Aisoku felt like he'd barely begun to sleep when he was yanked out of bed by the same two male lackeys who had helped in the original kidnapping. His blonde hair stuck to the nape of his neck and the inside of his mouth felt like something had crawled up and died inside of it. As for his back, it throbbed with each beat of his heart.

What he wouldn't give for a. . . Did they even have showers here? As he was escorted down the hallway, both his arms in the grip of the two sullen-looking men, he yawned and rubbed his eyes. Where were Vlad and Inessa? He trusted them an infinitesimal bit more than these two. As they spoke to each other in Russian Aisoku indicated the bathroom by jerking his arm at the door.

Both of them paused and Aisoku noticed a purple bruise on the right man's jaw, presumably where Aisoku had struck him when he'd attempted to escape. He was shaking his head, but the man on the left loosened his grip and tapped at his watch to indicate that they weren't going to wait long. He nodded and closed the door behind him. The bathroom was all white except for the muted tan tiles and countertops, and as he glanced in the mirror he winced. At the moment he looked like a meth addict from lack of sleep. After he did his business and washed his hands, he started rummaging around and found a plastic-wrapped toothbrush and some toothpaste. He set to work on his teeth, doing a three-sixty turn so he could see the entire bathroom. There was a spray nozzle shower head, which was a relief to see, and a grate sunk down between the tiles. No curtain, no tub. . . .Wow. Okaaay, I'll make that work somehow. It looked like it had been added in last-minute. Aisoku spat and went back out into the hallway where he was escorted down a labrynth of similar-looking hallways into the same examination room he'd been in yesterday. Only this time the counters were cleared of examination equipment and filled with surgery equipment. The scalpels in particular, shining dully in the sterile light, made his skin contract with fear.

The two men made it clear that he was to sit on the table, and then left, leaving him to stare at the menagerie of tools he hoped weren't going to be used on him. Vlad entered a few moments later dressed in loose pants and a semi-wrinkled shirt, rubbing his eyes. He startled and swatted Aisoku's wing away as the boy stroked his arm in an attempt to wake him up.

"Augh, I'm awake already. . ." Aisoku saw the shudder that ran through the teen and sighed, folding his wing close. "Sorry. Just gets old, you know. Everyone freaking out about these."

Vlad nodded and took Aisoku's pulse, made a scribbled note on his clipboard, and placed the eraser in his mouth thoughtfully. After a moment, he reached out and ran a naked hand across Aisoku's left wing. "Huh. Do they hurt?" Aisoku looked down. They had grown a few inches during the night and his back felt raw and torn. "As they grow." He reached over one shoulder and rubbed gently to alleviate the pressure. It felt like they were beginning to push against his shoulder blades. Vlad went over to the counters and donned a pair of gloves, then began messing around with the syringes and explained, "I'll be your anesthesiologist for this, by the way. Lenka and Inessa will be conducting the surgery." Of course. He flipped the papers on his clipboard over to the notes taken before and said, "Well, we already gave you the physical yesterday and because of your heritage I'm going to start you out with half the dosage for your body weight. Go ahead and lie down." Aisoku did, folding his wings up and away so they wouldn't be smashed by his weight. "My heritage?" He nodded, "The bird part, that is. I definitely don't want to give you too much."

The blonde shook his head gently. "Oh, that's reassuring." Vlad sterilized Aisoku's arm, "Oh, hush. I've been in this line of work longer than you've been alive." and slipped the needle in, injecting the sedative slowly. "Now count backwards from twenty." He said quietly, letting Aisoku grip his arm as he swallowed down his rising fear. What if something went wrong? What if this was the last thing he saw, these damn white walls and the blur of a man he didn't even know.

"Nineteen, eighteen, seventeen…" He felt his hand relax and as it slid down onto the table, and as it did, Vlad rested his hand on Aisoku's forehead.

"I'm…" Aisoku had the feeling whatever he was saying was important, but no matter how hard he tried to listen the words seemed to blur together, his vision faded and finally, he let himself go.

Kiryu opted for a nap in the van as the Niwa's and the Hikari's had a discussion about all that was happening. So far it wasn't going all that well. Kyo had transformed in order to give both families all the phantom thief had learned from that neighbor and Dark now rested on the couch next to Daisuke and a distinctly ruffled-looking Satoshi. "Kiryu is not going to Russia!"

