Part 25: Crash and Burn – Part 1

--oOoOo--

"Put him against the corner and keep your guns on him," Midnight ordered as she managed to regain her balance.

"Put him in the corner? You should shoot that crazy freak," growled one of the men as he staggered back to his feet. "Hell, I'd do it for ya."

"Just secure him!" shouted another. "Before he pulls another…whatever that was!"

"I think something's wrong with him," Ryuusuke observed stiffly without moving from his place on the floor.

"Yeah, he's having some sort of attack or something."

Midnight assessed the blond angel who was lying coiled in pain on her basement floor. She'd nearly succeeded in taming this being, until he'd lashed out more viciously than any of them believed him capable of. The woman's chest still blistered with pain from the hectic energy her new 'pet' had just pummeled her with. She had no way to explain what he'd just done, any more than she could explain what the heck he was. The only thing she was sure of at the moment was that whatever had just happened, the angel was paying dearly for it now.

"He won't be able to do anything in that condition," she said.

"That's what you told us last time, and he obviously had some punches left. That psychopath is dangerous; you should get rid of him now before one of us gets killed."

"Oh please," Midnight growled. "Don't be a pack of sissies, he's obviously not going anywhere. Someone get his other arm before I smack you worse than he did." Despite her words, the woman seemed a little cautious as she reached out and grabbed Krad's bad arm. The angel's muscles moved stiffly as she tugged on him, but he didn't seem to have any particular reaction to her. No anger, no struggling. His expression looked pale and haunted. Apparently, he'd done quite a number on himself. It served him right after the stunt he'd just pulled.

Seeing the angel so unresponsive seemed to give the men more confidence, and they helped her drag Krad somewhat roughly to the corner of the room, where they dropped him with his back to the wall. The angel didn't bother to strike at any of them. He closed his eyes tightly against the room around him, every muscle feeling like it had been run through a garlic press.

"I don't think he's breathing," one of the men noted blandly.

"He'll figure it out. Get your guns out," Midnight barked. As they shuffled behind her with weapons drawn to provide backup, she crouched next to the angel. "Krad," she called to him. When he didn't respond, she shouted "Krad!"

His lids raised and unfocused gold eyes flicked to her, but there was no energy in them. He sucked a slow, thick breath like he'd completely forgotten to draw air for the last minute and a half. The effort seemed to exhaust him, but he appeared to be more conscious of his surroundings now.

A loud knock came from the door upstairs, and two of the men turned to look. "Expecting someone?" one asked Midnight.

"Someone go see what it is," she barked without taking her eyes off Krad. "Don't think I'm through with you. I should shoot you in the knee and watch you bleed to death," she warned him angrily.

"My heart…grows cold," he said in a shaky whisper, sitting up stiffly against the wall. He looked at her thoughtfully, bizarrely still.

"Or maybe I'll leave you right here and take my more civilized pets on a nice cruise somewhere for a week or so. We can watch you starve to death on webcam."

"That would be quieter," he acknowledged, leaning his throbbing head back against the cement. It seemed like too much effort to have to hold his neck up.

Midnight didn't seem to know what to make of Krad's dull indifference. When a person seemed calm about the prospect of being tortured and killed, well, there was very little left you could do to threaten him. "Count your breaths, love. I'm not half as forgiving as you seem to think, and you've been quite a disappointment," she warned as the man who had run upstairs came back down.

"Midnight, there's a cop at the door."

"A what?" she demanded incredulously. "What does he want?"

"You're not going to believe this…he's here for the freak. Apparently he's wanted for murder."

Midnight let out a dark laugh, cold and unpleasant. "Tell him I'll see to it he's taken care of."

"Midnight...," her man argued cautiously, "do we really want to deal with it if he comes back with a warrant?"

"They wouldn't dare. Who the hell is up there, anyway? Some stupid greenhorn?"

"Badge says he's the Deputy Commander. Looks like a teenager, though. Maybe it's some kind of prank."

Krad's eyes flashed to the man warily. The lackey noticed the angel's attention on him and took a subtle step back.

Midnight smacked her hand to her forehead. "No, it's possible that's really him. But if he's here without backup, it might be a poser." She looked at her captive thoughtfully. She'd never met the young 'Deputy Commander', but she'd heard of him. What was he thinking messing around in her neighborhood? "Why not. Let's let him have my delightful little pet," she said, a cold smile growing on her face. "I'm out of patience for him anyway, and a police scandal would be bad for business."

The men looked relieved by this idea. "We'll get him upstairs."

