Notes: Okay, so I haven't updated this story in nearly two years. Erm. Well, I'm revisiting it, so anyone who still remembers it – heh, that's a laugh – can give a vague appreciative noise or something. Eheheh. It works.

Couplings: The focus will be more on RioxPhil and ZeroxErts than any others. But that's saying a lot, considering the focus on those two couples won't be much anyway.

Main Characters: Yu, Rioroute, Kazuhi, Phil, Zero, Erts, and the other candidates. And the other pilots. And a bunch of other people. ^_^ And Megumi, that royal bitch of an original character.

Warnings: Creepy little demon things. Irritated!Yu. Glowing!Zero. And ReallySuperFuckingConfused!Rioroute. ^_^ And Erts torture. Sob.

Disclaimer: I want to say something like, "I'll own Megami Kouhosei when Hell freezes over!", but according to Dante, the seventh layer of Hell IS frozen over, so... BAH! *throws confetti, and runs away while everyone is distracted*

Nighttime Demons

Rioroute was seated on Yu's bed, looking at the smaller boy with a blank expression on his face. Yu was standing by the door – apparently having learned his lesson with Rioroute, and now actively making sure of their privacy – while Kazuhi knelt on the floor near him. Seated on a chair across the room from them, the blonde-haired woman – Megumi, she had said her name was – was staring at Rio with an oddly interested gaze.

"So..." Rio murmured, trying to fit what he had just learned into his frame of reference. "You're saying that this... Megumi girl–" Rio gestured towards the blonde, "–is actually some kind of demon?"

"A vampire," Yu corrected, nodding once.

Rio blinked, frowning slightly. "Are we talking a 'demon' like Victim, or something else?" Now that he thought about it, Rio didn't even know whether the Victim were actually demonic or not. It made an odd amount of sense, but now that he had been confronted with a real demon, Rio wasn't so sure that he should categorize things so broadly.

"It's something else," Yu replied, glancing coldly at Megumi, who rolled her eyes. Yu shifted his gaze back to Rio, continuing, "But that doesn't matter. I told you this so you wouldn't ask unnecessary questions about Megumi's existence here, but beyond that, this doesn't concern you."

"What?" Rio gaped, startled by the sudden dismissal. "Like hell it doesn't concern me, Yu! I live here, too, and if there's a demon here, I think I want to know why."

"Why are you getting so fucking bent out of shape about this?" Megumi cut in suddenly, raising one eyebrow curiously. "I'm not here for long. Just until Yu gives up the medallion I want, and then I am out of here. This place fucking sucks."

"What medallion?" Rio asked, looking at Yu. "And how the hell do you know this bitch, anyway?"

"Oh, fuck you–"

"It doesn't matter what medallion she's talking about, or how I know her," answered Yu coldly, glaring back at Rio. "You have no place in this, and I have no urge to involve you any further than you already are."

"What if I want to get involved?" Rio shot back, glowering harshly at Yu before noticing Kazuhi edging backwards in trepidation; he caught himself and relaxed a bit before continuing. "You can't stop me from trying to help you, and you can't say I don't have any place in worrying about you. I mean, shit, Yu, you and I aren't friends, but we are teammates."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Yu asked, his voice low and cold, reminding Rio disturbingly of a sword's blade.

Rio crossed his arms, frowning as he replied, "It means that if you're having nightmares and fainting in the middle of training sessions, I have the right to be concerned. You have to fight in battle, which means helping me. And that means–"

"Wait a second," Megumi interrupted, jumping to her feet as she cut Rioroute off abruptly. She turned to glare at Yu, snapping, "What's this about nightmares? You said you didn't have any idea about what has been happening!"

"I don't–" Yu began, but Megumi wouldn't accept it.

"You do!" she hissed, "You know exactly what's going on, and you've been lying to me!"

"Lying about what?" Rio asked, looking back and forth between the two of them. Neither one listened.

"I did not lie, Megumi," Yu replied simply. "I have no knowledge of what has occurred."

"Oh, bullshit!" Megumi cried, stepping towards Yu. Kazuhi scuttled quietly out of the way, hiding herself from the enraged "demon" by using Yu as a shield. Yu shifted so the younger girl was effectively covered, as Megumi continued to rant, "Those dreams are premonitions, you asshole, and you know that as well as I do. How could you just ignore them? You could have stopped this, but no, you had to ignore the signs and hoard the medallion and make me come after you!"

"What is going on?" Rioroute questioned, edging backwards a bit from the obviously angry girl. Yu, to his credit, hadn't backed away at all, and the only sign that he was at all affected by Megumi's sudden outburst was a slight narrowing of his eyes. Rio was annoyed by the lack of response by either person – as they were both too concerned with arguing with each other to pay attention to him –, and he turned to Kazuhi. "Ne, Kazuhi, what are they talking about?"