Risa put her hands on her hips and rolled back her shoulders in a challenge. Dark, with his legs splayed and his arms folded behind his head pointed out, "It's kinda irrelevant wither you want him to or not-Krad's going, therefore Kiryu is." Risa had long since gotten over her crush on Dark but nonetheless was profoundly irked by his presence in her home. And of course, the fact that he was wearing clothes that were a bit too small for him didn't help any. "Oh really?" She brushed down her skirt and made for the door. "I'm going to have a talk with that blonde-haired b-"

Dark laughed a bit nervously and blocked her path with a single arm, not unkindly. "I know you're not really familiar with Krad, but he's in a bit of a killing mood right now because of Aisoku."

She crossed her arms with a look of disbelief. "Since when has he been worried about someone else?" Dark shrugged, "Since Aisoku, I guess. He's… a little different now." Riku, on the opposite couch, asked her sister softly, "Please sit down, Risa. I didn't want to do this at first either but Dark's son… he really needs to be back with them." Riku sighed and glanced at Satoshi first, who invited her to sit next to him on the soft blue couch. She sat and the blue-haired man put his arm around her waist, and she put her hand on his knee.

After a moment, she explained, "I'm sorry, but you have to understand… It's different with him-" She pointed a finger at the thief who raised one thick eyebrow.

"…Because you can trust him, more or less, to take care of Kyo. If we let Kiryu go-really, the only person who can reign Krad in is Dark, and- We just don't want our son getting hurt."

As she spoke she was reminded of when she had first met Krad.

Satoshi had been beating around the bush about his other half's existence and the curse had gotten quite sick of it. She had sometimes seen little glimpses of yellow every now and again in Satoshi's eyes but that had been, until that day, the extent of her interactions with him. It had been a cold foggy day and so the two of them couldn't be seen by anyone else on the beach, if there were any other souls around. They'd been chatting about nothing in particular when, as their eyes met, he put a hand on his chest and winced harshly. "Satoshi? What's wrong?" She'd taken his arm in her hand, feeling the cool slick film of moisture on his otherwise warm flesh and heard an amused breathy laugh from Satoshi. " Damn, I said…" She swallowed and looked at the ground. "Satoshi, if it's Krad, just let him out. I know that you'll protect me…" Actually, she didn't, and still remembered the way her voice wavered as she finished, "… and I need to meet him sooner or later." She'd stroked that soft blue hair and held him up as his knees threatened to buckle. "It's okay, Satoshi. It will be fine."

The last part was a whisper and as she felt him relax, she wondered if Krad had simply decided against emerging. The muscle she was holding suddenly bulged under her grip.

She watched it first, then her gaze moved upward as Satoshi's shoulders widened and deepened, the fabric seeming to shrink as his body grew. His hair tumbled down past his shoulders and faded out from blue, to colorless, and then to a thick brassy gold and knotted itself at the back of his head. As it did she heard a soft clunk and noticed that at the end of the ponytail hung a small marble cross. She forced her eyes back up to his face and found it foreign, angular and almost feminine.

Except for the eyes. The cat-yellow, slitted eyes that narrowed even as she looked at them. He removed his arm from her grip and turned away from her, crossing his arms over the sun-bleached railing that didn't hold a candle to his own ivory skin.

"So you are my tamer's sacred maiden." His voice was black velvet, low, and she found it hard to believe it came from the same chords as her dear Satoshi's crisp, polite speech.

"I am." She came up and stood next to him near the railing, crossing her own arms and looking out onto the sea, making sure not to touch him. He gave off the aura of …something unpredictable. A stray dog. No, that wasn't quite right… "I expect, then, for you to bring him many years of happiness." He still didn't look at her. His mouth was tight, like he was looking for a reason to lash out at her. "And so we meet, and now I shall go, because it is not necessary to-"

"Stay." She interrupted. "I know that it's not 'necessary' for me to fall in love with you …for you to disappear. Why won't you look at me?"

"Because mortals don't like my eyes." She frowned. "You've barely given me a chance to see them." He turned and was about to glare when she placed a hand on the side of his face, making his eyes widen. "I like them." He took her hand from his face,and his eyes held a pain she'd never seen before glazing back to fetid yellow."You like things that you shouldn't."