Krad looked tense again as the men approached to haul him to his feet. His limbs felt like loose scrap with no screws or bolts to keep them together. He tried to focus on making his legs move as the men half-dragged him across the room and up the stairs. He made his best effort not to think about what they'd just said. It couldn't possibly be him. This was some kind of joke. He felt sick enough to puke, his body screaming at him not to be moved. He gritted his teeth as he reached the top of the stairs and they let go of his arms. A hand pressed into his back, shoving him forward.

The angel staggered across level ground and barely managed to catch his balance, standing haphazardly under his own weight. He stretched his wings out guardedly and stared at the floor below him, which was swerving dangerously in his vision.

"If there's an investigation involved later, I'm not interested in any interviews. This is all the cooperation you'll get. Are we clear?" Midnight's voice said from behind his left shoulder.

"I'll keep that in mind," an all too familiar voice spoke from just in front of him.

The floor spun again. Krad slowly raised his eyes anyway to look at the figure that was standing before him, silhouetted by the light of a long hallway that led to the front door of the house. Blue eyes were watching him from just a few feet away, with an expression the angel couldn't read. Why?

Satoshi stared at the angel's stunned expression. The blonde looked ready to collapse. His hair hung loose and unkempt around his shoulders and waist. Krad's shirtless chest was smeared with blood, which Satoshi assumed was related to the saturated bandage on his right hand. The young commander had to force himself to remember that Midnight and her men were watching him. "What happened to him?" he asked impersonally.

"Now Commander, I don't know what they write about me down at the station, but I don't like to kiss and tell," Midnight smiled. She watched his expression closely, but Satoshi didn't seem to care about what she'd implied.

"I can't help but notice that you don't seem surprised about his…appearance," she pried suspiciously.

Satoshi glanced over the angel's huge white wings. "It was in the report," he said flatly.

"Well then, I suppose he's all yours," she smirked.

"We appreciate your cooperation," Satoshi said, pulling off his coat and holding it out to Krad. The angel glowered at it and then cast him a dubious stare. It was the first real reaction he'd noticed from the blonde. "I'm not turning this into a street show. Wear the coat…freak," the young man ordered. He needed to get them the heck out of there.

Krad looked at him as if he had two heads. Satoshi kept his expression flat and gave the angel a look, noting the exhausted shadows around his eyes. Whatever the blonde was thinking at the moment, he apparently decided to go along with his former counterpart for now. He slowly reached out his good hand and took the long coat from Satoshi's hand. The fabric remained a careful barrier between their fingers.

Krad's wings folded unceremoniously along his back before he swung the coat over his shoulders and drew his arms through the sleeves. Satoshi felt his right palm buzz uncomfortably as the angel pulled the coat over his hand, signaling that whatever had numbed it before was wearing off. Unbelievable…they really were connected. What did that mean? The thought left him equal parts excited and horrified, which made no sense at all, but this definitely wasn't the time to deal with his conflicted reaction.

"Turn around," Satoshi said, pulling a pair of handcuffs from his belt. He wasn't about to walk around him and put himself between Krad and Midnight. The angel frowned, but he turned slowly so that his back faced the boy. That left him staring angrily at Midnight while Satoshi noticed how badly swollen both the angel's wrists were. He clipped a cuff onto Krad's "good" hand and then pulled the other arm back to join it. The only external evidence that he was hurting the angel was a slight curling of Krad's fingers. The blonde seemed to be as proud as ever, but it really didn't make much sense to hide it, under the circumstances. Maybe Krad didn't even know the connection between them was there?

"Turn and walk," Satoshi ordered, and was immensely relieved that the angel responded readily this time. Krad turned from Midnight with a hateful glare, and began what seemed like an interminable walk toward the door. Both men were very aware of Midnight and all of her lackeys following them with their eyes as they made their way to the exit. Satoshi knew better than to rush the angel, but he still put a hand against Krad's back to press the unsteady being out of the mansion as quickly as possible.

Krad managed his weight carefully as he followed the firm pressure of Satoshi's hand on his back. His legs were barely cooperating with him. He shortened his stride to hide the tremble in the point of his step. He stayed upright, mostly from sheer will. In the young man's presence, it seemed absolutely vital that he maintain his balance, that he not appear weak. As they made their way out, the angel saw more of the building than he'd been aware of during his stay there. It all passed by in a meaningless blur as his thoughts pounded in too many directions at once, but foremost in his mind was outside, outside now. He had the acute impression that at any moment, Midnight's men would be upon him, refastening the chains.

