Right then, it's been a long time ever since I updated this story, so the style of writing in this chapter and the other chapters will be very different.

I hope you all will enjoy this chapter and tell me what you think, and how I can improve on it.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC and the idea. Codename: Kids Next Door belongs to Mr. Warbuton.

ANGEL: Chapter 9

Saved From The Flames

It was morning, the next morning after my 'childish' outburst and my second meeting with Angel Nigel (that's what we all call him now) and Micah. And as usual, I was too lazy to get up even as the Sun shone its warm beams into my dark room. By about nine o'clock it had risen high enough to shine straight into my room and onto my bed where I laid.

"Stupid Mr. Sun….." I murmured, half asleep, "Go and shine on someone else….."

Then, my new hand-phone, which my parents bought for me on my 13th birthday, rang out with a loud, screaming rock song. "Aaaargh!!" I yelled, waking up completely and leaping out of bed, "Stupid communication device with a stupid rock song!! Shut up and let me get some sleep!!"

As you can see, I had this awful habit of yelling the word 'stupid' when I was frustrated, and my mom would seriously kill me for using that word in the house.

I snatched the hand-phone off the bedside table, pressed the answering button and said in frustration, "Who is it and how can I help you?"

A cheerful female voice came through the phone, "Oh hi, Darrel! It's Rachel here!"

"Rachel!" I groaned, "Rachel, I was sleeping! And how in the world could you call my hand-phone from the Moon?!"

"Oh, you were sleeping? Sorry, I don't know the time at your place up here on the Moon. And anyway the KND scientist have invented a device that can connect to any phone on Earth from the Moon. By the way I just called you to tell you that Nigel was up here on the Moonbase with me last night….."

"He was WHERE?!" I shrieked so loudly that it was surprising my window didn't shatter.

"Up here, on the Moonbase with me." Repeated Rachel, 'But he's not here now, he's gone home to spend some quality time with his parents, to make up for ignoring them for so long, after the accident….."

"What were you two doing on the Moonbase last night? Making out or something?"

"Erm….no…..erm….we.....we….." begin Rachel hurriedly, I grinned, "We erm…..I mean Nigel was telling me about Angels and Heaven and stuff and we did not do anything of that sort, so there!" she blurted out.

"Oh really?" I asked slyly.

"Yes….I mean no, we did not do anything like that….." I bet all my MP3 songs in my hand-phone that Rachel was blushing. "Anyway Darrel, I called you to tell you about something else. Remember that Nigel told us that Father had attacked him two nights ago at his house? And that Father told him that Grandfather was back?" for some reason she was speaking hurriedly with her words tumbling over each other.

"Uh-huh." Said I.

"Well, I was thinking, why don't we go spy on Father to see what he's up to, and to see if Grandfather has really returned, and what are his plans this time?"

"Erm……" I suddenly felt a pang of shock, "You mean 'we'? As in me and you……alone?"

"Yep! You don't expect to bring a whole gang along to spy on them, do you?" Rachel sounded as cheerful as ever.

"Rachel, we really can't go alone! I'm not even an experienced spy (I can barely even spy on my parents!). Anyway, it's really too dangerous to spy on Father, not to mention Grandfather! Nigel warned me yesterday that Father was much more powerful than ever and we should stay out of his way as much as we can!"

"Yeah, he told me the same thing last night. But don't be silly, I was a spy before I became Supreme Commander and trust me, it's not really that difficult! I've managed to spy on villains lots of times without getting caught and I'm sure spying on Father wouldn't be too difficult. Anyway, he'll probably be too busy with his plans to bother about watching out for intruders, so we'll probably have some chance!"

'Probably', she said 'probably', which meant there still was a possibility that was could get caught and who knows what would happen then……..I felt ill…..

"Rachel, please…." I begged.

"Oh, come on Darrel! Just this once? Please?" she persuaded. "We'll have our fun, and this can be a mission for you. You always wanted to go on a mission, didn't you?"

I sighed and finally gave in to her, how could I resist a mission after going so long without it? "Well, fine, I'll head to the Mansion and meet you there. Bye!" With that I hung up and got ready for this spying mission, which gave me a bad feeling that something awful was going to happen, and we were both going to be up to our necks in trouble in no time.

About half an hour later me and Rachel were climbing down a rope hanging from a hole which used to be an air vent until we lazered a hole into it to get through. We were in one of the many huge bathrooms of the Delightful Children From Down The Lane and Father's mansion. I didn't feel pleased or glad to be here because I kept feeling that something bad was going to happen, yet Rachel seemed excited with the thought that she could go spying again, just like the days before Chad betrayed the KND and she was an expert and a highly-respected spy.

