"Ian, are you okay?" Mitch asked in a concerned voice as he knelt over by Ian, who had a trail of blood running from his nose and down his face. Ian groaned, moving his hand to cover his nose.

"I'm fine," Ian said dismissively, using his shirt sleeve to wipe the blood from his face, a faint red streak left behind as the nose still bled. Ian cursed under his breath. "Who knew Jason had such a strong arm? Where is he?"

"I don't know, he just stormed off." Mitch replied, looking at the bedroom doorway. "Do you think he's okay?"

Ian sniffed. "I'm sure he is, but we need to find out where he went. Should I go look for him?"

Mitch frowned, helping his friend up off of the floor. "You aren't going anywhere until your nose is taken care of. Besides, I think you're probably the last person Jason wants to see right now. You did go a little far dude, roping in Weiss like that."

Ian took a moment to respond, looking blankly in front of him. When he finally did respond, there was a faint look of frustration on his face. "Jason went too far. He had a right to be mad, but you didn't even get a chance to explain yourself. He doesn't know what you've been though." Ian growled, and Mitch gave him a concerned look. Upon realizing this Ian sighed. "But you are right, I think I did go too far. I should apologize shouldn't I?"

Mitch nodded, a small smile on his face. "I agree, but you can't go out with your nose like that. Let me go instead, I can fly around and look for him, since it's the middle of the night, and no one will see me."

Ian frowned. "Mitch, you can't fly, remember?"

Mitch froze, realization came over him. Mitch turned to look at the mirror behind him, and he shuddered when he saw the reflection of his wings. Mitch assumed that the lightning must have struck his left wing, as it looked completely scorched, half of his white feathers a charred black, with a few holes in the wing from where the feathers had completely burned away. But he could see some new feathers growing as well, trying to patch up the holes and to replace the burned feathers. Mitch flinched when he saw the burns and gashes along his back by the wing, blood running from the biggest gashes, mainly from one that wound around where his wing connected to his back and snaked up around the left side of Mitch's neck. However, Mitch's healing was already doing its work, as the gashes were seeming to heal themselves at a painfully slow pace. His right wing didn't look any better, looking mangled as the wing was bent in an unnatural angle where it connected to his shoulder and about halfway down his wing, where it would usually bend. The wing didn't even close all of the way by Mitch's side like the other, only being able to close halfway. Mitch knew for sure that it was broken, suddenly aware of the numb ache from his back. Mitch watched in the mirror as Ian turned to look as well, a look of understanding in his blue eyes as he let out a deep breath.

Mitch stared into the mirror for a little longer, observing his wounds a bit more. His gaze wandered back to Ian's reflection, and Mitch's eyes widened as he felt a twisting feeling in his gut as he looked at it.

In the mirror, Ian's reflection had changed.

The first thing that Mitch noticed was the change of clothing, Ian's t-shirt being replaced with a black hoodie. The next thing Mitch noticed was the blue aura around his arms, and the absence of blood coming from his nose. What struck Mitch the most was Ian's eyes. They were a purple color, which was strikingly bright, looking almost as if they were glowing. It's like the copy from my dream...!  Mitch thought, a million jumbled up thoughts running through his mind like a river. But how is that possible?!?

Mitch hastily looked at his reflection for any differences as well. Mitch's reflection was wearing one of his white shirts, which was cut in the back, with his wings closed behind him. His left wing was no longer scorched, all of the feathers the gleaming white that they were before. His right wing was no longer broken, and was lying closed neatly. There was no blood, and Mitch couldn't see any wounds, only the big one that reached to the left side of his neck, which was a pale scar. He also noticed that his eyes were no longer brown, but they were instead a striking sky blue color.

Mitch tore his gaze away from the mirror, looking at the real Ian standing next to him, confused at the sudden change in Mitch's behavior. Mitch looked back at the mirror, but the reflections were once again normal. Mitch opened his mouth to say something, but quickly shut it. He calmed down, reasoning with himself that whatever had just happened wasn't as important as the task at hand.

"I-It doesn't matter. I can probably still wrap my hoodie around my wings, and even if it looks a little weird, it's the middle of the night. It's not like any people are likely to be out right now. Besides, I need to talk to Jason... alone."

Ian was about to argue when someone stumbled into the room, huffing as if they had ran as fast as they could up the stairs and to Mitch's room.

"Jerome, are you okay there?" Ian asked with a chuckle as Jerome gathered himself and regained his breath.

Jerome was going to reply, but he let out a yelp when he noticed Ian's bloody nose. "Jesus! What happened to you?"

"Jason." Ian said matter-of-factly. "What's going on that's got you all riled up?"

"It's just, we saw Jason storm out of the house, and we saw the blood on his knuckle, and we got worried. Ty tried to follow him, but he lost track of him. The guys are really worried about him. One of us need to go after him."

"Shoot, I forgot all about the others!" Mitch said, mentally- face palming as he realized his own stupidity. "I'm going to go after him now. Do you think that you and Ian can deal with the guys? I know I should probably explain everything to them myself, but do you two think that you can explain it to them while I go after Jason?"