They moved past several expensively furnished rooms, and then there was a door before them. Satoshi's thin hand reached around him to turn the knob, and bright sunlight flooded onto the angel's face. He squinted into it, trying to remember if the sun had always been this achingly bright. Satoshi's hand pressed into his back again, sooner than he felt he was ready, and pushed him out onto a driveway that faced a busy street. The road was humming with activity, pedestrians and cars streaming by, Earth as usual.

Krad felt numb as he scanned the scene. His usual apprehension about being thrown into the throbbing pulse of human society didn't quite hit home as it usually did. At the same time, what he felt was not relief either. It was closer to what he'd experienced after Midnight's drugs. Empty.

Satoshi didn't say a word. He turned him left and began escorting him toward the sidewalk. Krad could see the unmarked police car parked at the end of the block. He stared at it with a flat expression as they approached it, watching it grow larger in his vision. The other pedestrians gave them a wide birth and cast him curious looks. He didn't look back. They were like flies around his face. His body ached, his muscles felt ready to collapse, and he couldn't seem to make up his mind about what he should do when he reached the corner.

They stopped. Satoshi reached around and opened the back door of the vehicle. Krad frowned at the reinforced back seat. A new cage. The indecision seemed to vaporize in the presence of the absolute knowledge that he did not want to be in that car.

"Get in," Satoshi instructed him quietly.

Krad pulled away from Satoshi's grip and glared at him over his shoulder. A ball of energy fizzled to life in his cuffed palm, flickering erratically like a spent fluorescent bulb. His complexion paled as he struggled to form a spell from what remained of his strength. A wince pulled at the lines of his mouth.

His breath came out in a surprised groan as Satoshi kicked the back of his knee. The spell fizzled in his hand and he collapsed forward against the side of the car, legs shaking as they re-caught his weight. He turned his head to spot the boy, ready to take a swing at him. Instead, he found Satoshi's face unexpectedly close to his, a look of flat impatience glazed into his blue eyes. "Don't use any more. You can't afford it," he said so seriously that the angel froze. "Get in the car, now. Your girlfriend's watching."

Krad shifted his eyes behind them. The boy was right. Midnight and several of her men were watching from the driveway. If he wasn't Satoshi's, he was theirs. Damned if he did, damned if he didn't. He closed his eyes, not meeting Satoshi's gaze as he sank into the back seat of the car.

The boy closed the door hard behind him and walked around to the driver's seat. Sitting down, Satoshi slid open the sight screen to the reinforced window that looked back on Krad's seat. Thin slits had been cut into the thick material to allow sound to pass through, but Satoshi said nothing. Within a few seconds, the ignition was started and they were driving out of the neighborhood.

Krad leaned into the hard seat, not caring that he was resting his weight on his bad hand. Satoshi put his gun away in the glove box and focused on putting as many blocks as possible between them and Midnight's territory. A drowning silence filled the car.

"When did you last eat or drink?" Satoshi asked.

The angel just frowned.

"If I feed you, will you kill me after your strength returns?" Satoshi asked sourly after several minutes.

There was a pause, as if the angel was seriously considering the question. "Probably," Krad answered, sounding neither angry nor pleased with himself.

The car lapsed back into silence. The air was so heavy with unspoken questions that it was a little hard to breathe.

"There's a place around the corner," The boy's voice came less harshly this time through the thick glass.

There was no answer. Satoshi checked the rearview mirror to see the angel looking out the window with a grim frown. Krad's gold eyes were glassy with exhaustion and something else that the boy couldn't identify. Satoshi had never seen the angel so dismal. He sighed and just drove, taking a right turn at the next light. They came up on the restaurant and pulled to a stop in a street space. He shut off the engine and went around to Krad's door, opening it. "Get out," he directed him.

Krad looked up at him with a guarded frown. He climbed to his feet and used his weight to push the door shut behind him. Satoshi walked up behind Krad as he stepped onto the sidewalk. Touching the angel as little as possible, he produced a key from his pocket and bent to release the handcuffs. The boy used the opportunity to take another good look at the angel's wounded hand.

"Do you need drugs?" he asked. His voice was like a stone wall; unreadable and cold.

"No," Krad said quietly, rolling his shoulders as his arms came free. He looked at his unchained hands expressionlessly.

"Follow me," Satoshi ordered, locking the car and making his way toward the restaurant.

Krad watched him for a moment, and then followed.

