A/N: Oh wow, so I didn't know that I'd get so many people still reading and following BR but I'm glad you guys are still around 8D Yeah, sorry for removing it but at least I'm back with some new updates and new material to read. The first couple of chapters will be similar to how BR started out but there'll be some noticeable differences, which I'm sure you veteran readers will be able to pick out pretty easily and see where it stayed the same.
On a side note, veteran readers will know that I stopped doing BR for two reasons.
First off, my good friend and fiance Allen the Musician(who was co-writing it with me last time) has been suffering some serious writers block over a year now because of real life stressers and depression which made it literally impossible to continue at the moment. Neither of us know when or if that's going to end, so there was no way for me to continue BR the way I wanted to and still include him in it.
Secondly, I was trying to finish High School and writing my own original book(partially inspired by BR) to maybe one day be published. High School is over with(not decided on to-college or not-to-college yet) and I'm currently job-hunting. I've finished writing the book I was working on, and I'm currently editing the last 12 out of 33 chapters before trying to send it off to be officially published. I have a Tumblr account for that going, called Fosterlingseries with short chapter snippets put up from chapters as I edit them(plus some art), and the first five chapters are up on Fictionpress under the same username as here(Bamboofoxfireproductions), so if you're interested, go ahead and check them out!
Well those were the two original reasons anyway. Since then, there's a third reason. I just wanted to improve upon my old story premise and do some more plot-driven re-writing than BR originally had, so there ya go. Here's that re-write.
Anyway, I'm really glad so many people are loyal to the story even after all this time :o Your guys' support means way more to me than you know! I've never actually had a solid fan following for any of my writing before xD So this makes me really happy~
Anyway, enough ramblings from me! Onto the next chapter!
Dark Alternate
A D Gray-Man Fanfiction
So many things weren't adding up.
Even as the red-haired Bookman-to-be tried to make sense of things, running one calculated scenario after the other through his head, some pieces just wouldn't fall into place. Maybe his old man would have better luck figuring out something that he was missing?
But of course this had to be one of the few times that Bookman wasn't accompanying him on a mission.
Perfect timing, Panda.
Either way, it was proving to be an interesting puzzle.
The wound Allen had sustained could have easily been from an Akuma.
Of course, that wouldn't have explained how he'd managed to get it bandaged on his own in the heat of battle…unless he'd had a wound while at the Order already, and gone off to a mission without letting it heal first? Had he been hiding it before?
No, that couldn't have been it. Allen wasn't that reckless when he didn't have to be, and even if he was, Komui and the medical staff would have never allowed it, much less ordered it.
And then there were the other physical disparities compared to before. It should have taken a great amount of time for Allen to look the way he did, his eyes sunken and body as emaciated as it was, far below what was normal, even for the teen who perpetually had to stuff his face with mountains of food just to stay as thin as he already was.
The only explanation Lavi could surmise as making it possible for him to decline so quickly was perhaps an Akuma's special ability. They'd seen plenty of odd powers between different Akuma over the months and years they'd all been exorcists after all.
What's to say this wasn't one of those cases again?
But that didn't seem to explain the boy's sudden animosity towards his own comrades…
"Lavi."
Not to mention his shift in personality. He'd never known Allen to be as cold as he'd seemed when facing off against them.
"Lavi?"
Even when facing off against the Noah, he was, to some level at least, kind-hearted. He didn't bare murderous animosity towards them even in a fight to the death, and yet he had when facing off against himself and the other tw-
"Oi! Usagi!"
Lavi's eye snapped open and he gave Lenalee and Kanda a questioning look.
"Sorry, what?"
Lenalee's eyes shone worriedly.
"Are you okay? You didn't answer. I could get a doctor."
It took a moment for Lavi to realize her worry before offering her a reassuring smile, even as his head continued to swim.
"No, I'm fine. I was just thinking too hard," he assured, idly rubbing his bandaged arm. Allen had really managed to do a number on him. It'd be at least two weeks before he'd be fit to wield his hammer for missions again, with how deep the teen's claws had managed to slice. "And the painkillers are dulling my senses, apparently my listening skills included. Don't worry about me."
