Ch. 1

I walked along the beach, the soft sand, sparkling from the full moon that shone overhead of me, also felt cool on my bare feet. The beach was empty, not another soul in sight, just the way I liked it. Everything was just so…peaceful. Well, it was before something appeared from the sand.

A few meters in front of me, a dark hole suddenly, almost looking like a portal. From the portal appeared a man. The man was dressed in an opened white cloak, a black shirt with gray pants underneath it. He also had semi-long white hair, along with tanned skin. But all this wasn't what I was shocked about the man. What I was shocked about was his eyes. Yellow. And not just like a lighter yellow either; it was an almost blinding yellow. Eyes that showed evil malice and disastrous plans in them.

"Zane…" The man said, smirking evilly. I froze, my hands quaking in fear, the only sign that I was afraid, besides the fear I felt in my eyes. "Join us…" He said, as dark shapes appeared behind him. They morphed, soon taking the shape of a person that was hunched over, claws ready. The figures were consumed fully by shadows, only a black shape, with glowing red eyes.

"Zane…" The man spoke again. "Together we could rule the Universe and their inhabitants…but only if you join me…" He smirked again as I shook, out of fear of the man.

"Zane don't listen to him!" A voice yelled from behind me. I turned to see two blue portals appear from the sand. Out of them appeared two figures, dressed in armor.

The first one that stepped out of the portal had gold armor, along with some patches of red in the center of certain pieces of armor. The armor-clad figure looked to be taller than I was, and by the way his armor was seated, I could tell he was a pure warrior. His helmet had a black visor, which is where I assumed he looked out from.

The second one had purple armor, along with some blue that outline some of the armor. This figure I assumed to be a girl, with the way the armor clung to her. Her helmet also had the black visor of the first, but also hand fins that jutted upward from the helmet, before pointing backward.

"You!" The silver-haired man growled, snapping his fingers. The two shadow figures behind him jumped, clear over my head, before landing in the sand and running at the armor-clad figures.

The armored male raised his hand; lightning coursing through it as he blasted the first shadow that had came at them, it dissolving into darkness in the sand before vanishing.

The armored woman also raised her hand, but instead of lightning, ice came out of her greave, freezing the shadow that had come after her before she kicked it in its chest, destroying it before it vanished.

"You're not going to get him," the armored man yelled at the silver-haired man, who simply smirked. "We'll see about that." The man's yellow eyes glowed in the darkness, more of the shadow men appearing behind him.

The armored man swore quietly, though I could faintly hear it. "Zane, leave." He said his voice both commanding and stern.

"How? And what the heck is going on here?" I asked.

"You'll soon find out," the woman said, something appearing in her hand before it all went dark…

….

When I opened my eyes, I was back in my room, lying down on my bed, just like I was when I had fallen asleep, only now, I was confused and loaded with questions. What had just happened? What made me have that dream? Why did I have that dream? Why is the dream so vivid to me? And I had one question that was sticking up above the rest.

Was it a dream?

But I shook that thought off and looked at my clock, located right next to my bed. According to it I still had about an hour before I was supposed to meet my friends down at the beach. So I decided to take my time getting dressed and getting myself some breakfast.

I watched the news (because nothing else was on) and I saw how that some people have been vanishing down at the beach at night. Weird. That's never happened before. But then again I've never had a dream like that before either. Once again, I simply shook off the feeling before I grabbed my keys and walked out the door of my apartment. Yes, my apartment, where I live alone. Don't ask why, I'll just say that my parents vanished years ago and I've been living alone.

But anyway, after a few minutes of walking, I arrived at our usual spot on the beach, near a downward curved palm tree, where we could jump up and sit on it. So I jumped up and sat on it, waiting for my friends.

Soon my two friends showed up. Namine, her blonde hair blowing in the wind lightly and her green eyes shining in the sun, and Dan, his black hair coming down just above his blue eyes. And, as always, they were walking together, holding hands.

I chuckled seeing them. "You two superglue your hands together again?" I asked when they got in earshot of me.

"Shut up," Dan said. I chuckled again.

"So are you two going to spar again today?" Namine asked.