Ian nodded his head, while Jerome laughed nervously. "Well..." Jerome said nervously, "I may have already told them while you guys were up here..."

Mitch's jaw dropped open. "Why the hell would you do that?!?!?"

"Well they already knew! I didn't want them panicking about this while you freaked out!" Jerome said defensively.

Mitch groaned, actually face-palming, slowly dragging his hand down his face. "How much did you tell them?"

Jerome groaned as well. "I tried to just explain how you got your wings, but that was hard to explain without involving Weiss, so I explained about that, leaving out the whole part about being friends with Jason though. So basically, they know everything, except for the dreams and anything involving Jason. I told them about how you felt about telling them as well, and how scared you were too. They aren't angry at all. I think they just feel bad for you."

Mitch was about to say more when Ian interrupted him. "Mitch, I think we have to tell them about the dreams. They need to know what's going on. I'll explain it the best I can. Mitch, you haven't had any more dreams, have you?"

Mitch frowned, trying to remember. "I had a dream where I saw a white light, with all of these different color rings around them..."

Mitch quickly explained the dream that he had with the copies off all of his friends, even the ones he had met recently, like Lachlan and Preston. Jerome was surprised about that more than Ian was. Mitch also included how the copies of Ian and Jerome, and Jason and Weiss were paired with one another. Mitch left out the details about the copy he had seen of himself, and of the following dream he had fighting the copy, not wanting his friends to know of the events that had transpired there, at least until he better understood it for himself.

"The voice I've been hearing as well, what he said has changed." Mitch said timidly. "Instead of the usual warning about the black-haired raven, it was... 'You can't save him. He is going to die. He must die. Just as the white-winged warrior fell from the skies in a mighty flame, the black- haired raven will die. But, with the death of the raven, the dulled star will be able to once again find its light, and the two fallen will once again rise'. "

A long moment of silence passed, a look of horror on Jerome's face, and a contemplative look on Ian's. Ian was the one to break the silence. "We'll only tell the original message to the guys. We don't need them worrying about this yet, not until we discuss it further."

Mitch nodded, and after he filled the two in on any missing details, he grabbed his hoodie and left to find his distraught friend.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jason let out a long and painful sigh as he plopped himself onto the bench, his feet sore from walking on the sidewalk for who knows how long. The street that the bench faced was empty, and the area around the bench was illuminated by a lone street lamp positioned about a meter or two away from the bench, casting in eerie light. Jason shivered, chilled by the irregular breeze in the air, his hoodie still somehow allowing the penetration of the cold. Jason ran a hand through his dusty blonde hair, thoughts racking his mind as he let his gaze wander. His look settled on something written on the front of the bench, and although the Sharpie's writing was worn, and unreadable, Jason knew exactly what it said.

'Weiss and Jason: Best Friends Forever!'

Jason also saw picked out the vague shape of a penguin right next to it. However, that wasn't drawn by Weiss, but instead by Jason, in the days following her death. Jason let a small smile creep onto his face as he reached over and touched the wood where the writing laid, Jason becoming aware of the tears starting to well up in his eyes. He eventually let himself to lean back onto the bench, and he reached for his phone, only to realize that it wasn't there. Jason sighed, taking a look at the watch around his wrist. It read 1:57. Jason frowned. He had expected the heavy rain to continue through the night, but for the moment, it had stopped. Jason still expected rain however, with the rain clouds still blocking out the sight of the stars in the sky. He didn't plan on going back home that night, not after the argument, so Jason pulled up the hood on his hoodie, letting his eyes close as he drifted off to sleep.

_---------------------------------------------------
Jason, who had just recently turned thirteen years old, breezed down the sidewalk, his skateboard rumbling from the rough concrete underneath it. It was almost the end of Autumn, the cold beginning to enter the air as Winter was almost upon them. Jason smiled, enjoying the feeling of the wind in his face as he raced along.

Jason turned along one street, facing the sun that was setting in the horizon. Jason, realizing that he needed to hurry home before it go too late, sped up a bit. Jason's gaze was caught by a bench coming within his sight. More so, he was looking at the girl that was sitting on it. She had straight blonde hair that swept past her shoulders, and was wearing a light gray long-sleeved shirt with pale green leggings, and black sneakers. She looked about Jason's age, and her gaze was focused on a book on her lap, and her free hand was fiddling with the jade green scarf around her neck.

Jason tried to catch her gaze as he drifted by the bench, but she didn't even look up, Jason only getting a glimpse of her brown-green eyes.

In fact, he was so transfixed by this girl that he didn't notice that he was heading straight toward a metal street lamp until he smacked right into it, making a loud bang as his head pounded against it.

He fell onto the sidewalk behind him, his skateboard rolling a bit farther before getting stuck in grass. Jason moaned, and he heard footsteps coming toward him.

"A-Are you okay?!?"

It was the girl, who was looking at Jason worriedly. Jason gave a weak thumbs-up, and the girl bent over and helped him up, pulling him toward the bench to seat him there. She pushed him onto it, picking up her book that had fallen when she rushed to get to Jason. The two sat in silence, Jason's cheeks a hot red as he realized that he had made his first impression with a girl that he thought was cute by ramming right into something like an idiot.