They walked through double glass doors into the establishment. It was a little too late for lunch, too early for dinner. Only a few people sat eating, and there was no line. Satoshi walked to the counter and waited for the cashier. When she arrived, she looked at them both strangely. A well-dressed young man with blue hair and a ragged-looking blonde wearing a trenchcoat and a bloody bandage. They made a conspicuous pair.

Satoshi pulled out his wallet and frowned at its contents. "Fries and 20 chicken nuggets," he said to her, his eyes telling her to can the questions. "Two drinks." He waited for her to say a number and handed her the only bill he had, not counting the change when she returned a few coins to his hand. In a few seconds, the food appeared on a plastic tray before them. Satoshi took the cups and moved to fill them. "Can you carry that," he said to Krad, gesturing toward the rest of the tray.

The angel frowned at the tray like it was a tombstone, but he picked it up, watching without comment as the boy walked to the soda fountain.

Satoshi studied the options. He moved to fill the cups with water, but then his thoughts turned to Hattori's treatment plan for when Dark was dehydrated. He filled his cup with water, and Krad's with Gatorade, and then led them to a table. They sat down in silence. Neither made a move to touch the food. "Aren't you going to eat?" Satoshi asked suspiciously. The angel seemed very still. "Did something happen?"

Krad blinked, not meeting his eyes. He looked down at the food with a conflicted stare. He finally took a French fry and put it in his mouth savorlessly.

"Krad…" Satoshi said, sounding really confused now. His voice dropped to something almost soothing. "The fries are for me. I got the meat for you."

The angel's mouth flattened into a hard line and he looked at the basket of chicken nuggets. Here he was, nearly starving to death, and all he felt was dread when he looked at the food.

"You need to eat something," Satoshi said a bit impatiently.

"I can't," Krad snapped back.

"Why not?" Satoshi returned.

The angel looked away. "I can't do this," Krad said again, and the tone of the words made Satoshi freeze. The blonde's cold, even voice had suddenly twisted into something closer to pain. When the angel turned and met his eyes, Satoshi was almost alarmed by the sudden desperation in them.

"I can't do this with you." His voice was low, but shaking.

Satoshi stared at him. There was no other reaction that made sense when the angriest being he'd ever met was sitting across the table from him looking ready to break down. What the hell had that bitch done to him?

"What are you talking about?"

Krad narrowed his eyes on Satoshi, making a weak impression of anger. "Are you an idiot? I'll kill you. You can't tame me again. I'm free. Even if you know what food I like and how I am, I'll just kill you."

The boy wasn't sure how to react to the blonde's conflicted tone. He gave the angel a disbelieving stare. "You won't do that."

Krad's empty eyes glared at him. "You save me from one captor so you can keep me under control yourself. It isn't going to work. I won't stay with you. I'll eat your food and then I'll kill you. What the hell makes you think I won't?"

Satoshi dropped into a very quiet, very serious voice. "You don't look like you want to," he said with more confidence than he felt.

"Then your time with Dark has made you naïve," Krad said, disliking his words even as he spoke them.

Satoshi worked to keep his frown angry and not disappointed. What had he really expected, anyway? "If you want to kill me so much, what are you so upset about? Just eat the damned food, before you're too weak to feed yourself. Then we can find out who kills who," he said coldly.

The angel paused without a response. Was it that obvious how drained he was? Then again, he supposed Satoshi was the expert in that department. How many times had the boy been through this, or worse, and never told him? In any case, the prospect of being too weak to eat was not a pleasant one, so he reached out and took a piece of chicken.

Satoshi rolled his eyes and snatched up his French fries, eating them without much appetite. He fixed his gaze out the window next to their table, at anything other than the jerk sitting across from him. Still, he found himself tracking the angel out of the corner of his eye, curious if he would really eat or not.

Krad took the first bite slowly, but as soon as the food touched his throat, his body screamed with hunger. Biting back his pride, he practically inhaled the rest of the chicken. He seemed confused at first by the Gatorade, but he was too thirsty to care. He downed the large cup in one long, desperate draught. Overwhelmed with relief, he wound up choking on the last gulp and burst out coughing. When he managed to compose himself, he set the cup down and took a long, deep breath. He raised his gaze and tensed as he realized that at some point, Satoshi had begun watching him.

The younger man's lips twitched ever so slightly upward. "What about my share?" he asked the angel, throwing a crestfallen look at the empty chicken basket.

Krad's eyes widened slightly, and the angel looked uncharacteristically embarrassed. His first instinct was to rebut with "Your share? You told me…" but by the middle of his sentence, he caught on to the boy's sarcasm. Satoshi had burst into a smile. The angel blinked in annoyed confusion. "Do not mock me," he warned him.

