Spiral Shame

I do not (sadly) happen to own -Man.

"50!" I smiled triumphantly. Squats done. I felt strangely euphoric. Of course. After all, who got another shot at life? Me, Allen Walker. Along with my friends, Lavi, Lenalee, Krory and Kanda. Even if Kanda called me 'moyashi', he was still loyal to me. To all of us. But he was closest to Lavi. They had developed an extremely close relationship, God knows how.

Anyway, it was a relief to be in a new world. This was the 21st century. No Akuma, no Earl, no Exorcists, no Noah. No Innocence. The world normal people viewed it as last time. How they were destroyed or something, I don't know. None of us know. This is the real world. What happened?

Kanda doesn't really care. Lavi spends much time racking his brains, 'cause he's the current Bookman. No matter how hard we all tried, it was fruitless. We couldn't' recall a single thing. We could only remember up to the part when Bookman Sr. died. We saw it ourselves. Then nothing. Then now, the 21st century. But thanks to that, we're now immortalized. But what for?

Crash! "Happy Reunion!" Lavi bounced in. "It has been one year!"

"Yeah," Lenalee smiled. "We thought we should probably celebrate it."

"Tch." Well, you should know who THAT was.

"Cake…" Krory was practically drooling.

"Well, then. Shall we cut it?" I grinned at them.

"Yeah." Lavi passed me the knife. So we sat in my room, eating cake, each in his own world.

"Guys?" Lenalee broke the silence. "Apart from the disjointed images we've all been receiving, did anyone get anything?"

"Nope."

"Nada."

"No."

"Tch. Stop worrying about that sister complex, will you?"

"It's hard. Especially when I know I've escaped and he hasn't."

"Forget about that, Lenalee. Can we just celebrate our existence for now?" Lavi viscously bit into his slice of cake.

"Yeah. Anyone up for a game of poker?" I challenged, producing a pack of cards.

I noticed that my opponent was Kanda, Lenalee not playing and Lavi and Krory deciding not to take their chances with me.

"I'm gonna kick your ass, moyashi," he growled.

"No way in hell. Damn straight you won't," I cheerfully replied.

"We'll see about that," he spoke through clenched teeth.

Three Rounds (and a whole lot of swearing on Kanda's part) Later

"Screw you, moyashi!"

"I believe that would be rather unpleasant, seeing as I'm not gay." I slapped the set down. "Royal Flush. There. I won."

"Fuck you, moyashi!"

"I'll cut all your hair first, seeing as black hair is far more profitable than white hair. Besides, you have more of it, Yu," I grinned lazily.

In a second he was at my throat. "Don't call me Yu!"

"Then don't call me moyashi."

"Moyashi!"

"Yu!"

"Moyashi, shut up!"

"Heh. Like I will?"

"Guys, guys," Lavi began.

"Bunny rabbit, if you treasure your life shut up!" Kanda snarled.

"C'mon," Krory groaned. "You guys are acting like kids!"

"He's one," I commented, nudging Kanda with my foot.

All of a sudden, a dark, eerie shadow passed through the room. The teasing that had taken place barely a minute ago turned into a deafening, suffocating silence. All of us had only one thought in mind. The Millenium Earl.

"I see all of you are enjoying being normal," the grotesque caricature of a noble gentleman commented.

"Fuck off. Go screw yourself. We were actually having fun, you ass," Lavi snarled, sounding uncharacteristically aggressive.

"Ooh. Bunny rabbit gets fierce. Heh," he taunted. "Well then, I'll get to the point. Ta-da!"

We were teleported (or so I thought) to a completely black room. "I don't see a damn thing," Krory muttered.

A spotlight came on, shining on yours truly, followed by the rest. We were standing on separate disks, spaced out around the room, not even reaching distance from one another.

Lenalee let out a horrified squawk. Kanda hissed out a breath, muscles coiled like a spring, on the defense but clearly knowing that he had no chance of getting at the Earl. Krory was fidgeting, and Lavi had a... let's just say weird and terrifying expression on his face. And me? I was just standing there, motionless, blank, having accepted my fate. The world's fate. We did not have a fighting chance, not to mention even knowing where we were.

"And now, I would like to show you a video," he cackled evilly. "It's about people who were previously in your shoes, like Allen's dear master, Cross Marian!"

The screen started up, and I gasped. Master was sitting there, slouched, as Earl carried his body away. Then it showed a scene where the Earl put him in the very same room we were in now, on a similiar disk. We heard the Earl's voice. "Cross, you have crossed me too many times," he spat, evidently pleased with the way he played with the words. "I call this invention the Spiral Shame!" Then Master was lowered down by the disk, and hurled down the tunnel or portal. I couldn't tell. "Aiyee! NOOO!" we heard him scream, and exchanged glances. Whatever made him scream like that, it must have been terrifying. Because I, in my entire three agonising years with him, never even heard him scream ONCE. "What the - Earl, you're gonna pay if I'm ressurected and I see you again!"

"Now," the idiot Earl grinned, "that is exactly what will happen to you. I saved the content for you to find out on your own, which you will shortly. If you are wondering why you are here, immortalized temperarily by me, it's because you killed my pets! You killed the Noah, and everything! So I revived you so that I could exact my revenge on you. Heh. You are goners now! Spiral Shame, activate and destroy!" He floated away.

We had barely enough time to ready ourselves before we were emptied down the worm-holes. Then I saw for myself why Master had screamed. All around me were the pictures of all my past failures. My childhood with Master. And the worst thing was the scene of Mana dying. It kept popping up every two or three memories. The car ramming into Mana, the little Allen Walker there holding his hand and begging him not to die. I heard cries coming from the neighbouring portals and started shrieking myself. Mana, Mana, Mana. General Kevin Yeegar's crucified and mangled body. His Innocence ripped out of him. The Finders crying.

Suddenly I realized that I was going numb. Numb from shock as the Great War began playing. The scenes after we fell were heartbreaking. The Earl destroying the entire Black Order so easily, so cruelly. I saw how he had killed Komui, and the screams from Lenalee told me so. I screamed and screamed, until I had no more air and my voice had gone hoarse. I watched him methodically and sadistically tear down and destroying what I held close and dear to me. Watched them crumble and dissolve.

Earl, you win.

NO! How could this be? Gramps! Panda!

Nii-san! Onii-sama!

Tch.

Eliade...

Then there was silence.