Even offering up these reassurances, he knew they wouldn't quite be enough to convince her entirely, but he tried, at the very least.
When she didn't look entirely convinced, as well as questioning, he elaborated further.
"This whole thing with Allen doesn't quite add up but I'm trying to figure out what could have possibly happened. Something's seriously up but I can't put my finger on exactly what it is."
Lenalee nodded her head in agreed understanding, her eyes filled with confused worry.
Before they could get any further, the doors to the clinic room opened, the doctor stepping in and rubbing his brow wearily. All three were immediately focused on him, tension filling the room.
"Well…he's alive and stable, for now, but there's still a high chance that he won't make it through the night," he announced. The news that he was alive was good, but the second half was certainly not something any of them wanted to hear.
"How bad is it? Can you give us details?" Lavi questioned, leaning forward in his seat.
"We have him on IV's right now and done what we can, but he'll be off eating for a while, which could prove too much for his body to handle, considering how thin he is. His insides are a real wreck, and it's a surprise he's managed to live that many weeks with such a severe wound."
Lavi perked interestedly.
"A few weeks? He was perfectly fine before."
The doctor stopped and gave him a strange look, as though thinking the redhead was lying.
"The wound is over a week old, at least. Maybe even as old as two or three weeks."
Okay, now the Junior Bookman was even more at a loss of how to explain what was going on.
"If he survives, he'll need surgery again, and it's no guarantee that it will do any good either way. There's a lot of room for something else to go wrong."
"Can we see him?" Lenalee piped up, eyes shining with concern. The man looked somberly thoughtful for a moment, then nodded slowly.
"He's going to be unconscious for at least a few days, I'm sure, but it should be okay."
When he turned to lead to the room where Allen was, all three followed closely, Lavi not the steadiest on his feet, but managed on his own.
When they arrived, all three pairs of eyes landed on the younger teen on the bed. His breathing was still somewhat labored, but nowhere near the degree of severity it had been before.
The soiled bandages around his torso had been replaced with fresh cotton pads and gauze, his top removed so that the unhealthy dip of his ribs and stomach were more readily visible.
His skin was still sickly ashen, and his eyes sunken, though it was a slight improvement of the condition he had been in upon fighting them.
He looked painfully frail, unconscious and likely heavily drugged but still twitching only slightly on occasion with a low, pained whimper. All of them could only make a blind guess on how their friend had managed to end up in such a pitiful state.
"Allen…" Lenalee whispered in a slightly choked voice, tears welling in her violet eyes. She took in a shaky breath before glancing over her shoulder at the other two, the look enough to make Lavi inwardly wince. "What could have possessed him to attack us, his friends? This is our Allen, isn't it?"
"Let me ask you this: You did hear what the doctor said about the wound being old, correct?"
Lenalee thought for a moment then nodded.
"I did, but it doesn't make any sense…unless Allen hid it from us? But I didn't think he would…not if it was that bad at least."
"I don't think this is something he would have been able to hide," Lavi pointed out, placing a hand to his chin as he thought back to how Allen had been moving during their little 'battle'.
They'd all been around Allen the last few weeks before that and nothing had been amiss. He'd been eating just fine, going on missions, sparring with them in training…there's no way at least one of them wouldn't have noticed before now.
Everything had changed after they were well into their mission, and after Allen had gone after the Avian-like Innocence.
"I wonder if this has anything to do with that little bird…"
"But why would it cause Allen to attack us? Would Innocence do something like that?"
"That is the million dollar question…but at the moment it's just a theory," one out of several others, but he decided to keep them to himself for now until he could find out more information.
It wouldn't really help the situation to sit and speculate all the "what if"s.
"Either way, at the moment, all we can do is wait for Allen to recover somewhat and wake up, and when he does, we'll see if we can't get some answers to help us out of him."
Lenalee nodded her reluctant agreement.
"Hopefully he'll have snapped out of it and come to is senses by then."
Lavi only nodded silently, but he wasn't about to get his hopes too high just yet. The dulled pain in his right arm was a blatant reminder he couldn't ignore that Allen was not himself, and that he was likely to still be a risk to all of them if they didn't tread carefully.