Satoshi tried very hard not to laugh. "That was a shockingly polite reaction, coming from the destroyer of mankind," he said, unable to hold back his grin even if it did inspire the angel's wrath. "Is there some special code of valor that says not to hog chicken nuggets from a man you've sworn to murder?"

Krad stood up in the booth, looming above the boy. "Perhaps I should take care of you right here," he growled. As he spoke, the door behind him swung open and two men who looked dangerously familiar stalked into the doorway. Satoshi's attention flicked between Krad and the men, who were staring straight at them with something in their hands. Satoshi recognized the steel shafts of their guns instantly and paled. They'd been followed.

"Get down," he hissed to Krad. The angel glared at him, having no intention to back down to the boy. "No, actually get down," Satoshi growled, leaping up to grab Krad's lapel and tug him downward just as a bullet whizzed over the angel's head and shattered the huge picture window they'd been sitting in front of. The girl at the register shrieked and ducked behind the counter. Krad recovered his balance and stared back across the room behind him, noticing the men for the first time.

The two lackeys began stalking toward them with their weapons trained on them both. Midnight emerged through the door behind them and strolled elegantly across the glass-covered linoleum floor. "Well, this is very interesting, Deputy Commander. Do you always take criminals out to lunch after you arrest them?" she smirked darkly. One of her men hung back at her side while the other approached their table, gun trained on Krad.

"Midnight, you're in public," Satoshi said in a wary monotone. "This is no place to make a scene. There are civilians."

"I am not a cop, 'Commander,' and I suspect you're not either," she said, so let's cut the 'civilian' crap. "I believe you ought to return what is mine. We were just getting to know each other," she rolled her eyes suggestively at Krad. The angel visibly bristled at the suggestion. "And he was finally getting into it," she smirked.

Satoshi's eyes flashed a dangerous, electric blue. "You aren't fit to look at him," he said in a tone cold enough to burn.

Something in that too-calm voice raised the flesh on Krad's arms. He glanced at Satoshi, confusion sweeping aside his anger for a moment. The younger man was taking a step away from the table toward Midnight's men. Both men shifted their aim to him as he approached slowly, but they clearly hadn't expected him to move.

"You'd be very naïve to think I'm not willing to have them shoot you right now, puppy," Midnight warned the blue-haired man.

Satoshi stopped. He was two feet from the barrel of the closer man's gun. "I think you're bluffing," he said, shoving his hands calmly into his pockets. "Because he isn't aiming for my head." He gestured with his chin at the man standing across the room next to Midnight.

It happened quickly.

Midnight looked to her left. The man in front of Satoshi glanced behind him to check the aim of the thug in question. The thug in question cast a defensive look at Midnight, because he absolutely was aiming at Satoshi's head. Satoshi's right hand came out of his pocket. It was holding a small cylinder. When the man in front of him returned attention to his target, he saw only a burst of spray. Then the pain set in. The thug cursed and fired blindly where his target had just been. There was a twang of metal as the bullet ricocheted uselessly off a table leg, just as a hand closed on his wrist.

It didn't take much wresting to get the man to let go of his gun; he released the grip all too easily to Satoshi's control as his hands flew to press against his burning eyes. Satoshi turned the barrel on Midnight and hauled her badly peppered lackey sideways to stand like a shield between them and the remaining gun. "Krad, the window," he barked.

The angel didn't need to be told twice. The second he was out of the line of fire, he jerked to his feet, his body moving surprisingly better than earlier. The food was starting to help. He stepped nimbly from the booth bench to the table and then jumped out the broken window, landing on his feet on the glass-strewn sidewalk outside. Then came the new question of where to run. In an instant, Satoshi landed next to him with slightly less grace. "This way," his former wing host breathed, scrambling to his right across broken glass and old pavement. A bullet whizzed past the angel's ear while Satoshi gestured for him to follow.

He knew he should run the other way.

Satoshi glanced over his shoulder as he broke into a sprint for the street. He was relieved to see the angel running next to him. However, when they reached the road and it was apparent the young Hikari was heading for the car, Krad dropped back. "No," he decided.

Satoshi stopped short and cast the angel a wild look. "Not now, Krad, they're coming!" he nearly screamed.

"I'll find my own way," the angel said coldly, moving to rip off his coat.

