After gym class Jaden, Syrus, and Chumley headed back to the Slifer dorm. They were laughing and goofing off in the halls and Crowler found them. He walked up with his usual upset look on his face and the three of them stopped.

"Why are you three so loud? The classes that are still in session can't concentrate. I should have you all thrown out because of it." Dr. Crowler said putting his hands on his hips.

"We're sorry, sir. We were still psyched about the duel earlier today, that's all." Jaden said trying to appease the easily pissed teacher.

"Well, if that's the case then please keep it down." Crowler said, fully taken for the excuse.

He left the three of them to their devices and they walked off. They were almost to the Slifer dorm when Syrus noticed someone standing just outside the forest. Chumley noticed the figure too but he recognized it as Alexis. The chubby Slifer elbowed Jaden and pointed her out to him. With a small wave he told them to go on ahead to the dorm and that he would catch up later.

Alexis saw him coming and pushed herself off of the tree. She looked down for a moment then back up. Jaden was standing in front of her with his head cocked to the side a bit. Taking a deep breath she opened her mouth.

"Jaden, I was wondering if you had anything strange happened recently." she asked looking him in the eye.

"Now that you mention it, yea. Some strange things happened today, in fact." he nodded taking on a thinking pose.

"Really? What happened?" the young Obelisk implored tilting her head to the right.

"Well, for starters during Zane's duel with Chazz at the very end I could suddenly see all of the cards in Chazz's hand. Then today in gym class I was able to swim from the bottom of the deep end all the way to the shallows without coming up for air." he responded waving his hand easily.

"I think I saw something when you swam past me."

He gave her a confused look and she continued, "I was underwater when you swam past. I think I saw three lines on the side of your neck, but I don't know."

Jaden simply nodded and glanced back at the Slifer dorm. There was clearly something on his mind. Before she could ask Jaden turned back to her with a questioning look on his face.

"Want to test something to see if you're right?" he asked looking at her easily.

"What did you have in mind, Jaden? I hope it doesn't involve you trying to drown yourself." she said in a suspicious tone.

"Not quite. I was just thinking that we could see how long I could stay underwater with you, Syrus and Chumley watching and ready to pull me out as soon as it seemed like I was having issues." Jaden replied easily walking toward the dorm.

Sighing Alexis followed him; there was no way that she was going to leave his safety in the hands of his slightly crazy friend. They arrived at the dorm to find Syrus and Chumley playing Go Fish. It was a strange thing to see them not playing with Duel Monster cards. Shrugging Jaden gave them his idea.

As expected both of them were skeptical, but that was to be expected. Jaden then told them that the three of them were to pull him up as soon as something seemed wrong. After that they agreed just so long as it was between them and only them.

Alexis followed the three boys to the bathroom feeling really weird about what they were going to do. Syrus seemed to share her fears and doubts; there was no way to know if Jaden really would have some strange ability to breathe under water. He glanced at Alexis and saw her face mirrored his doubts.

She smiled uneasily at him when she saw his look. Jaden called back to them telling them, that this was only between the four of them. Alexis and Syrus both nodded with strange looks on their faces. Stepping into the bathroom Jaden and Chumley started to fill the tub with water. After a moment Jaden left off and pulled of his jacket and shoes. Syrus stared at him, seriously hoping that his friend was not going to do anything else.

Finally Chumley stood up saying that the water was high enough that Jaden could fully submerge himself. Jaden nodded and looked at Syrus; his pal had a stopwatch and would be timing how long Jaden could stay under water. With a smile he stepped into the tub and dropped below the surface.

As soon as the top of his head was under Syrus started the clock. They waited and watched the clock tick by. At about seven minutes Alexis started to panic; a normal person would have to come up for air at about seven minutes. After a moment Syrus called out the eight minute mark.

Chumley and Alexis stared at Jaden; he seemed perfectly at ease in the water and didn't seem to be having any problems whatsoever. After about another minute Alexis leaned over the edge of the tub. What she saw made her gasp. The others looked at her then at Jaden.

"What's up Alexis?" Chumley asked stepping over to her.

"Well, Jaden looks like he has gills."

"What? Jay has gills? No way! That's just not possible!" Syrus cried coming over to the others.

Alexis pointed easily to Jaden's neck under the surface. Three lines on either side of his neck seemed to flap almost like wings. Syrus looked closer and saw as the flaps moved they revealed the bright red muscle of his throat. He flinched back and the others stared.

Almost like he felt their eyes on them Jaden opened his eyes. He had a strange look in his eyes, clearly wondering what was going on. Alexis wasn't really sure if he could hear her so she looked at the others for help. They couldn't provide any other help than shrugging their shoulders.

"Jaden, can you hear me?" she questioned

When he nodded she continued, "Jaden it seems like you have gills. We're not too sure how that's possible. You just have to go with it."

He smiled and started to shift his weight to get up. The gills on the side of his neck closed easily and he sat up. Water cascaded off of him as he pulled himself out of the water. Syrus and Chumley both seemed ecstatic about Jaden's new ability and Alexis smiled at their foolishness.

"Well I think this is a good time to go talk to the chancellor." Jaden smiled cocking his head lightly.

The boys nodded and Alexis just shook her head. Standing she grabbed a towel and threw it at him. The white fluffy fabric hit him square in the face.

