say that when my angel sense goes crazy for a significant amount of time, I get a splitting headache? You have no idea how much I wanted to let the wings loose and vaporize any demon within seven feet of me. Suddenly, I saw a mirror. Inside was Shiemi. She kept yelling something, but I couldn't hear her. I moved on. I saw Muki, the real one inside another one. She looked like she did the day she was slammed into a tree, with lightning crackling in her hair. "Uh, guys, Muki's over here, and she's pissed." It was true. She was pounding on the wall of the mirror. Michael? I said. Any advice? Yes. Some of your blood on the blade of a new dagger chould break the prison. I nodded about to do just that, until I turned around. "Oh, crap."

That's it for this chapter. Please review! Flames accepted!