Through the Looking Glass
By Inuyoshie
Chapter One:
The ocean rippled.
"That doesn't look good," Lavi remarked, leaning against the wooden rail of the boat he was on.
"No, it' doesn't," Allen Walker agreed, gnawing on his lip. General Tiedoll, Sound Marie and that annoying Kanda were also on the small craft, all brought together by odd circumstances that left an odd taste in Allen's mouth.
Within five minutes, the winds picked up. Clouds rolled over and the sea seemed to boil. Allen saw a huge wave approach and agreed with Lavi, that things didn't look good.
All was black.
Cross Marian was on a boat, and as usual, on the run.
There was a rather unpleasant maelstrom the night before, which must have pushed Cross' boat onto an island. Cross stumbled out of his boat on a chunk of land that looked solid at first but crumbled under his boots. Cross swore, and leaped, avoiding a rather unpleasant morning mud bath. With a sigh, cross began slogging through messy and unstable ground, a scowl growing. This scowled lessened as the ground became more stable. The air was thick and humid, and the solid ground came with a clingy jungle. Everything was a mottled mess of greens, yellows and browns. Bright animals, vivid blue insects and bloody red frogs scurried and flashed across Cross' field of vision. Cross' mouth was becoming dry as he moved on, searching for any sign of civilization. He stumbled, tasting something odd in the air. Cross stopped, leaning on a tree. He wasn't usually this… Cross sneezed and glanced down at his black gloved hand. Pale yellow pollen dusted his gloves.
Great. Cross had inhaled something. He sighed and leaned back, his lungs searching for cool, fresh air.
Cross felt something touch his shoulder. He started slightly, his hand going to Judgment. When Cross stood, he was facing a statue.
The statue was a dark, bluish grey colour of a woman in a dress with wings. The surface of the statue was mottled with pieces of moss and vine clinging to it. The statue woman's pupil-less eyes flickered across Cross's form, and grabbed his wrist tightly, pulling hi. Cross stumbled after, confused a shell. This had to be a hallucination, there were few other explanations.
Cross ached for a cigarette.
The statue woman was gone.
Cross stood in front of a rather large castle. The castle was old and black, with years of jungle leaning on it. The windows were dark, cavernous eyes that peered down at Cross forebodingly. The man stepped up to the gates, rusted old things. Two piles of bones lay at the doors, with rusting greenish armor punctuating the yellowing matter. Cross put a (slightly shaking) hand on the wooden doors, giving them a push. They obeyed with a creak. Cross stumbled into the dark room, sighing when cool air rushed to meet him. Cross tumbled over something soft, and collapsed on it. He felt achy and tired all over.
All was black.
"Hey."
The black slowly turned. Lavi forced his eye open and tiredly surveyed the sandy beach he as on. The sand was a mottled blue grey and a pair of tan feet stood out.
Lavi blinked up at a woman standing in front of him, dressed in a loose white dress. She had rich, royal blue coloured hair and soft, grey blue eyes
"Ah good, you're conscious. Please get onto the shore so I may save Sir Tiedoll from drowning," the woman told Lavi in a soft, yet brisk manner. Lavi blinked, confused, but pulled himself onto the beach. Allen, Marie and Kanda lay a few feet away, Kanda picking some shelled creature out of his hair disgustedly. Allen smiled at Lavi and waved.
The blue haired woman hiked up her skirt with an air of grimness, dipping soft tan legs into greenish blue water. Lavi raised an appreciative eyebrow.
Allen sighed at Lavi as the woman fished Tiedoll out of the water. Lavi frowned.
"How did she know his name?" he asked.
"I see things," the girl replied, Laying Tiedoll on the sand carefully. "The future, to be specific. I am Patience,"
"Oh. I'm-"
"You currently call yourself Lavi, I know," Patience nodded.
"Okay," Lavi nodded back, frowning again. Well, this was interesting. "Where are we?"
"Welcome to Ischthal," Patience smiled. Lavi's eye widened.
Could it be?
"Our boat is totaled," Allen complained as Kanda ripped the ocean animal out of his hair. Marie frowned.
"It's… quiet," he remarked. Patience gave Marie a very sad look, her demeanor going from brisk to vulnerable in about a second.
"Not for long," she muttered, sitting down on the beach. "The song has ended… Adam's coming…"
"Um, miss-" Allen put a hand on Patience's shoulder.
"Allen, no," Lavi shook his head. "Messing with pre-cognates during a vision is a bad idea,"
"Pre-…" Allen looked confused.
"People who can see the future, myoshi," Kanda told Allen coldly.
"I know what that means you know," Allen grumbled back. Lavi sniggered slightly.
The sound of a horse approached, and Allen looked up. Another woman approached on a pale grey horse. This woman was about as tall as Patience, with soft, light brown skin and silvery white hair like Allen's. Behind her lay a bustling town, nestled between protective hills. The woman dismounted her horse smoothly.
"Hello," she greeted in a soft, musical voice.