Catching it easily he dried himself off laughing at her face. She was looking at him like he just did something stupid. Shrugging he pulled on his jacket and boots. Syrus started babbling about how these new powers would affect their lives now and Jaden kept trying to tell him that nothing would change.

He was about to say something else when Chazz stepped out of the shadow of the steps. The black haired Obelisk was looking at Jaden strangely. Then the brunette noticed that Chazz had his duel disk on.

"What do you want Chazz?" he asked looking very skeptical.

"I want to challenge you to a duel. What do you think I want?" Chazz hissed glaring at Jaden.

A small smile split the young Slifer's face as he accepted. Chazz smirked; Jaden never refused a challenge. This was going to work in his favor. He had reconstructed his deck in order to provide more power than ever before. Jaden was in for a real fight.

"Let's duel, Chazz." Jaden called out as they reached a secluded spot near the Slifer dorm.

Everything was in place and Jaden had gone and gotten his duel disk. The two of them were standing across from each other, Jaden was smiling and Chazz was grimacing. With a nod Alexis initiated the duel and Chazz started it off. The way he was playing right off the bat made Jaden and the others realize that Chazz wasn't in the mood for a friendly duel. He was in the mood for an all-out duel to the finish.

The aggressive game play Chazz was using forced Jaden to play defensive for the first few turns until he slipped up and Jaden was able to get a good attack in. Staggering the black haired duelist shot a pissed off glare in his opponents direction. He regained his balance and summoned one of his stronger monsters and had it attack. It easily destroyed Jaden's monster and when it did the shock wave was really power full.

Not only did it do a lot of damage it sent Jaden flying backwards. At first Chazz didn't register the fact that that Jaden had gone flying into a tree and wasn't getting up. When Alexis, Syrus, and Chumley ran toward him the young Princeton realized something was wrong. After a moment Alexis pulled back, a look of shock and horror on her face.

"What's wrong Alexis?" Syrus asked coming up behind the young Obelisk.

"He hit the tree so hard the force made his back split open." she said slowly reaching out to grab his jacket.

Syrus took a step back as she freed Jaden's arms from the red jacket. His friend's back was bloody and it seemed like something was moving beneath the surface. The black undershirt had two long slits in it that seemed have come from hitting the tree the way he did. As Alexis reached out to pull the undershirt off whatever had been moving pushed up.

Both of them screamed and leapt back as two large black-ish wings came out of Jaden's back. Chumley was just as surprised and fell back on his butt at the same time Chazz tripped over a tree branch. All four of them stared at Jaden in shock. For about five minutes no one moved.

Chazz was the first to recover and he got slowly to his feet. He continued to stare at Jaden with wide eyes. There was no way that he should be able to have wings. It just was not possible and if it was that meant that Jayden wasn't human. Alexis got to her feet and stepped slowly over to the young Slifer. He was still unconscious but it looked like he would be waking up soon.

She stood there for another moment staring at him. Then she shot a glare at Chazz over her shoulder. The black haired young man stepped back in surprise. Walking over to him Alexis got ready to chew him out for hurting Jaden. Just as she opened her mouth a soft groan distracted her.

Turning she saw Syrus and Chumely kneeling around Jaden who was slowly getting up. He looked like he had been through hell and he had. Lifting his head the brunette looked at his friends with bleary eyes.

"What happened, Sy?" he asked pulling himself into a seated position.

"Well… I don't know how to explain this…"Syrus began but was cut off by Chazz.

"You have wings now, slacker." He hissed clearly still pissed about something.

"Wait…What?" Jaden asked looking up at him.

"Do I have to spell it out for you? YOU-HAVE-WINGS!" Chazz intonated waving his hands in the air like he had wings.

Jaden's eyes widened and he looked behind him. Sure enough two large black wings were attached to his back. As if on command the right wing pulled slightly and stretched out. When it was fully extended it looked like it was about eight feet long and the feathers looked a bit like spikes of some kind. The whole thing looked like something out of some kind of fairy tale. There was no way it was real.

Then he noticed the small drops of what looked like blood clinging to the smooth black feathers. Shifting around he reached up and touched one of the drops. It broke as soon as he touched it and a red dot colored his finger tip. Jaden pulled back blinking in surprise and his friends stared at him as realization hit.

"You have to go to see Mrs. Fontaine. Right now." Alexis said reaching out to help him up.

"No way! She'll freak out about this!" Jaden cried allowing one of the wings to snap out behind him.

When it did blood flew from the feathers and splattered on the trees behind him again. Syrus spazzed out as a few drops splashed him in the face. Chumely and Chazz moved out of the way of the flailing wing but Chumely stumbled and fell flat on his butt. Had everyone not been so worried about Jaden they would all have laughed.

"Jay, watch what you do with those wings! You could seriously hurt someone with them!" Syrus wailed wiping his face with his sleeve.

"Sorry, bud. It seems that I can control them with a simple thought. Anyway, everyone would freak if they saw that I now have wings." Jaden said shaking his head.

"Well, we have to do something." Chumely said finally getting off his butt.

"Yeah. We go see Sheppard. He should be the first to know." The brunette Slifer said taking his jacket from Alexis.

The others nodded and walked toward the school. Jaden followed them slipping his bloody red jacket around his shoulders in an attempt to hide the wings. He sighed and hoped no one noticed. Sheppard would know what to do. At least Jaden hoped he would.