Yeah, it is a hat-trick! This is my first D.Gray-Man fanfic, my first English fanfic and my first fanfic ever! This calls for a celebration... Ok, I pay for a round of cookies!

The story you can see below is originally based on some crazy thoughts about Kanda's tattoo. First, I didn't want to write a fanfic, but somehow I felt like I have to do this. Well, I still don't know why I write it in English...

There will appear some characters I've made up. Some of them will have a bigger role. I'll desperately try to not make them into Mary-Sues and ...(What was the name for the boys again?), but since I mostly write at night the desire to sleep may trick me. So, if you have the suspicion that some innocent character in the story slowly turns into one of the most hated chara on earth who causes so many nightmares and will surely make the world perish, please hit me with the review-hammer (or if you want, with Rabi's hammer if he lend it to you) so that I can try to save the story.

disclaimer: Of course, D.Gray-Man and all of its characters don't belong to me. Well, if I could meet Hoshino-sama and ask for giving it to me as present, I would be the happiest person on earth, but... sighs it's just a little, humble dream... I also won't make a single dollar/euro with this story.

Dear me, I talk too much! Please read and enjoy my story! And if you could take some time and review it, my eternal thanks will belong to you.

It doesn't matter

Chapter one : Prelude

This night's moon is different than before. She has gotten much paler since her very first days and her eyes with which she observes mankind are now shut. These days, she often tries to hide behind dark clouds. As if she was afraid.

Afraid of what is about to come.

Afraid of what has begun.

Humans cry a lot, nowadays. You barely find a peaceful place in the world. Crime, accidents, diseases, natural disasters… there are plenty reasons to despair. So, darkness has an easy way to conquer a human's heart.

You lose a beloved one and you suffer. You cry in bitter agony; you begin to hate your once appreciated god, for he let you feel this pain. And then HE comes.

The dark one. The creator. It is the earl of the millennium.

With giving you the possibility of bringing your love back to life, he eases your grief for a short amount of time. You call the name of your treasured one and find happiness. Even if the one you love has changed his appearance. It doesn't matter for you, right? As long as you can be together…

But be aware! This happiness is not supposed to last longer than one take of breath.

You will die.

The one closest to you will kill you with his very own hands.

Since you've made him into an akuma. A marionette of the earl who must obey his orders.

Oh, why weren't you strong enough to live on without your beloved? Did you know that his soul can't escape out of his own strength? He is trapped and alone.

The new akuma kills and evolves into a stronger, more dangerous enemy. But one day, he will meet the apostles of god. The exorcists.

And then, nothing will separate you from your missed love anymore.

Yet, there are so many akumas in the world and so much despair. The war between exorcists and the earl will step up. Their enmity runs deep; it is engraved in the innocence, the only weapon against the akumas.

The climax will be reached soon. Blood will be pouring down from heaven, shadows will strangle the remained hope and the laughter of the earl will fill the endless night. And there are just a few exorcists standing up to him.

So, you didn't know about that all? Well, wisdom comes too late for you. Oh, please don't cry. The last moments of your life shouldn't be spent in such sadness. Just think of the day when the exorcists finally release your love. Now, wipe the tears off your face and let me tell you more. Listen carefully because death will be your only chance to see.

The earl is putting a scenario into action in which all of mankind will come to an end.

Bringing an end to that scenario is what the exorcists do.

But who will win? The future lies in shadows. Will the battle come to a successful end? Or will the world drown in blood?

The decision will be made soon. Why? You really know nothing, don't you? Poor human.

The three days of darkness… they are coming.

And now, go to sleep and rest till you meet your love again.

"Help! An akuma!"

The scream cut the lazy silence of the early afternoon in a little French town and made the crowd on the marketplace froze in scepticism. Akumas were just superstition, right? Hence, the people simply regarded that bone-shaking cry as an attempt to stand in the centre of everyone's attention and went back to their daily occupations. Only two persons in black clothes started running towards the source of the yell. As sprinting around a corner, the white-haired boy in the front took off his left glove and released a strange, red hand with an embedded cross. The girl behind him jumped into the air while her boots changed their appearance. She seemed to fly.

Soon they reached a big place where a woman lied on her back and faced an ugly creature. "Allen, prepare to fight!" shouted the girl. "Roger!" All of a sudden, his red hand turned into a big claw. He dashed towards the lady and stopped between her and the creature. The girl landed behind the beast. But something was wrong. Both of them were exorcists and had seen many akumas. Somehow, this one was different. It was big, surely about three meters high and it had an unfamiliar rectangular shape. From time to time, there came smoke out of its coat and it has odd red horns, short blond hair and a large tail. Its eyes were of an ordinary blue colour.

