Dark Shard (Night)

Blissfully unaware of the world around him, a small child slept in front of a large TV as static blared from the screen.

"So, this is the boy Connor told me about." a male voice said. The owner of the voice was a teenager with blonde hair and green eyes. He wore a plain white t-shirt and jeans. He knelt down to the child, noticing bruise marks on his arm. "What happened?" he asked, facing the TV.

A series of images flashed by in rapid succession. The blonde's expression became a grimace.

"And his guardian?" he asked with a calm tone, even though he was seething inside.

More images flashed from the TV, one of them being an overhead photo of a man laying face-first on a wooden floor. He had a gun in his hand, and there was blood spilling from his head.

"Thank you. If you would, please keep an eye on the man who left this kid behind." the boy said, picking up the child and walking away.


Castle Bleck (Morning)

Shinji didn't know where he was. The last thing he remembered was his guardian standing over him with a belt in hand. After that, he was 01000010 01110010 01101111 01101011 01100101 01101110 00100000 01000100 01101111 01110111 01101110 00100000 01000010 01110010 01101111 01101011 01100101 01101110 00100000 01000100 01101111 01110111 01101110 00100000 01000010 01110010 01101111 01101011 01100101 01101110 00100000 01000100 01101111 01110111 01101110.

Looking around, the boy saw a bedroom with black walls, a black floor, and a black ceiling. The only thing that wasn't black was the bed, which was wooden, with a green blanket and mattress. Curious, the boy got out of bed and left the room. Opening the door to the left of the bed led him to a hallway, which was of course black. Thankfully, the hall was illuminated by various torches. What was odd was the fact that the fire in the torches was white. As he made his way down the long hallway, he could hear faint voices.

"Another stray? At some point, I have to wonder what goes through your head." a female voice said.

"If I didn't, I'd be no better than her." a male voice replied. "The Intruder said that he was being beaten to near-death. If it weren't for him..."

"...How do you think Calore and Harry will react?"

"Dunno. I'll send them a letter."

At that moment, Shinji reached the room. He peered inside and saw a kitchen with a wooden table, four seats, a counter, and an oven. Sitting at the table were two people. One of these people was the boy that spoke with The Intruder. The other was a blonde teenage girl with violet eyes who wore a brown shirt and a yellow skirt.

"Who are you?" Shinji asked.

"I'm Dominic." the boy responded. "What's your name?"


10 Years Later


Tokyo-3 (Day)

"Argh!" Shinji said, slamming a pay phone back into its slot.

"Let me guess. No service?" Dominic asked. He wore a red jacket and torn jeans. "Oh, I wonder why the phones are down during the apocalypse?" he asked sarcastically. "Seriously, though, what did you expect?"

"I don't know!" the Japanese boy yelled. After calming down a bit, he continued. "It's just... my father didn't want to see me for 10 years. Why the hell did he call me back after all this time?"

"And why did he send this along with the letter?" the blonde asked, getting a photo of a woman out of his pocket. "If you ask me, I think he doesn't want to see you personally. He just needs something from you. Maybe a kidney."

"Gee, thanks for that." Shinji said dryly. That's when he noticed something on the street. A girl with blue hair and red eyes. But when he blinked, the girl was gone. 'I must be seeing things.' he told himself.

That's when the ground started to shake. Both of the boys turned to a nearby mountain. Coming from behind it were several military-grade aircrafts, followed by a giant monster with black skin and bones protruding from its body.

"Hmm. Looks like we have company." the blonde said, not worried by the appearance of the threat. His expression remained the same even as the behemoth annihilated everything sent at it. Hearing the sound of tires screeching, he turned to the right, where a car was stopped right in front of Shinji.

The car door opened, and in the driver's seat was the woman on the photo. "Sorry if I kept you waiting." she said, having not yet noticed the blonde.

"You should be." Shinji said, getting into the passenger seat. Just before the monster stepped on them, the car sped away.

Once they were far enough away, the car stopped. Confused, Shinji turned to the driver, only for her to lean over him and look out his window with a pair of binoculars. "They wouldn't... They're gonna use an N2!?" the woman said. "Get down!" she yelled, pushing Shinji down as a massive explosion went off on top of the monster.

Suddenly, a wall of stone rose out of the ground, shielding the car from any damage the explosion would've caused. After the blast was over, Dominic turned to the car and grinned. "You're welcome." he said, making sure to disspell the stone wall before the woman saw it.

"Who are you?" the woman asked, wondering how this kid managed to get all the way out in the middle of nowhere, as well as how he survived the blast.

"Dominic Xiao-Long." the blonde introduced, bowing. "By the way, if you're going to send a picture of yourself to a 14-year old, put something on."

She needed a drink.


"The Angels are the third most dangerous thing in this world."