.prologue.
She stepped through the double doors of the church, tear-streaked, hesitant, her right hand fisted by her side.
Would it be the right time for this?
She had no way of knowing. On one hand, it could bring Lex relief, distraction. On the other hand… it could simply compound the grief. And thinking about the cause for that grief nearly buckled her. Her fist clenched even harder to keep her calm. She breathed in deeply- once, twice- before proceeding down the aisle to the church's backroom, where her sister would surely be.
Nearing the doorway, she heard voices in the room. Her brow wrinkled in confusion. Was there someone with Lex? One voice was female, hoarse and ragged from crying. Lex. The other voice was male, unfamiliar- yet the tone was persuasive, almost loving. She strained her ears to listen, but the conversation was muffled by the closed door. The conversation paused- a weighted, contemplative sort of silence reigned. She wondered if she should interrupt then, and cracked open the door.
That was when the sudden, desperate cry had her rearing back.
"Mother!"
She rushed to peer into the room through the door crack, her confusion and initial hesitance stopping her from rushing in head-on. What she saw in the room confounded her further. A portly, funny-looking gentleman, with a satisfied smile on his face. Lex kneeling on the floor, similarly tear-streaked, yet looking up hopefully at some sort of skeleton.
Her heart stopped. No- it couldn't be. Her mother….?
A throb of pain in her right hand distracted her. She looked down, opened her fist to reveal the locket, glowing green.
What the-?
A scream interrupted her thoughts, and she looked up in time to see the strange metal skeleton slash Lex with the pointed end of its arm, causing Lex to fall backwards, beyond the range of her vision.
A scream of her own strangled in her throat.
That was when the pain really started. She looked down once more to see the locket glowing white hot now, her surrounding flesh blistering, blackening with the heat.
She screamed this time, from the pain and the shock and the confusion. What just happened?
And she could swear she felt the earth start to shake beneath her- or was it just her trembling? -and the pain, the pain, she tried to open her hand fully but the locket just wouldn't fall off, and it was glowing brighter than before, glowing so hard that everything was turning white and she fell back, clutching at her hand in pain, screaming hysterically, as hard, as long as she could and then-
Black.
***
He hovered safely in the air above the huge dome of light, hanging by a peculiar umbrella. His smile remained- only, it was more of amusement than anything else.
"Wah, Earl-tama! What just happened, rero?!" The nasty-looking pumpkin head on top of the umbrella shrieked.
Fingers stroking his chin, he mused lovingly, "Another Innocence Invocation, I believe. Probably belonging to that dead girl. Good thing I got out of there in time, huh, Rero?"
"This is great, Earl-tama! But why don't you retrieve the Innocence now?"
A trace of impatience crept into his voice, though the creepy smile remained. "Can't you see, Rero? It seems to be a shield of some sort. We won't be able to enter. Besides, we can't see anything with the bright light, can we?"
He paused in contemplation.
"Looks like this invocation will last some time, Rero. I'll send Akuma to wait for the invocation to cease so they can retrieve the Innocence fragment. Let's head back- we'll be just in time for the meeting with the Noah."
And whistling an airy tune, the Victorian gentleman and his strange companion floated away in the night sky, silhouetted against the large crescent moon.
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a/n: Please review =)