"Eh, Linali?" said Allen with a nervous tone. "Which level is it?" Linali asked while staring at the monster's tail whose consistence appeared to be much alike paper. Allen hesitated. "Well, I can't see the soul. It doesn't seem to be an akuma." Linali's eyes widened in disbelief. "Really?" "Yes. But however… we should be careful. It looks dangerous. Maybe it is a high-levelled one! At all, the lady over there has said there was an akuma." The mentioned lady got slowly up. She had an angry, confused glare. "Of course I've said that! It is part of our performance!" "P-performance?"

Linali slowly walked towards Allen who uncertainly deactivated his anti-akuma-weapon, and eyed the beast suspiciously, but it just laughed back at her. "I'm convincing, right?" it said and reached to its head. It took the horns off, then it opened its coat and revealed the body of a young man on stilts. He had put on a weird metallic apparatus that was responsible for his shape and produced in regular intervals little clouds of smoke. "A costume?" asked both Allen and Linali in unison. The man nodded. "Yeah, we're selling tickets for the great show at the theatre tonight. You know, the amazing première of the musical 'The Beauty and the Beast'. It is a completely new interpretation." "And how is it concerned with the akumas?" Linali frowned at Allen's curiosity. It sure sounded interesting, but they couldn't afford the time and money to take a day off and watch a musical. Besides, Komui was waiting for their report. "The beast is an akuma, what else? It will be the biggest show this town had ever seen! All over the town are performers who promote the musical and sell tickets. Now, if you don't want to buy some, could you just leave so that we can go back at work?" "Of course. We have to go anyway or we'll miss our train." Linali bowed in apology. "We're sorry for the inconvenience. Goodbye." Then she grabbed Allen's arm and they left the place.

First, Allen wanted to ask if they could stay a little longer to watch the performance, but Linali reminded him of the train which would leave soon. The next one wouldn't depart until tomorrow, thus they had to hurry. Allen glanced at the costumed man. So that was how normal humans imagined the akumas. He smiled lightly since he knew better. But… when he thought over it, the man wasn't surprised at all because of the appearance of the exorcists. And he didn't say anything about their anti-akuma-weapons which was a odd sight for normal humans and usually provoked some reactions. However, it was too late to ask. Their train wouldn't wait. The crowd built due to the incident gave way as they passed. The people stared anxiously at Allen's left arm. He sighed. It was always like that. He could save as many humans as he could, but every time they were afraid of him. Perhaps they thought his left arm was a demon's arm, since it was blood red. But wasn't he a member of the Black Order, of the holy church? His well visible symbol of the Vatican didn't seem to matter. Thoughtful, he touched the silver cross on his uniform. Linali watched him worried. The sad look in his eyes hadn't escaped her. But before she could say anything, someone shouted loudly:

"Yo, Allen, Linali!" Soon afterwards, Rabi, another exorcist, appeared behind them, one arm around Allen's shoulder, the other around Linali's. "Man, that was pretty embarrassing for you, wasn't it?" Allen's cheeks reddened slightly and felt his heart beating faster. Rabi was one of his best friends and would surely make fun of him because of that situation. He was such a kind of person who liked to badger his friends. Shuddering, he thought of Rabi's last prank. The results had been a really scared Miranda, a half destroyed library and a very, very mad bookman.

"Che, it's no wonder the silly bean sprout was taken in by such a ridiculous costume. What a pity for the Black Order that stupidity can't be cured." Allen turned his head and faced the person to whom the voice belonged. It was another fellow exorcist, Kanda, which Allen sometimes counted to his friends, mostly as long as Kanda didn't say anything. Allen decided to ignore his offences. "Why are you here, at all?" he asked, changing the subject. "We have finished our mission and are now heading back to the headquarters." Rabi answered. "Hey, then we can travel together!" "Why not? But now let's hurry or the train will depart without us." With these words, the exorcists started to hasten towards the station. On the way, they passed several street performers who seemed to have a hard time to sell their tickets. There were only a few persons who actually watch their dances, singings and performances. The exorcists too weren't interested except for Allen who looked around with large eyes. Once he had been a street performer himself. With his foster parents he had travelled many countries to show his performing skills. The performances around him awakened a lot of memories. Mainly, he observed the dancers. They reminded him of the woman who had joined him and his father somewhere in Germany and who had a huge crush on Mana. It had been a one-sided love, therefore she had left them after some time, but her dances had been quite impressive to him. He could still remember the featherlike elegance of her movements.