Kazuhi looked at Rio from behind her brother, her eyes wide with anxiety and apology. "I am not entirely sure, Rioroute-san. B-but Oniisama is right; it is not right for you to be involved in this." In the background, Megumi continued to snarl at Yu, who replied tightly in return, but Rio had stopped paying attention to them.

"It's not right?" Rio asked incredulously, surprised at Kazuhi's response. "I already am involved."

Kazuhi looked at the ground, and Rio could barely hear the next thing she said. Despite being very quiet – which was exacerbated by the loudness exerted by Megumi –, Rio heard Kazuhi murmur, "You are not entirely involved, Rioroute-san. Oniisama is only trying to protect you."

Rioroute gaped momentarily, unsure if he had heard correctly. "What was that?" he asked gently, noticing Kazuhi's nervousness again and trying his best not to make her scared of him. But at the same time, Rio's mind was whirling with all that he had just heard, and the last bit was equally as confusing. Yu was trying to protect him? How did that work out?

But Rio wasn't able to ask again, nor was Kazuhi able to respond, because at that exact moment, both Yu and Megumi fell disturbingly silent. Yu's eyes narrowed into slits and Megumi's expression grew distant; Rioroute was surprised to note that the blonde girl was actually kind of pretty – in a scary sort of way – when she wasn't screaming at someone.

Yu hissed, "They're here."

"Oh, shit," Megumi agreed.

And suddenly, they were rushing to the door, leaving Rio and Kazuhi to watch, startled, as they simultaneously moved to exit. Rio abruptly jumped up and rushed after them, not caring to note if Kazuhi followed him or not. He needed to know what was going on, Yu be damned.

______________________

Erts had been just about to leave his room when he first felt a strange presence settle in the back of his mind. It wasn't particularly disconcerting, just... abnormal. And so he had paused, just enough to mentally prod at the newcomer, to try and get a feel for what exactly the thing was.

He abruptly received an odd mental image, along with a rush of intense emotion; the sensation nearly made him faint, as overwhelmed as he was by the force of it, but that wasn't what made his expression grow fearful. Rather, it was the sensations he felt: hunger. The urge to kill. The urge to eat.

And then Erts figured out what the odd mental image was: it was a view of himself, from the ceiling just above his head.

Erts worked this out in a split second, in just enough time to dodge to the side as the... creature dove down at him. A claw caught on Erts' shirt, ripping through the loose fabric easily, but Erts paid it no mind; instead, the blond boy scrambled away from whatever it was that attacked him, trying to get into a suitable attack position. Gasping for breath as he righted himself, Erts turned to find out just what had come at him.

Just in front of a doorway, a decently sized creature crouched on the ground, a pair of bony wings jutting out from its back and bent slightly. Its face protruded at the snout, giving a clear view of large, vicious teeth, and its eyes were sunken inwards; that combined with its murky greenish-brown skin gave it somewhat of a rotted look, despite the tightness of its skin. Its hands and feet were claws, which sprouted into sharp, dangerous-looking nails. At that instant, it turned to glare at Erts; suddenly, another wave of emotion hit the blonde boy: anger. Specifically, Erts noted, anger at losing its prey.

Erts' eyes widened as the creature leapt again, this time aiming straight for Erts' head. Erts dodged as quickly as he could, but couldn't avoid an injury this time: one of the creature's sharp claws caught him in the shoulder and tore into his skin. Erts couldn't help screaming as the nails ripped into his shoulder deep enough to scratch the bone, causing blood to well up dramatically in the gouges. Erts spun away from the creature and rammed headfirst into the wall, hissing in pain.

Down the hall, a young boy tensed up and turned around immediately, his eyes wide; Zero instantly ran back the way he came, hair beginning to stand on end.

Erts had no time to readjust himself as he felt the creature's presence coming at him again. At once, the blonde boy dodged to the right, feeling a rush of air as another strike of claws narrowly missed gouging into his side. The creature slammed into the wall, and Erts felt another wave of intense anger. Try as he might, however, Erts couldn't get a readout on anything other than emotion from the thing. It was as if the creature had no thoughts whatsoever beyond pure primal instinct, though the clear displays of anger were strange.

There was no point in thinking about this now, however. The blow into the wall had left the creature a bit disoriented, and before it could recover, Erts leapt back towards his desk and grabbed a hold of his chair, which was the first movable object he could get a grip on. The creature hissed and got up, turning around to find its prey, but Erts was moving before that – he smashed the chair down on the creature's head as soon as it had turned to face him. Immediately afterwards, Erts dashed for the door, knowing full well that he wasn't going to win this fight.

Unfortunately, the blow to the head didn't affect the creature as much as the smash into the wall had, and Erts had barely gotten two feet before he sensed the creature approaching him again. There was no avoiding this time; Erts could only widen his eyes in panic as he felt a pair of claws dig into his back while teeth tore into his side. And suddenly, he was falling, and the world was being shrouded in a wave of red, and the door was opening...