Satoshi glanced at the restaurant. Bells jangled violently as the door flew open and two figures ran out. He had to find a way to make the angel get it. "Krad, I don't care how much better you think you feel right now, I swear that the moment you try to fly with that body, you'll end up drained senseless on the pavement," the boy warned him fiercely. "Get in the car."

There was no time to wait for an answer. Satoshi ran for the driver's side door and swung it open as a bullet ricocheted off the car's hood. The boy realized in dread that it hadn't come from the direction of the restaurant. Of course, Midnight had backup outside. Three motorcycles with apparently armed riders were sitting in the parking lot, next to the Lexus he'd seen in Midnight's driveway earlier.

He couldn't afford to contemplate how bad this was. He swooped into the seat and turned his key in the engine, knowing there was no time left to reason with Krad. As he was hauling his door shut, a click sounded next to him, and the passenger-side door yanked open. Krad glided into the car with a hiss of curses, slamming his door in the same fluid motion. Satoshi threw the car into gear and bolted out of his space as fast as his hybrid's engine would forgive. A rumble of engines pulled out behind them as the motorcycles swerved into the street. A few hundred feet behind, the Lexus backed up the chase.

After his bold theatrics in the restaurant, Satoshi looked comparatively pale and out of breath. He didn't spare a glance at his former counterpart as he blew through a newly red light. The entourage chasing him gave no heed to the light either, intimidating the waiting vehicles on the opposing street into staying stopped. Satoshi drew a deep breath and hooked left onto a sidestreet. He had to get them to a less populated area.

"They're catching up," Krad noted crossly.

"I can see that," Satoshi snapped. "Not like we're going to outrace motorcycles with a hybrid." He swerved right onto another road, cutting off an older-looking vehicle.

"Oh, no, it makes much more sense to try to outmaneuver motorcycles," Krad snapped back sarcastically, grabbing on for dear life to the ceiling with one hand and the door handle with the other. The angel sucked in a tight breath as the door unlatched and swung halfway open, giving him a glimpse of the racing pavement underneath them.

"Door ajar," the car computer announced helpfully in a female monotone.

"Shit, Krad!" Satoshi growled, nearly swerving off the road as he leaned across the angel to tug the door shut again. "You never pull that while a car's moving! Don't you know that?" A bullet sprang off their rear bumper, probably aimed at their tires. "You're not even wearing a seatbelt." He reached down to a button on his armrest and child-locked the doors, just to be safe.

"I have no intention of strapping myself into a vehicle you're piloting," Krad snorted back.

"Control freak," Satoshi muttered, following a curve in the road much faster than the car could comfortably handle. Behind them, the motorcycles leaned close to the ground as they hugged the turn.

A phone started ringing. Satoshi gritted his teeth and ignored it, too busy with his reckless driving. But on the third ring, he finally dug into his pocket and pulled out the phone. The display flashed "Risa." His expression flatlined.

"What is it?" Krad demanded, holding on as they swung left.

"My girlfriend. I need to drive, you answer it," Satoshi barked, throwing the phone to Krad. He grabbed the wheel again just in time to avoid a startled pedestrian.

"You have a girlfriend?" Krad demanded as he caught the phone.

"It could be important, just find out what she wants," Satoshi said impatiently.

Krad looked down at the display on the phone blankly.

"Hit 'accept'," Satoshi explained irately.

Krad frowned at the display. A backlit green button flashed 'accept'. He pushed it and raised the device to his ear. "Hello?" he muttered uncertainly.

"…Satoshi?" a familiar voice murmured. "Where are you? There's a lot of noise."

"He's driving," Krad snapped as they veered right. A bullet pinged off the rear door.

"Who is this?" the girl asked warily, fear starting up in her voice. She knew exactly who he was, and Krad knew her voice as well.

"Risa Harada," Krad addressed her coldly. "What do you want?"

"If you've done something to Satoshi, I'll"

Krad smirked. "You do not frighten me. At all. What did you want to tell 'Satoshi'?" he asked her in amusement.

"Where are you?" she demanded.

Satoshi could guess how the conversation was going. "Risa, I can't hold the phone," he growled, nearly colliding with another car as they ignored a red light. The other vehicle graced them with a long, angry honk as they blew through the intersection.

"Speak quickly," Krad's cold voice ordered.

"I j-…S….Something is wrong with Dark. I can't tell, but he was talking to Shira about something, and it sounded like he knew more of Gorudo's plan than she did. This is stupid, you don't even know who Gorudo is…"

"I have an excellent memory," Krad said stiffly, not wanting to hear about Dark.