We sneaked out of the bathroom and crept down the long, wide corridor. There seemed to be no difference in the mansion as when I first came into it to spy on the Delightfuls. That was years ago, when I was still in training to get into the KND and was trying to pass a test. To get some extra marks in one of those tests, I made a foolish and stupid decision to spy on the Delightfuls with hopes that I could find out any of their plans which I could reveal to the KND. And, of course, I was caught. Not by the Delightfuls, though, but by Father. I would have been burnt to death if Nigel (who was also just a rookie at that time) hadn't come to my aid. He was badly burnt, but yet he still risked his life to get me out of the mansion. And because of that, my 'KND report card' still showed a huge 'FAIL' on the 'Spy' section…..

That was probably why I got this uncomfortable feeling as we slinked through long corridors and huge hallways. I continuously got a notion that something bad was coming our way, and something did…..

We were just slipping past a door when we heard a strange sound behind it, which sounded like the rasping and scratching of clawed paws over the marble floor. Rachel laid a finger over her lips, silently telling me to be quiet, and she pushed open the door as silently as she could……

We both screamed…..

In the room, looming high above us, was a gigantic creature with purple-black scales covering its entire body. It had had a long, spiked tail and four paws with five sharp claws sticking out of them. Two rugged bat-like wings grew from its scaly purple-black back. It's lizard-like head had a mouth of razor sharp fangs and two angry eyes that looked almost as if they were on fire. When those two flaming eyes saw us, they widened in fury and the creature reared back and blew fire out of its mouth…..

I didn't see what did the creature do next, we were already running for our lives…..

As we ran as fast as we could across the soft, carpeted floor, I was yelling angrily at Rachel, " 'Not dangerous', you said, 'NOT dangerous'! We just had to run into Father when he was in his dragon form and you call this 'NOT dangerous'?!"

"Well, how was I to know that he would be in an angry mode?!"

"We shouldn't have come here in the first place! Now look….."

"Just shut up and run!" Rachel was also starting to get worked up.

And we ran, how we ran! But we came to a screeching halt when flames suddenly burst out of the ground right in front of us. Out of the flames stepped out a tall silhouette, with eyes that glowed a wicked yellow…….I almost died…..

I heard the screeching roar of the dragon behind us. But wait, how could it be that the dragon Father was behind us, and the silhouette Father was standing right before us…..

"I see you have met my new pet, or should I say, my new servant….." said the low voice of Father, as we stared at him wide-eyed with horror and pale-faced in terror. There was a flap of wings and a blast of cold wind from behind us, the dragon had alighted just behind us, and was glaring angrily at us out of its fiery eyes. "I've had him every since I joined the Darkness, he was given to me by Grandfather to be my servant." Continued Father. "He is very faithful, and loves to tear up intruders when I command him to….."

I broke out in cold sweat……oh Nigel, please, come help us!

Then, we panicked. We took it to our heels and tried to escape, even though we were blocked off at both sides by the Dark Dragon and Father. Suddenly, I felt my feet freezing, I couldn't control them, they seemed to have taken root in the ground. I turned and saw Rachel, whose legs were also frozen in motion, and her brown eyes were full of terror as she stared at me fearfully. I turned to look behind me, where Father was standing, and saw him holding out one of his shadowy hands, using some kind of force to freeze us……

"Torture them as much as you like," we heard Father command to his servant dragon, "But spare their lives, they would be useful to me….." The dragon closed in on us. I looked to the Heavens and prayed to God that He would be merciful to us…..

My prayer was answered almost instantly, just as the dragon lifted up one of its forepaws to slam it down right on top of us, a red bolt of electricity (or at least that was what it looked like) appeared out of nowhere and struck the dragon at the side of its head. It roared in agony and stumbled, crashing into the wall on its left. Then, a figure flew out and alighted between us and the dragon in a coaching position. The figure turned, lowering his ruby-colored wings to show us his face, and smiled encouragingly at us, as his sapphire eyes glittered like ice behind his sunglasses……

We both cried out in delight. But Father bellowed in anger and hatred, 'What?! Nigel! How DARE you!!"

I felt whatever force that was gripping hold of my legs vanish, and I could finally move my legs freely. The dragon tried to get up again, but Nigel simply lifted up his hands and fired a bolt of crimson lightning at it, and it collapsed onto the ground once more.

Nigel flapped his wings and flew past us, I heard him whisper to us, "Rachel, Darrel, get out of here, I will deal with Father. Now go!" before he flew straight at Father and shot fire out of his hands at the villain. Father was prepared for the attack, and soon flaming bolts of fire were flying through the air. Rachel grabbed hold of my hand and the next moment we were running as fast as we could down the corridor.