She blinked herself out of her memory. Risa was saying,"…We thought that they won't transform until they actually have to go into the base so that way, so they're be as little contact between those two as possible." Dark scratched his ear. "Well, he usually starts it anyway." Riku snorted. "Uh huh, sure Dark. That's not what Kyo's told me."

"Eh? Wait, what did he-" She cut him off. "Anyway, I think we can all manage to fit into the van. It'll be a bit of a squeeze, and we'll have to keep Kyo and Kiryu separated."

"Actually, Kiryu and I get along pretty well." Riku and Daisuke looked at each other. "Yeah… but still. He is Krad's tamer, and I don't want you two wailing on each other inside my van." Dark suddenly slapped his knee. "Oh, I almost forgot."He reached into his pocket and took out a scrap of paper, then handed it to Satoshi. "Krad gave me this before he transformed back. I dunno what it is but he said to give it to you guys, to help finance the trip." He looked at it for a moment in shock and murmured, "This is the code to get into the entire Hikari inheritance. I thought… I thought only my mother knew that code." Dark smirked, "Nice. So now that money's no worry, how about you two pack up and we get going?" For a moment all of them stared at the thief, then Risa finally relented by pointing a finger into Dark's face and announcing, "Alright, but you are not to provoke him in any way or there'll be hell to pay, got it?" He saluted her merrily.

"Yes, ma'am." She and her husband stood up to get packed and she brushed past the phantom coolly, "It's Mrs. Hikari now, if you don't mind." and Satoshi hung back and asked, "If he's not in Krad's form right now, do you mind if I fetch him? To pack his clothes." The Niwa's all nodded and after a few moments Kiryu and his father entered their home. As he walked past Dark the young Hikari mouthed 'How did it go?' and Dark gave him the discreet thumbs-up. In another half-hour the twin sisters, their husbands and their two sons were all mashed into the van. Riku and Daisuke were at the front, with Dark in a seat all to himself in the middle and Satoshi, Risa and Kiryu in the back seats. The drive from their home to the Aomori Airport was about six hours and so Dark fished out Kiryu's ipod from his dark wash jeans and stuck the cherry-red buds into his ears, stretching out his body and taking up the space of three people. The first one to fall asleep was Satoshi, then Risa, and Dark soon afterward, his purple hair flopping down and obscuring his eyes.

The young Hikari waited for him to turn back into Kyo, but when he didn't, came to a decision.

Now, without any direct adult supervision, Kiryu needed to mess with Dark. He glanced down the road- they seemed to be on a long highway, so it would be fine for him to unbuckle his seatbelt for just a moment. He leaned forward and as he watched Dark he realized the phantom thief must be having a dream. His leg muscles were twitching, and every once in a while he made a sound similar to a small chuckle. "They're gonna catch you." He muttered into the thief's ear. He got very quiet for a moment, eyebrows drawn close together and then relaxed again.

"See?" He continued to whisper. "There they are again. You've made a mistake." He smirked as the thief tensed up and seemed to draw into himself, assuming a stance almost like a crouch. Suddenly the car came to a halt and Kiryu was thrown straight over the seat and into the lap of the sleeping thief with an audible 'whud'! He got to his hands and knees, his knees on either side of Dark and his hands on either side of his head, the purple hair pinned. "Aooow…"

Daisuke and Riku turned around just as Dark awoke and murmured sleepily, "As much as I'm tempted I'm sorry to say I can't accept your offer…"and smirked as Kiryu scrambled off of him with,

"S-shut up, I fell!"

Dark started laughing so hard he held his ribs to stay in the seat as both Riku and Daisuke promptly turned around and barked, "Kiryu knock it off!"Daisuke added what he hoped was a glare in Dark's direction. "It was-it was his fault!" Kiryu pointed at Dark as he strapped himself back in his seat with his face red up to his ears. Of course his mother and father woke up from the commotion and Dark smirked at him through the crack in the fabric that separated them. For a good half-hour after the Hikari's chewed their son out, everything within the van was quiet. Then came the whispered, "This was all your fault."

"Was not."

"Was."

"Just get out."

"I never loved you."

"I was having an affair with your milkmaid."A snort.

"Well I was having one with the stable boy, Roberto." Another snort. "Kiryu." Satoshi cuffed his son lightly behind his ears. "Aow!"