"Fine, just…tell Satoshi there might be more to this than just splitting Dark's soul from Daisuke's. I think they're after something more, I just don't know what it is yet. Something smells really bad about the whole thing. Arg, why am I even telling this to you?"

"Separate their souls?" Krad scoffed. "That's pointless."

"Why?" Risa demanded. "It just means they want him in his pure form."

Krad tensed as Satoshi took a 'shortcut' over some sidewalk and began cutting recklessly across a parking lot. He really didn't feel like talking to the Harada twit right now, but he had to admit that the thought of some scientist trying to break his counterpart from his soul link was rather amusing.

"Think, human. His 'pure form' would require me," Krad said condescendingly into the phone. "Dark's soul is an incomplete half. As is mine. The connection to Niwa blood allows for his existence, but he would not survive as a severed half. If he has put himself in such a situation, he is even more a fool than I thought," Krad smirked.

Satoshi glanced at him, too distracted to really grasp what they were talking about.

"You're making that up…." Risa murmured in confusion, "You're….fine, then why is Gorudo-"

"I really do not care," Krad scoffed. "And I am bored of taking your message. Call him back later.

"Krad, please don't hurt-"

Her plea went unheard as the angel hung up.

"That could have gone worse," Satoshi acknowledged as Krad dropped the phone into the coin tray between them like a dirty tissue. He looked ahead of them and saw an entrance ramp for the highway. It was a commuter road. There shouldn't be many cars there in the middle of the day. He swerved onto the ramp and tried not to notice the ground dropping below them as they rode the elevated ramp up and over the highway well beyond the speed limit.

The highway was mercifully empty. Satoshi flew into the middle lane and stepped on it, pushing the car as fast as he could make it go.

"What exactly do you plan to do now?" Krad demanded, looking back at the other vehicles that were still gaining on them all too easily.

"There's a gun in the glove compartment," Satoshi said breathlessly.

Krad looked down at the compartment in front of him and felt along the latch, looking for something to pull. He glared at it and gave it a firm rap with his fist.

"Push the sides together, for Godsake," Satoshi snapped.

"How should I be able to know that?" the angel glowered as he fumbled to press at the latch from the sides.

The younger man darted his attention to the motorcycles flanking them in his rearview mirror and then glanced back to the road. "It's no wonder Dark always bests us when you have the technical prowess of a medieval peasant."

"When exactly was I supposed to learn how to use a car? I didn't get out much," Krad accused as he finally managed to squeeze together the latch and get the compartment open.

"When exactly was I supposed to teach you? Between ruining my life and trashing my body, you didn't have a whole lot of unstructured time," Satoshi returned the accusation coldly.

"That wasn't structure, that was just recreation," the angel sneered as he lifted the gun from the glove box. He sat up and looked back at Satoshi. The boy was watching the road, but his face visibly slackened, like he'd been punched. Those blue eyes shining, aching, remembering. No. Stop it…

"Give me the gun," Satoshi murmured. "I'm not teaching you." All too easily, the gun was set firmly in his waiting hand. He didn't have time to wonder why Krad was suddenly cooperating, any more than he had time to think about what the angel just said. All those nights of relentless, crippling pain that had driven him to the edge of suicide and madness…had been on purpose? For recreation?

The road had reached the sea alongside the city and was now following the steeply curving cliffside that bordered the bay. They were bounded by steep rock on one side, and only a flimsy guardrail stood between them and the cliff on the other side. The good news was that the curvy environment was distracting the cyclists from shooting.

Satoshi ducked as a shower of bullets shattered the back windshield, sending a loud rush of air whooshing through the car. Another stray shot hit his sideview mirror.

Well, at least they were distracted from shooting well.

He fumbled the safety off his gun and laid it in his lap as motorcycles pulled up along them on both sides. The one on the right aimed his gun at the passenger's side window. Krad put his head down without needing to be told as Satoshi swerved firmly to the right. Before the biker could shoot, the car knocked him hard into the rocky cliff. The bike swerved out of control. It slammed into Satoshi's car again with a wicked shriek of metal and then bounced back into the wall before falling behind them. It crashed into the third bike, which had been hanging back with the Lexus, and the two vehicles tumbled across the pavement in a smoky blitz.

A metallic wail sounded from the front right wheel of the car, and the whole vehicle dragged erratically to the right before Satoshi barely regained control of the steering.

"What's that sound?" Krad demanded, raising his head.

"A flat. We're driving on the rim," Satoshi growled, glancing out the left window to check on the remaining bike that had flanked him. It wasn't there.

