Dark Alternate
A D Gray-Man Fanfiction
Ragged breaths filled the night air, a blur of white streaking through the darkness of the trees as the teen ran and leapt over fallen logs and other forest debris.
Silvery eyes darted about the barely visible space, trying to calculate each movement, each direction that he took, hoping that he wasn't running in circles and straight back to his pursuers, even as his legs burned, demanding rest.
Even so, he couldn't simply stop, for that would certainly sign his death warrant.
He only noticed the embankment fall away a moment too late, not a far enough drop that would kill him, but at nearly two feet down, it was certainly enough to send him stumbling across the rocks, knocking the air from his already wheezing body.
He lay dazed for a moment, trying to catch his breath even as his side ached fiercely, the white-haired boy dragging himself up to kneel on his knees.
For a moment it felt like that was all he could manage, the silence in the surrounding woodland more disquieting and ominous than it was comforting.
With what seemed a massive effort he finally staggered to his feet, white cloak falling around his body and taking a few steps forward until he was directly beside a stream that cut through the land, moonlight brightly reflecting off its surface.
Even with the opaque and broken reflection on the water's surface, he could make out his own sunken eyes and the shadows that seemed to linger below them, unruly white hair even more messy and unkempt than was normal for him.
God, he looked like absolute Hell.
He was broken out of his thoughts as he heard something in the woods snap, making him jump and whirl around, but he couldn't see anything in the blackness of night.
It had probably been some animal, but he wasn't about to take that chance, spinning on his heel and splashing across the stream to the other bank.
Almost immediately, his breaths were sharp with pain again, but he couldn't afford to stop now.
When the ground seemed to fall out from under him, he assumed he had failed to notice another drop in the land, having a difficult time seeing where he was, but the area around him lit up brightly and he was sucked down into...it almost seemed like some kind of vortex or gateway.
He gasped and made an attempt to grasp something to keep from falling, but not fast enough.
He tried to twist around to break his fall on whatever would be below him, but he couldn't make heads or tails of which way was up, blinded by light on every side for a moment, before cobblestone rushed up to greet him, the such the manner no one wanted to be greeted by cobblestone street.
Not for the first time, the breath was knocked from his body, a choked groan leaving the teen's lips as the anguish in his side was made worse than it had already been.
"Son of a-" he rasped breathlessly, only managing to slowly move his arms under him and start to push himself up, his ribs protesting the effort and insisting he stay down.
"Hey, Moyashi-chan!"
Allen froze as his breath hitched, eyes widening slightly. He took a second to compose himself before staggering to his feet, surprised look erased and now hardened into a fierce glare.
"Damn Akuma!" Kanda exclaimed as he swung the his sword in the direction of a Level Two who was stubbornly refusing to just die already. It had already evaded an attack from the red headed fool and was now trying to block his path.
Which was its last mistake.
The blade of Mugen sliced through the creature, which gave one final scream of horror before exploding.
Turning his head over his shoulder and glaring at Lavi, who was trailing along slightly behind him with Lenalee, he snapped, "Move your ass!" directed more at Lavi than at Lenalee.
"It's moving, Yuu-chan," Lavi said as he and Lenalee continued to run behind the perpetually pissed off samurai. "You know you really ought to learn to lighten up."
Even as he said this Lavi moved past the dark haired teen, trying to catch up with Allen, who had moved ahead of them and out of sight in pursuit of the strange bird presumed to be Innocence.
For some reason he had a really bad feeling about all of this.
After a while of running, with all of them slightly out of breath, they finally managed to catch up to their white haired companion in the confines of a back alleyway.
The others didn't seem to notice immediately, but Lavi drew up short as he took in the condition of said white haired teen.
He was pale, way paler than usual, and appeared as though he hadn't had a decent meal in some time. It was hard to tell considering Allen had such a high metabolism and was always quite thin regardless of the sheer mass of food he ate, but where most of the time he only looked a bit underweight, now he seemed emaciated to the point of sheer starvation, which wasn't right.
His eyes were sunken in as if dehydrated and malnourished, bloodshot and bagged as if he hadn't slept in days.
The perceptive redhead knew he couldn't have missed so many obvious signs of declines in the kid's health had it been there before.
Surely the Akuma hadn't been able to inflict this much damage on him in the short time that he had been separated from the group?
"Hey Moyashi-chan," he called out as he walked toward Allen. The white-haired boy froze a moment, then staggered to his feet in a breathless scramble, narrowing a dark glare on the group, especially him.
Something about the look was off, as if he was sizing up an enemy of the worst kind, and made Lavi wary to get closer, hanging back. Kanda and Lenalee had sensed it by now too and halted their progress towards him.
"What happened to you? You look awful."
"Oh, that's real funny," Allen sneered with a scathing edge to his voice, all but baring his teeth at the redhead. "As if you don't already know."
Lavi couldn't help but notice the guarded look to Allen's eye, which was making it hard even for the Junior Bookmen to read his expression accurately. That in and of itself was strange, since he could read Allen's expressions any day of the week with ease.
At the moment though, he seemed like an entirely different person, like foreign territory, and it was really throwing off the older male in a way he didn't like. He couldn't place exactly why that was, though.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Lavi said honestly, his own expression guarded. "You were fine the last time we saw you."