"Umm, thanks for the hap, I mean, help." Jason said nervously, trying not to mix up his words. "M-My name's Jason, what's yours?"

The girl, who had opened her book again, looked up at him with a friendly look in her eyes. "It's nice to meet you Jason, my name's Weiss."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Jason? Jason!"

Jason groaned as his eyes cracked open, yanked out of his memories by a voice calling his name. He noticed that someone was standing over him, and Jason gasped, jerking upwards, which caused him to butt heads with the person above him. The both of them groaned, and when Jason looked at the person again, he realized that it was actually Mitch, who was rubbing his head.

"What was that for?!?" Mitch said with a whimper.

Jason didn't reply, instead narrowing his eyes at Mitch. Mitch returned his gaze with one of confusion.

"Jason, I-"

"Why did you come after me?" Jason asked quietly, anger still lacing his voice.

"Because we're all worried about you!" Mitch said, a tone of disbelief in his voice.

Jason chuckled grimly. "Why are you alone then? You usually have either Ian or Jerome around you..."

Mitch sighed. "I need to talk to you alone Jason. I should have talked to you a while ago Jason, and I apologize for that. I'm going to tell you everything."

Jason, eyes still narrowed, sat back down on the bench, Mitch sitting next to him. "Where do I begin?" Mitch said with a chuckle.

The first thing that he explained to Jason was how he died, and how Weiss had brought him back to life. He then explained why Weiss' spirit had appeared by the house, in search of Jason, and how she tied into all of the occurrences. Mitch had wanted to elaborate on why Ian had added that to his argument, but decided that he would let Ian explain himself.

Jason, who had a look of disbelief in his eyes, spoke quietly. "I could honestly see Weiss doing something so stupid like that... she didn't have to hide herself from me... Oh, sorry, keep going."

Mitch then explained how Ian and Jerome came to find out about Mitch being an angel. Jason was honestly surprised to find out that Ian had figured it out by accident, and there was a small frown on his face when Mitch said that he had willingly showed Jerome his wings, Jason kept quiet and let Mitch continue.

Lastly, Mitch explained his dreams to Jason, and while he excluded anything relating the light copy of Mitch, he explained everything else, including the message about the black-haired raven. A look of horror had appeared on Jason's face while he had been explaining how he had seen the golden Weiss and the strange figure, and how he had been dragged down by chains at the end of most of his dreams.

"The message went, 'You can't save him. He is going to die. He must die. The black-haired raven must die. The white-winged warrior will be bathed in fire...' " Mitch explained.

"... as he falls from the skies." Jason said, shock both in his voice and his expression. Mitch looked up at him in surprise.

"W-What?" Mitch asked confusedly.

" 'You can't save him. He is going to die. He must die. The black-haired raven must die. The white-winged warrior will be bathed in fire as he falls from the skies.' Mitch, I think I had a dream like yours before, about a week ago..."

Jason quickly explained his dream to Mitch, the light, the feather, the chains, who also had a look of surprise on his face as Jason finished.

"That sounds exactly like my dreams... But I've never seen Weiss in the black space before... Are you sure that it was her?"

"Positive. Just keep going Mitch, I want to hear the rest."

Mitch nodded reluctantly, and was about to mention the second message that the light copy had given him before he was interrupted by a loud clap of thunder, which was followed by drops of rain, which were steadily beginning to drop at a faster rate.

"Aw man..." Mitch groaned.

Jason groaned as well, both him and Mitch pulling their hoods over their heads. "Come on, you can finish explaining later. We've gotta get home before it starts pouring out."

Mitch nodded, remembering the feeling of lightning surging through him with a shiver. With that, the two quickly stood up and heading home, not knowing how long it would take for them to arrive.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The paper was covered in scribbles and notes, some of it incoherent.

"You can't save him. He is going to die. He must die. The black-haired raven must die."

"You can't save him. He is going to die. He must die. Just as the white-winged warrior fell from the skies in a mighty flame, the black- haired raven will die. But, with the death of the raven, the dulled star will be able to once again find its light, and the two fallen will once again rise."

Ian was looking over this paper, a look of concern and frustration on his face as he read the messages over and over again. Those, and the notes on the paper regarding what Ian remembers about what Mitch had told him about the dreams. Ian had been spending his nights desperately trying to decode the message, trying to figure out who the 'dulled star' was, what the 'light' was, and most of all, who the 'black-haired raven' was.

Ian still didn't know the answer to the raven, but he had figured out one thing... one very crucial thing... but now that he knew what it was...

He didn't know what to make of it.

He was confused, frustrated, and he had no idea what to do.

Ian groaned, and jumped up from his seat, running to his door and into the hallway, making his way downstairs and to the front door. He noticed that he didn't run into any of the others on the way, making him assume that they had returned to bed. Ian didn't care too much about that however. He yanked the front door open, only to be met with a torrent of rain.

Ian didn't even need a second to think before he threw himself outside into the rain, slamming the door shut behind him as he ran out into the sidewalk.

Ian normally would have waited for Jason and Mitch to return home, but with the information Ian had just gathered...

He knew it was too important to wait.