"Straight ahead," Krad warned.

A bullet hit their front windshield, splintering the entire surface with cracks, but the pressure-treated glass didn't break. Unfortunately, Satoshi also couldn't see.

Before the Hikari could even ask, Krad had already shifted in his seat to get his leg loose. He gave the faulted windshield a fierce kick, and it poured in dull chunks all across them and the front seat. Satoshi barely swerved away from the cliff side of the road and managed to focus in front of him again.

The last motorcyclist was straight ahead. Looking back at them through the open windshield. Aiming.

Two shots fired.

Pain like white fire exploded in Krad's chest. The initial burst struck right into the center of his chest, and the second hit lower and to the side, into his lung. His gold eyes widened with shock and a startled cry tore from his throat. He wrapped his arms around his chest convulsively.

"Auggh!" Satoshi's voice cut through his concentration. Krad forced his watering eyes to focus as the car suddenly swerved. An agonized sound, like someone choking on his own breath, made him look at Satoshi. The boy was hunched forward with his forehead pressed to the steering wheel. His eyes were clenched tight. It took a moment of confused staring for Krad to notice the hole in Satoshi's seatbelt…the second hole in his shirt. Chest wounds.

Lethal wounds.

Struck with an impossible suspicion, the angel looked down at his own throbbing chest. The jacket Satoshi had given him was clean and whole. His stomach suddenly tried to climb up through his throat. His pain mirrored the boy's wounds, yet he was uninjured. That was impossible. They were no longer…they couldn't…

The car was drifting dangerously close to the cliff. Krad threw out an arm and grabbed the wheel, pulling it toward the center of the road. "Satoshi-sama!" he shouted, his lungs much fuller than they felt. This pain was not his. It was the boy's.

The younger man's eyes opened, looking glassy and stunned. He opened his mouth, but couldn't seem to breathe. The boy glanced at Krad's chest and then looked blearily down at his own. A spark of understanding showed in his strained expression. He took his foot off the gas, but couldn't will it to move to step on the brake.

Satoshi closed his eyes tightly, forcing his composure, channeling his thoughts. He slammed his hand limply onto a button at his side. The locks on the doors popped up.

*Get Out. Now!*

The words crashed into Krad's mind desperately, just before Satoshi sagged forward bonelessly against the steering wheel. The pain in the angel's chest turned off like someone had flipped a switch. Krad went pale, not just from the psychic words that had made it to his mind and what they meant, but also from the staggering wall of desperation and utter loneliness that had leaked through the boy's mind with those words for just a second.

This wasn't like checking on Dark after the change to their new bodies. It wasn't like saving the brat on the rollercoaster. There wasn't a moment's deliberation this time. Not even a really coherent thought.

Krad set his jaw and threw open his door. He crouched in the doorway, holding onto the roof, and used the door as a foothold to vault up onto the top of the car. The wind threw his loose hair in wild, thrashing strands around his body as he flattened himself on his stomach against the metal and hung his arm down the other side of the hybrid, grabbing for the handle on Satoshi's door. He found it and threw the door wide.

The car had picked up a distinct rightward slant in its trajectory, while the road turned left just ahead. The vehicle was going to hit the stone wall. Krad shimmied across the roof and dropped down to crouch inside Satoshi's door. He fumbled with the boy's seatbelt latch for a second, uncertain how to open it, and finally just blasted it loose out of frustration. He hauled Satoshi's limp body into his arms and pulled it in tight against his chest, pocketing the gun. The angel glanced down at the moving pavement outside. They were losing speed, but it was still too fast to be safe. There was no time to take off the coat and spread his wings. Bracing himself, he curled his shoulders and limbs around the boy as best he could and dove out onto the street.

Krad tumbled with the boy for several yards, erring onto the grassy shoulder before they mercifully came to a stop. The hybrid crashed roughly into the stone wall, spun out, flipped, and flew through the guardrail. The first thing the angel saw when the world stopped spinning was Satoshi's car heaving off the cliff toward the rocky surf below.

--o0o0O0o0o--

To be continued!

This was originally going to be one chapter, but I see it's already grown rather hefty in length, so I'm going to post the first half now and then go on to write the rest. I'm sure I'm going to babble spoilers if I do shout outs, so I will hold off until the next part for that too, but as always, I am completely in debt to you guys for reading and leaving me such wonderful feedback! Every time I get an email from ffdotnet, it makes my day. I'd love to hear what folks think of this part. It was a lot of fun to write : )

Love, Kat