Allen rolled his eyes.
"Oh yeah, just fucking peachy."
Lavi was still watching, trying to evaluate the situation.
There was a certain note of pain and shortness of breath in the whitette's voice, and the way his sides moved, however subtle, that made the older teen suspect some form of respiratory distress, as though he couldn't draw a proper breath. A broken rib obstructing his lungs, perhaps? Or some other form of injury?
His stance was also off, his weight off-center as if he was having trouble remaining standing and trying to compensate.
Though probably not picking out the minute details to the same level, his other two companions had noticed how bad of condition Allen seemed to be in. Lenalee was, predictably, the first to step closer. Allen shifted his weight as if ready to step back, or maybe even turn tail and run.
"Allen, you're hurt. We need get you to a docto-"
"Stay the Hell away from me!" Allen snarled, raising his Claw.
Lavi and Lenalee both tensed reflexively, wondering if the younger teen was actually going to attack them.
He slammed his Claw to the ground and called out, "Cross Grave!"
Glowing crosses appeared across the ground side of the buildings, exploding debris of stones and brick.
Lavi reflexively raised his arms to guard his head, squinting as a dust cloud obscured the air and small chunks of stone pelted him.
He only barely managed to make out a silhouette lunging towards him in time to raise the handle of his hammer, blocked claws coming within inches of slicing into his skull.
He side-stepped and jogged back slightly, holding his weapon defensively, painfully aware that that attack had been no joke, fully intent on ending him.
"Oi, Allen! What's gotten into you?!"
Even as he made this question, Allen turned to bolt away from them, disappearing into the dust which was beginning to disperse.
As the white-haired teen made it out into open air, Lenalee landed in front of him, effectively cutting off his escape.
"Allen! Stop! We're your friends!"
Allen only skidded to a stop for a second, an animalistic growl rising in his throat as he lunged forward with his Claw, not even hesitating for a second at the prospect of wounding the Chinese girl.
He didn't manage to make it that far as Kanda managed to snag the albino by the end of his cowl, giving it a hard yank backwards and flipping the boy through the air.
The teen hit the ground squarely on his back but rolled with the momentum back to his feet, wheezing hard since the breath had been knocked out of him.
Kanda turned to stand between the white-haired teen and Lenalee with sword at the ready, a hard look to his eyes.
"What the fuck is wrong with you, Moyashi? Did you hit your head and manage to kill what little brain cells you actually have?"
Still, without a word, Allen leapt forward, but Lavi was prepared. Coming up behind the teen, he used the length of his weapon's handle to grab Allen around the chest and keep him from attacking, trying to restrain him.
"Allen, stop! Why are you suddenly attacking us?" he demanded. He was reluctant to fight the younger boy, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't if this continued, at least until they could manage to restrain the fighting male.
Had the Akuma or Innocence had some sort of effect on him? Or, worse, was it because of the 14th Noah surfacing somehow?
Allen struggled for his freedom and struck the redhead in the ribs hard with his elbow, earning a hiss of pain out of him, but it wasn't enough to make the junior Bookman let go.
Lenalee rushed forward to help restrain him, but Allen only fought harder, like someone possessed. The wild look in his eye could only be described as vicious, like that of a frenzied predator.
"Allen, snap out of it!" Still, the cries went unheeded, the teen managing to twist around and slash his claw down Lavi's shoulder, kicking out hard at Lenalee.
Both were forced to let go and distance themselves slightly, Lavi's upper arm bleeding profusely from a deep slash.
Allen automatically whirled on Lavi, raising his claw to attack, but Kanda grasped his by the wrist and delivered a brutal punch to the teen's solar plexus.
Allen choked out a gasp under the blow and immediately slumped, suspended only by his left arm that Kanda was still holding. When he managed to regain the breath knocked out of him, he coughed an alarming splattering of blood onto the stone street.
"Yuu! Look what you did!" Lavi shrieked.
"Idiot rabbit! I didn't do anything!" Kanda snapped, looking just the slightest bit shocked himself. He had put a lot of force behind his blow but he knew he hadn't punched the idiot kid that hard.
Jogging over, Lavi had a hand on his own wound, already starting to feel the effects of blood loss making him dizzy.
"Set him down and let me check him out," he informed. He wanted to see if the bleeding was external or internal before making any calls. If it was external, maybe they'd be able to at least stem the bleeding first before taking him to a hospital.
Allen aside, they'd have to go to one anyway though, with the damage the Brit had managed to inflict on his arm.
Kanda lowered the youngest of their group down with an irate Che, being sure to hold either of the boy's arms just in case he tried attacking any of them again. At the moment it seemed as if he'd lost consciousness.
Lavi kneeled down and first opened up Allen's uniform and lifted his shirt. His torso was bandaged, though Lavi had been certain they hadn't been there before, and there was a growing stain of blood soaking the gauze.
"He's bleeding really heavily. We've definitely got to get him to a hospital and get it closed." He paused with a slight groan and glanced at his own wound. "And myself too."
The other two nodded their head in agreement, Kanda hoisting up Allen while Lenalee tagged close to Lavi, in case he'd need physical support himself.