The darkness split open. Cross groaned and listened to soft footsteps pad along the stone floor.
"Light."
Lamps burst into flame, illuminating the room. Cross was ain a large room, carved of stone with richly decorated rugs on the ground and tapestries on the walls. A fireplace loomed in the center of the room, with two elaborate staircases flanking it.
"Hey." An annoyed sounding female voice called out. Cross turned to see who was addressing him; a tall woman with curly black hair dressed in black, and raised a brow.
"Hey," he nodded, feeling crappy but not too crappy to flirt. The woman brought a (rather large) sword to Cross's neck easily.
"State your name, affiliation and how the hell you got into my house," she told him coldly.
"Cross Marian," Cross replied smoothly, standing with a shadow of a stumble. "I hold no affiliation, and I just walked in,"
"Don't be a smartass, that's impossible," the woman scowled. "Would-"
"I allowed him in," a deep voice grumbled. Cross tried to locate the source of the sound, but his headache returned with a subtle intensity. A flash of concern crossed the woman's face as she approached him, examining him.
"You must have run through a field of Caracino plants," she remarked, glancing Cross over. "Judging by the swamp mud on your boots, you're foreign, from the north,"
"Well-"
"Shut up and rest. I'll get you some water," the woman growled at Cross.
Cross strained to watch the woman walk pass. She had a nice body, not too curvy but muscular. Her clothes were loose, her pants only hitting mid-calf and her shirt essentially consisting of a band around her breasts. Oddly enough, the rest of her body was covered in bandages, only leaving her face uncovered. The woman glanced back at Cross, her grey eyes flashing with some amusement.
"You'd better be more subtle," she remarked."You stare at any other girl like that and her brothers will crack your skull open with a stick,"
Cross smirked slightly at that.
"So what keeps your brothers from doing the same?" he asked slyly.
"I don't need a brother. I'll just kick your ass myself," she remarked. Cross laughed.
"That's funny," he remarked. The woman placed a glass of water on the table next to Cross.
"Is it now?" she replied, sitting own across from Cross. Cross gulped at the water needily. His mind cleared almost instantly.
"Alright. Take off all the clothes that have pollen on them," the woman ordered.
"Already asking me to take my clothes off? You're bold," Cross remarked with another smirk. The woman narrowed her eyes dangerously.
"You wanna get intoxicated again? I'll ship your sorry ass out into the jungle so you can get the flesh stripped off of your bones by the Ramencraft," the woman snapped at Cross. Cross shrugged and stood, carefully peeling off his clothes. The woman glanced way tastefully, walking out of the room and returning soon after with an armful of clothes. She then carefully picked up Cross' dirty clothes (with a cloth covering her mouth and nose) and left, returning empty handed. "Are you in the military?" she asked.
"Somewhat," Cross shrugged, looking around. The woman spotted Judgment, placed carefully on the couch next to Cross.
"What's that?" she asked. Cross glanced at it.
"Doesn't matter. Where am I?" he asked, brushing the prior question off.
"Ischthal. Is that a weapon?" she asked.
"Doesn't matter. Ischthal huh? I thought that sank into the sea ages ago," he remarked.
"It did," the woman replied frankly.
"But now it's risen. Interesting," Cross sighed, leaning back on the couch. His stomach complained. The woman rolled her eyes.
"Off your ass old man, we're getting food," she announced, offering Cross her hand. Cross frowned, standing on his own devices.
"I'm not old," he growled.
"You have a beard. That makes you an old man," she informed Cross, walking ahead of him with an almost flirtatious swing of the hips.
"Excuse me? Women love my goatee," Cross defended his face fur indignantly.
"Whatever. Here we like our men clean shaven," she informed Cross. Cross shrugged and followed her as she walked outside.
"So, do you have a name?" Cross wanted to know.
"Danielle," she replied, turning back to Cross with serious grey eyes. "Danielle AliAbra,"
Cross froze for a second, and continued walking.
That was bad…
Inuyoshie's after the chapter special
Hell yeah, this is Through the Looking Glass! ^-^
Danielle and Artemis are my two standard characters, whenever I'm introduced to a new anime; I run those two through the anime to see if I can write fanfiction in it. Sounds odd yes, but it's the reason I don't generally write Death Note fanfiction.
In the original typed up version, ther were breaks between the scenes. However, I'm a little glad that this website messes with my formatting, it adds to the dream-like mood of the story.
Anyways. I'm making Danielle a little more mature than I usually do, and Artemis a little… well, actually, Artemis is how she usually is. More people from her homeland shall be introduced, including her little brother and parents (and gramma~)
Ah, and Patience. Pay attention to Patience. She's like a giant foreshadowing tool.
So, next chapter the shizz goes down. Exposition is laid down and some Noah show up. Whee~!
Please review and tell me how OOC I made the cannon characters!
Also: Ramencraft is a kind of six-legged squirrel that eats meat. Think like piranhas. I may forget to explain those later, see.