"You're a fool to come attack me when you know very well that I am far more powerful than you!" I heard Father's roar above the noise of flames being flung and things falling and breaking.

"I am here to rescue my friends, and not to attack you, but since you want to put up a fight with me, I am willing to fight to the very last drop of my blood!" said Nigel's voice.

"Fool! Haven't I told you before? You have no blood in you! For you are no longer alive! Just like me and Grandfather, we, too, are no longer living beings! We are demons, creatures of the dark, working for the Darkness!"

"And I am an Angel, working for the good, the Holy! I am nothing like you!"

"We shall see, Nigel. For deep within you, deep inside your soul, is Darkness, the same Darkness that both Grandfather and I possess! It has always been passed down through generations of our family, and it still shall! You, my boy, you are destined to be evil, just like your ancestors!"

"No!!" I heard Nigel's horrified cry ring out, both of us stopped running and stood still, listening, "I will not be like you! I refuse to be like you! I will never, never became you or Grandfather!" Just as he said that, we heard him let out a cry of intense pain, and we saw him, a reddish figure, falling and crashing upon the floor in the distance.

Rachel screamed in horror. I simply just stood there, petrified in fear. My horrible nightmare of when I first sneaked into the Delightfuls' mansion was happening all over again. I remembered how Nigel told me to run, but I refused. I saw him being hit by Father's flames, and I saw him falling to the ground, groaning in pain. It was a horrible memory, and now it was happening all over again!

As all these went through my mind, I saw Nigel getting up from the floor. He took one look at Father, then he spread his wings and flew towards us. Before we could do anything, he grabbed hold of us, putting one arm around my waist and another around Rachel's, and flew off with us! As he soared down the corridor, I could just hear Father yelling in anger, "You can't get away from me, Nigel Uno!" I could hear Rachel shrieking hysterically, while I just clung onto Nigel, too terrified to even move. My throat seemed to have closed up and I almost stopped breathing because of the fright.

Nigel continued flying down the corridor, his wings making a slight wind as they flapped as hard as they could. I could just hear him groaning softly, for he was in pain. He now was almost reaching the end of the corridor, and I could see a large window looming before us, with sunlight streaming through the glass. Oh no, he was not going to crash straight into the glass, was he?

There was an ear-shattering crash, and I saw glittering shards of sharp glass flying past me. Amazingly, I did not feel the impact of hitting the window or the pain of the glass splinters scraping into my skin. The next thing I knew I was rolling over something damp, slightly prickly and green and I found my face buried in some ticklish, green things, which turned out to be the leaves of a bush. Nigel had brought us safely out of the mansion, away from Father's fury and his vicious Dark Dragon. He had landed behind a bush outside the compound of the mansion, and had dropped to the ground, holding the left side of his body and groaning in pain.

"Oh Nigel….." I heard Rachel whisper as I laid on the grass, still petrified in fear. "Oh Nigel……..why?"

I turned my head slightly and saw Rachel putting her arms around him, her eyes were still wide with terror and I was almost certain I saw tears in those eyes. Nigel said nothing but simply slumped down into Rachel's arms, as his long, beautiful ruby wings drooping down from his back like a feathery cloak.

"Why did you allow yourself to get hurt?" said Rachel with a sob, "Why?"

Nigel lifted his head slowly until his lovely dark blue eyes met Rachel's terrified brown ones, and said in a weak voice, "Because I didn't want you to get hurt……"

There was silence for a while, broken occasionally by Nigel's agonizing groans, Rachel's sobs and the chirping of birds in the distance. I still laid on the grass, still petrified and trying to get over the terrible shock I had.

Then, after what seemed like ages, Nigel lifted his eyes towards Rachel again, I could hear a sharp sob as she saw the pain and hurt in his eyes. I also found a lump forming in my throat and tears pushing against my eyes. "I came to rescue you two…..because I somehow sensed that you two were in danger." He said in a pained voice, "I….I felt that it was my duty to save you two, because as an Angel, my responsibility is to help others, to save others, especially people who are close to me, people I love……" he lowered his voice into a whisper, "And I also felt that - if I was forced to – I had to sacrifice my life…..to save those people….."

Rachel flung her arms around him, sobbing and crying as she embraced him tightly. Tears were already pouring out of my eyes, onto my cheeks like torrents of a waterfall. While the Angel, our Angel slumped in Rachel's arms, with a strange, unreadable expression on his face, and glittering tears in his deep, blue eyes……