As they reached the station, they could see another little crowd in front of it and three performers. One of them, a middle aged man, sat on a bench and played a guitar. The second, a black-haired girl, stood near him and danced while using two fans, a white and a black one. She wore a colourful mask and a long, fluttering dress with wide sleeves. The third was a little boy who sold the tickets. He wore the same fake horns like the man before. Allen approached the crowd to have a better look and stopped. He didn't know why he didn't move on; he just desperately felt like watching the dance. Kanda's eyes filled up with anger as he saw what the white-haired exorcist did. "Hey, we won't wait for you!" Allen couldn't take his eyes off the graceful moving of the girl. Absorbed in her dancing, he didn't hear anything. He stared at her black fan and vaguely felt a pull in his cursed eye.

"Allen, the train is leaving!" Linali pulled at his sleeve to get his attention. He glanced at her and his fellows who had stopped, then he concentrated his interest on the dancer again. "Please, could we wait for a few seconds? Just this song?" "No. You don't know how long it will be. We have to catch the train!" Linali pushed Allen into the direction of the station and began to shove since he didn't start to walk by himself. He cast a glance back over his shoulder, but didn't protest. Kanda and Rabi continued walking, too, but suddenly, Rabi hold them back. "Wait a moment! I know that man!" he said while pointing at the guy on the bench. "So what?" asked Kanda who was slowly getting extremely furious. "That's General White!"

The other exorcists gazed at the man. He really resembled the general, although he didn't wear the uniform of the exorcists. But since he visited the headquarters very rarely, maybe once a year, they couldn't definitely say if it was him or not. General Jimmy White was much alike General Cross. He didn't hated visiting the headquarters, but he was always busy and travelling around. Additionally, he was regarded as a very strict master, so it usually took a long time until his students finished their formation. There were many rumours about him and his methods circulating. Bad rumours.

"But would a general really work as a performer?" Linali asked pensively. "Yet, he looks like him…" "Well, there's a way to find out." said Rabi and lifted his hands up to his mouth. "Hey, General White!" he shouted, waving at him and jumping up and down to call his attention. The man raised his head and smiled at them as he saw their uniforms. He even waved back, then he dedicated himself to his guitar play again. Due to the brief lack of leading melody, the girl had paused for a moment, but she quickly continued dancing. She opened and closed her fans, twisted around and had soon found back to her routine. "So it is the General. Well, we have to stay here anyway, since our train has left already without us, so we can ask him what he's doing here." "And we can watch the dancing!" Allen said cheerfully and continued staring at the black fan. Rabi smiled at him. "Yeah, that's right."

In moments like this, when Allen showed such an innocent and childish behaviour, he almost felt like having a little brother. His heart lightened as he looked at Allen. So much like a little brother… Rabi smiled and folded his arms behind his head. By chance, he threw a glance at Kanda who stood there enwrapped in his usual dismissive aura and looked on the dancer. Out of the blue, Rabi's eye began to sparkle. He moved towards Kanda with an evil grin on his face. "Hey, Yuu-chan!" he said and smiled even wider. "Doesn't that dance remind you of Japan? You like it too, don't you?" Kanda shoot a death glare at him. "Just the use of fans doesn't make a Japanese dance, you idiot. And no, I definitely DON'T like it." Yet Rabi was not the person who would leave it at that. Even less because he knew Kanda's mother had used to dance for him to help improving his sword-fighting skills. She had always said that the philosophy behind dances and the one behind sword-fighting were nearly the same. Kanda himself had told him that years ago after their first successful mission. The little 13-year-old Rabi had organized some bottles of whisky and they had celebrated on the way back in the train. And they had talked almost during the entire journey. Now, he walked over to his favourite victim and laid an arm around him. "Yuu-chan, we are your best friends. You can admit your love for dancing. We know it all! Sword fights are like dances, so you have to like it. I can see it in your eyes!" The raven-haired exorcists pushed him rudely away. "What you see in my eyes is just the promise to kill you one day. And don't compare that stupid attempt of dancing with sword art." he said coldly and laid one hand on his Mugen.

Before the situation could become bloodier, Allen winced and spun around. "Stop it!" he yelled. "There's an akuma coming!" At this very moment, an akuma appeared. It was a weak level one, but ere they could invocate their anti-akuma-weapons; it fired at the little ticket boy. "Watch out!" shouted Allen. He tried to reach the boy to block the attack, but he was too slow. The bullet flew fast towards the boy who just stood there paralysed in fear.

author's notes: Yay, cliffhanger in the very first chapter! I just HAVE to be a sadist.

Please don't ask me how long it took me to write this. I know it is not so much, but it has been a while since I wrote my last English text. The next chapter will take a while, but I do my best!

Now, I want to thank my iced coffe and my joss sticks for keeping me awake (now it is 1.35am in Germany), my insane brain who already tells me some freaking ideas for the next chapters and, above all, my dictionary (I love you!).

So, I'm going to sleep. Good night, everyone!