"You up for it?" I asked.

"As always," Dan smirked. I nodded, jumping down and walking over to where we kept our wooden swords, the ones we used to spar against each other. I tossed one to Dan's open hand, which he caught and let go of Namine's hand. She went over, taking my old spot on the palm tree. "Good luck!" she called to us, but both of us knew she was rooting on Dan.

"Let's go!" I called to Dan, taking up my fighting stance. He nodded, gripping his sword before running at me, swing quickly. I ducked under the strike, stabbing at him, in which he simply sidestepped, swinging at me again. This continued for a while longer, which was a grand improvement from when we first started doing this, where Dan killed me in this extremely fast. But a lot has changed within the past few years, so I slowly started gaining the upper hand, and when I did, I knocked the sword from his hand and held the wooden blade to his heart.

"Dead!" I grinned.

"Lucky hit," Dan grumbled.

"You wish."

Before Dan could make a better comeback, we heard a scream from down the beach, and when we turned to see what was going on, I gasped, out of fear and surprise.

Down on the other end of the beach was something I had seen in my dreams: The shadow beings that silver-haired man had controlled.

"No…" I muttered, cursing under my breath. "It can't be…"

"What?" Namine asked, running over to us.

"Those things…I've seen them before." I said.

"Where?" Dan asked.

"In a dream I had last night," I said, remembering more of the dream. I clutched my head, the dream coming back to my mind. "But this time the armored people aren't here to stop them…"

"What armored people?" Namine asked.

"These armored figures in my dream that fought those things," I muttered, pointing my wooden sword at the shadowy creatures, which were now finished covering half of the beach that had been separating us from them.

I looked down at my hand, looking at the wooden sword there. If the figures could fight them, then so could I.

"Run," I said to Dan and Namine.

"What, why?" Dan asked.

"I'm going to stall them, so get Namine somewhere safe."

"But what about you," Namine said softly.

"I'll be fine," I said, smiling at them. "Now, go, and don't look back!"

They nodded. "Be safe," Namine whispered again, before they ran off toward a safe location.

I watched them go, before turning to the problem at hand: The shadow people, now even closer than before. I gripped my sword, before running at them quickly, blade up in the air.

The shadow figures noticed this, suddenly dropping on all fours and rushing at me. I yelled as they got closer, my adrenaline pumping as the first one got close to me. I swung my sword right at its chest, hoping to hit the heart, but before I could react, the figure grabbed my sword, and with me still holding on, it threw me at a tree.

I grunted at the pain in my back, before wondering what had happened. I had sliced right at its chest, but it stopped it. What was going on here?

Using the sword as a crutch I got back to my feet, wincing at the pain still in my back that I felt. As I was doing this though, the shadow people had surrounded me, their eyes looking ready to rip me limb from limb. The closest one of them, the one that had threw me into the tree, got ready to jump on me. I held my blade up, knowing it'd be pointless to try and defend myself, but trying none the less. It jumped, just as the blade swung right at its head, before a bright light surrounded the sword, forcing the thing back.

When the light faded, the weapon that had been in my hand had transformed. Its guard was now made up of silver wings surrounding the part of the sword that's held; the blade was now long, sharp and silver, with black spirals going up the length of the blade; and from the bottom of the sword, a small chain hung with a crescent moon symbol on it. The name Silver Wings came into my head, before I got a reflection of myself and almost jumped.

The weapon wasn't the only thing that had changed; now, instead of wearing clothes, I was dressed in silver armor from head to toe, with the exception being my visor and where I could talk from, with no armor over my mouth. On my armor chest, there was a picture of a gray moon on it.

"Whoa…" I muttered, before movement of the shadow figures brought me back to reality.

The first shadow, the one that had been giving me the most trouble out of all of them jumped at me. I rolled out of the way as it flew past, but we both recovered quickly. The next time it jumped I was more than ready, and this time when it jumped, I raked my blade through it, and as I pulled it out, it seemed to sink back into the sand before vanishing into nothingness altogether.