It was at that moment that Zero arrived on the scene, his hair defying gravity and glowing oddly; he opened the door just in time to see Erts fall to the ground, blood soaking his clothes from seemingly everywhere, and a strange, horrific creature perched on his back, attacking him. It was strange, how everything seemed to pause for a moment as Zero took it all in, and the creature looked up to see just what had interrupted its feeding. And then, everything went white.

Zero couldn't quite remember what happened, when he was asked afterwards, but after the light had died down, he found himself on the floor, slumped against the wall. A boy with spiky blonde hair and concerned brown eyes was saying something to him, while another dark-haired boy examined a strange, smoking mass on the other side of the room. A familiar-looking blonde woman hovered over the dark-haired boy's shoulder, and another girl knelt beside a limp figure covered in blood...

"Erts!" Zero gasped suddenly, recognizing the boy on the ground. The person in front of him jerked in shock, but grabbed onto his arms.

"Hey, hey," the spiky-haired boy said, trying to calm Zero down. "Just chill for a second here while–"

"I'm not going to chill!" snapped Zero, pulling free of the older boy's grasp. "Erts! Erts! Shit, he's hurt–"

"He'll be fine!" Spiky-hair insisted, trying to keep Zero from moving. "A doctor is coming right now, he's going to be fine–"

"Like hell he is!" Zero snarled, pushing the boy away. "Let me go!" Finally, he was able to shove past the bigger boy, and he immediately rushed to Erts' side. Once he arrived, kneeling near his friend, Zero felt his face paling. Erts' uniform was soaked in blood, which was still dripping onto a growing puddle on the floor. His shoulder was torn through to the bone, and his side was equally as ripped into, albeit more spread out. Erts' eyes were closed, his face pallid and his breathing shallow. Zero, for the life of him, couldn't see in any way how Erts could be "fine." Instantly, he turned to glare at Spiky-hair, who was now sitting next to him.

"What do you mean, he's going to be fine?!" snapped Zero irritably, his shoulders tense. He couldn't lose Erts, not now, when they had finally become friends and Zero felt like he was beginning to trust the blonde boy. "He's bleeding to death!" It was horrible to say those words, and Zero knew it, but the only thing he could really feel was a growing sense of anger, though at whom, exactly, Zero wasn't clear on just yet.

"The doctor should be here in a moment," Spiky-hair explain plainly, trying to pacify Zero. "They'll take him to the infirmary and patch him up, and he should be fine. He's not losing blood that quickly."

Zero didn't say anything as he continued to glower menacingly at the older boy, though he did feel his hair begin to stand on end again.

"Hey, now!" Spiky-hair was starting to look annoyed. "Kill it with the EX, would you? I'm here to help you, and your friend there, you got that?" The boy blinked a moment, and then looked away, "Ne, Kazuhi, do you need my shirt for more cloth?" Zero suddenly noticed the young girl kneeling alongside Erts, who was pressing a couple blood-soaked cloths against Erts' shoulder and side.

Without waiting for a response, Spiky-hair took off his shirt and moved to help Kazuhi subdue the bleeding. It allowed for the dark-haired girl to focus solely on Erts' side, while Spiky-hair attended to the wounded shoulder. Zero felt kind of helpless; he couldn't move as he just continued staring at his friend's limp form. It took a moment for Zero to realize that he was probably going into shock or something, and then he tried his best to shake it off. Erts was going to be okay. Spiky-hair said so. Which brought upon another question.

"Who are you?" Zero asked finally, noticing that his hair had stopped hovering. For some reason, Spiky-hair looked kind of familiar, but Zero couldn't quite place him.

"I'm Rioroute Vilgyna," answered the older boy, looking up from his task by Erts' shoulder. "Pilot of Agui-Keameia. That's Kazuhi Hikura, a repairer for Tellia-Kallisto." Zero gaped slightly at this, eyes going wide, though Rioroute didn't seem to notice. "The kid over there is Yu Hikura, Tellia-Kallisto's pilot, and that girl is some bitch named Megumi that showed up the other day."

Zero could only reply, surprise clear in his voice, "You're pilots?" Then, after a pause, he added, "What are you doing on GOA? And in Erts' room?"

Rio raised one eyebrow appreciatively. "You're quick. As for your questions... I really don't know. I just followed Yu here. He's the one who went all freaky over the whole thing. And then we got here, and a damned good thing we did, too, 'cause this kid was bleeding like anything, and you were doing some sort of weird glowing trick. And whatever it was that attacked this kid – Erts, you said? – was melting or something in the corner."

Zero took in all of the information with a nod of his head, blinking a few times to try and clear his mind. Catching what Rio had said, Zero turned halfway to look at the corner, where he could see (and smell) a distinct strain of smoke, though he couldn't see what was causing it very well. His view was blocked by a lean, small dark-haired boy – Yu Hikura, Zero figured – and a curvy-looking blonde...

"It's you!" Zero said, startled. It was the girl that he and Erts had shown to GIS, the one who had struck Erts as wrong, and who had annoyed Zero after awhile.

Megumi turned, glancing over her shoulder at the surprised boy on the floor. She gave him an intrigued look, and replied, "You're the kid that showed me around."

The dark-haired boy, Yu, looked at her oddly and raised an eyebrow at Zero.

"Er – yeah," Zero answered, a bit put off by the blunt comment. "Why are you here? Again, that is."

Megumi ignored him, looking at Yu. "It could just be a coincidence." Yu narrowed his eyes but looked away, turning his attention back towards the smoldering lump on the floor.

"Hey! I asked you a question!" Zero wasn't one to be ignored, especially when he was finding out information on just what had happened to his friend.

"It's not like this thing was after me or anything," Megumi continued, muttering to Yu. "They can't be trained so easily, and I'm not the best of prey, if you–"

"Hey!" Zero snapped again, standing up. He would be damned if he was going to allow her to blow off his question like that, especially since it was Erts would had gotten hurt because of whatever that smoking thing was.

Unfortunately, Zero wasn't able to insist on Megumi's attention, because the door slid open, and around five medical officers entered the room. Suddenly, the entire place was in an uproar, as the staff caught sight of Erts' bloodied body and swarmed beside him, pushing Rioroute, Kazuhi and Zero out of the way. Zero tried his best to watch what they were doing, but found he could see through the bodies. He turned away, just in time to see a dim flash of light.

Zero blinked; where the smoking lump had been, there was now clean flooring. It was completely gone.

"What the–?" Zero asked, frowning. "Where'd that thing go?"

The only person to listen to him was Rioroute, who turned to him and simply shrugged. "I have no idea," he answered. Somewhat offhandedly, he added, "It's becoming a familiar feeling."

All Zero could do at that moment was be grateful for his physical stamina, because he was positive that he would have fainted without it.

___________________________________________________

Kuro tapped his hand on his desk almost nervously, looking perplexed as he studied the computer screen in front of him. Just behind him, the lithe figure of Teela stood, one hand on his shoulder and a serene expression on her face. She was comforting. More so than Kuro would ever allow from anyone else, at the very least, but Teela was special.

"What have you found?" the beautiful woman asked. To anyone else, she would seem cold or distant, but Kuro could only sense the warmth of her concerned words.

"I'm not sure," admitted Kuro. "The girl, Wrecka Toesing, who was attacked was hardly wounded at all, simply drained of blood. But now Erts Virny Cocteau has been attacked, and brutally wounded. It doesn't piece together."

The room they were in was dark, and they were the only occupants. The sole source of light emitted from the computer screen. Both Kuro and Teela were shaded in an eerie blue-white glow from the monitor. On the screen, the most recent news from the medical center on GOA was displayed, and a report on the condition of the wounded Candidate was the latest bit added.

Teela paused a moment before pointing out, "No assailants were found in either case. And both involved a large amount of blood loss."

"That's not enough to connect them," Kuro argued quietly. "They both happened on the same day, too, which startles me. I didn't think our security had become so lax."

"It isn't," Teela murmured. "I do not think we are dealing with a normal invader."

Kuro turned to look at his lovely companion, questions clear in his expression. Teela was staring at the computer screen with an odd mixture of confusion, wisdom and sadness adorning her face. Kuro blinked, unsure of how to interpret this.

"There is another connection," Teela said finally. Her expression was still strange.

"I have not seen it," Kuro told her, placing one hand atop her own. Teela's expression turned calmer, and when she looked down at him, Kuro could see that she was watching him warmly. But she still wasn't smiling.

"Both of these children are connected to the One," Teela confirmed, turning her eyes back to the screen. "And to the Other. The two who share my EX."

There was a long moment of silence before Kuro could adequately explain his reaction to this new information.

"Well," he agreed, eyebrows raising, "I suppose this changes everything."

***

TBC...

I hope that was enjoyable. But, on that note, I'm sorry for taking such a long break from this story – I had abandoned it, kind of, but the other day I was looking through my old stories, and on a whim, decided I wanted to continue this. I didn't even have my old computer – my family got rid of it, because it was broken –, so I didn't have anything that I had already written for this chapter. Which, really, was a good thing. I was able to start anew (and I personally like what I have here better than the stuff I had before.)

So, I do plan on continuing this. (Especially since I now have an entirely new direction to run with. Heheh.) Any suggestions, criticisms, or general smacking for being gone too long are more than welcome. ^_~ I hope you review!