Before I could react more, the second and third creatures were on me. The first one raced toward me, before I swung my sword, trying to catch it, but with its speed I just couldn't catch it. The third one soon did the same as the second, and ended with the same exact results. I thought back to how the two figures in my dream were able to destroy the shadow beings, but just as I was in the middle of thinking back, one of the two raked its claws against the back of my armor, but luckily I reacted enough for it to only give me a scare, and also push me into the sand.

I grunted as I started to stand back up, just as the third one raced toward me, but I simply pointed my blade it, not sure of what would happen, but what did was amazing. Out of the tip of my blade came a bright, silver substance that looked almost pure white. I tried to think of what it would do to the creature, just as it hit. The creature jumped back to avoid it, but it was already too late for it: It was soon destroyed quickly by the substance that had appeared from my blade.

The second creature then ran towards me, jumping up as it started to bring its claws down on me. I raised my sword up to defend myself, but instead of being blocked by my blade, a large silver paneled sphere had come up around me. The shield didn't crack, but it did vanish and sent the shadow-being flying back. As it flew back into a tree, it vanished into the darkness like its fallen comrades.

I looked around, just as I was surrounded by more of those dark creatures. If this would've happened before all of this, and I wouldn't have had these abilities, I would've screamed. But after what had just happened to me, I smirked under my helmet, ran towards the nearest one.

For a long time the creatures continued attacking me, yet each time I was easily able to slash through them or destroy them with the silver substance or if it got too bad, I sent them flying away after setting up one of my silver sphere shields.

But at one point, the creatures stopped, falling back to circle around me. Before I could question what was going on, a dark portal appeared, and someone stepped out of it.

The man had blonde short-cropped hair, dark brown eyes, and a scar over his right eye. He was dressed in dark black armor, with tons of nicks and slash marks in it. On the front of his chest plate was a symbol that seemed familiar, yet at the same time seemed oddly strange: It was a purple triangle with the tip down, with yellow lines crossing inside of it to make an 'X' design, as well as having three dark gray looking dagger-like objects coming out of the sides.

"Hello," the man said, as the shadow figures around him shifted in their place. It was obvious to me that he was able to lead whatever the heck those creatures are.

"Who and what are you?" I asked, raising the tip to my blade toward his chest.

The man looked at me; amusement was obvious in his eyes. "My name is Kyo." He spoke slowly, yet I could feel the power emanating from his words. "I am what you should know as, a Shade-Heart."

Shade-Heart? That name, it sounds like I've heard of it before, but I just couldn't place a finger on where I had heard of it before. "What exactly is a Shade-Heart?"

"A Shade-Heart is when a person or being starts submitting to the darkness within them," Kyo said. "The darkness then starts to take a form around them, known, being called a Shade then. The Heart that they once held is lost, so darkness takes the place of their heart."

"How do you come into this then?" I asked, wondering why he wasn't like the Shades surrounding us.

"Sometimes one can simply control the darkness in them, and can control the Shades with weaker minds." Kyo said. "This certain kind of Shade is known as a Shadow, because of the look that they have shadows surrounding their bodies."

"I just have one thing to say," I said, gripping my sword tighter. "If you control these things, then I have the feeling I have to stop you."

Kyo simply smirked and chuckled, before it broke out into a dark, evil laughter. "You? Stop me?" He held out his hands, before a large double sided spear came into his hands. "You haven't even realized your full potential yet."

"Shut up!" I yelled, rushing toward him, blade dragging through the sand lightly. When I got into range of him, I raised my blade, ready to slice straight through him; and for the record I would've too if not for his spear.

I have to say, he was a master of that weapon; every time I slashed, he blocked; every time I tried to block, he usually was able to give my shoulders a good knocking into. This continued on for around ten minutes before he knocked up his spear, and was able to knock off my helmet. I gasped, losing the feeling I had gotten used to on my head.

"You lose!" Kyo yelled, moving his spear to knock my head off, if something hadn't had stopped him. Something had frozen his blade edge of one end of the spear.

We both turned in the direction of where it had been frozen, a purple portal was there, and stepped out someone that make me gasp: The woman in purple armor. "Hello Zane," she said. "It's nice to finally meet you…"