Chapter 2

"How are we going to get to the Order?" Eliza asked curiously, wanting to know how. The way that they had talked about the Order and how to get there when she was 'sleeping' sounded pretty complicated. They said that they had to take twists and turns, and that it would take them a while. Eliza thought, surely it wasn't that complicated and hard just to get to one place, right?

She thought wrong.

On the morning that she had woken up, Lavi and the old man, whose name was Bookman, who she heard the name of just before, when he was on the phone, had immediately told her to get dressed and said that they were leaving. She had already noticed that they were already dressed and were ready to go. They were just waiting for her. She hurried up dressing herself, and soon enough, they were on their train ride back to the Order.

Actually, not really...

"How to get to the Order?" Lavi questioned, tilting his head to the side. He stared at her with his curious green eyes, wondering why she would want to know that. But, a thought did pass his mind that Eliza must've been nervous about going there? He placed a hand on her shoulder and grinned. "Don't be nervous, Eliza-chan! We'll protect you!"

In less than a second, Lavi was on the ground, his cheek having a clearly defined fist in it. Eliza towered over him, fury blazing in her own shade of green eyes. She held up her clenched fist, the fire burning lively around it.

"Who's nervous?! Who needs protecting?!" She glowered, glaring down threateningly at Lavi.

He laughed nervously, rubbing his stinging cheek with a fist mark, as he stood back up, brushing himself off in the process. He never saw that coming.

"So, how do we get to the Order?" Eliza asked, her voice sweet and innocent. She was back to 'normal' but she didn't forget about that little incident with Lavi. She just wanted to pass the moment and seem like it never happened.

This time, it was Bookman that answered. "We get there by train."

"Train?" She asked, puzzled. That was quite simple. She recalled that they discussed it being a long journey with many tips and turns. Just like how the food gets all stirred around in a Chinese style stir fry.

"Don't listen to him, Eliza-chan! He's a panda!" Lavi grinned. Eliza raised an eyebrow. Lavi continued, adjusting his bandanna a bit, but Bookman hit him ferociously from the side, kicking him in the face. Lavi yelped before he put a hand on the same cheek that was both kicked and punched in. He whipped around to face Bookman, a frown on his face and fake tears coming from his green eyes. "What was that for, old man?!" He whined. Bookman merely turned away to face the opposite direction. Lavi frowned but turned around to face Eliza, his hand still rubbing the sore spot on his cheek. "Well, Eliza-chan, it doesn't just take train to get there. This is the process to get to the Order from here: First we take the train, then the boat. Afterwards, we take a carriage then take a train again, then switch trains and take a boat. After the boat we have another train to catch and after that, we reach a boat that has to be rowed under some underwater tunnel that leads to the underwater tunnels of the Black Order. There, we walk. It's quite the journey, actually." Lavi finished, explaining it in a clear and definite voice.

Eliza merely stood still, green eyes slightly wide with eyebrows raised.

"Oh, joy…" She muttered.

"…and this is the final destination, the Black Order Headquarters!" Lavi said grandly, grinning as he quickened his pace. Bookman was in front of them, walking quite fast. Eliza never knew old men walked fast. She always thought they walked nice and slow, enjoying the peace. It seemed it was quite the opposite.

Lavi caught up to Bookman and they encountered a huge gate, with a huge face, which had a striped chin. It was speckled with dots, though. That was the Gatekeeper. She had learnt pretty much everything to know about the Order from Lavi and Bookman throughout the journey with all the trains, boats and carriages that they had to take. They had enough spare time on their hands to be able to do so. Eliza wondered why the Gatekeeper had dots. She thought they were hives. What could've caused that?

"Lavi, what happened to the Gatekeepers' chin?" The long haired female asked, staring up curiously at the Gatekeeper.

"I think it was Allen. He's also a new exorcist. You'll meet him a bit later. I think that's why the Gatekeeper got an outbreak of hives…" Lavi trailed off. His eyes shifted from Eliza to the large shield of the Black Order. He spoke up, catching the attention of the Gatekeeper. "Gatekeeper! Can you please let us in? X-ray Eliza, too, if you want to. She's not, though."

The Gatekeeper's eyes scanned across Eliza, looking through her like a normal X-ray. He said his approval and they were in.

"I am Komui Lee, Chief of the European Black Order Branch. It's a pleasure to meet you." Said the Chief. He had purple hair that flicked up at the ends and a white beret. He wore a long Chief Branch coat which was white in colour, and had slippers on his feet. He was so much taller than Eliza, was all she knew. Come to think of it, he was like a giant and she was like the small little insect that it stared down upon. She silently shuddered.

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you, too." Eliza said, a small smile on her lips. Komui put out his larger than for a handshake. The black haired adult shook his hand.

"Come on around; I'll show you around the place since Lenalee's not here." Komui said, turning around. He started walking to the stairs that were a few metres away. Eliza followed.

She had a sinking feeling that people all around the Order were just going to mention people's names – ones that she didn't know – and she won't get an explanation until she met them herself. So half the things they say - basically she won't get it.

As Eliza followed Komui to the stairs which went down, she heard another pair of footsteps behind her. Turning around, she met the eyes of the flaming red-head. Almost immediately, she frowned.

"Why are you following me?" Eliza asked, suspicious.

"I'm not following you. I'm following Komui. I need to do the mission report…Eliza-chan." Lavi's lips immediately went to a grin. Eliza scowled, then fastened her step to catch up to Komui.

Damn you, Komui…having such long legs…makes you walk faster! Eliza cursed.

Once they were down the stairs, they went onto an elevator in the middle of the whole building. See, in Eliza's view, the building was like a tunnel. But a tunnel that wasn't a tunnel. It was an upwards tunnel, just with many floors for different facilities and other things that she probably didn't know about, yet. The elevator was similar to those magic carpets seen in fictional story books. Typically, it could float and travel to anywhere you wanted. But, the elevator was like that, in terms of floating, but only up and down; nothing special. Once the trio reached the lowest floor, they hopped off and approached a large figure that was womanlike, but had the form of a glowing white ghost (or similar to that anyway). Komui had explained it to Eliza when they were going down the elevator. He said that the ghost like figure was an exorcist named Hevlaska. He explained what Hevlaska did and what they were bringing her down there for.

Komui patted Eliza lightly on the shoulder so that she stepped forward a few steps. "Go on. Hevlaska's not scary." Eliza shot him a glance as she stared up at the huge monstrous being. Monstrous would've been mean to say, but she couldn't help it! Hevlaska was huge in size.

"Um…ok?" She squeaked.

White tentacle like arms began to take shape and slowly make their way towards Eliza. She took a step back, alert. It was strange, very strange. It reminded her of a jellyfish; just not a jellyfish. Hevlaska's 'arms' wrapped loosely around Eliza's arms and both legs, bringing her up with little to no strength and making her close to her half covered face. Eliza stared up, her green eyes slightly wide. It felt as if nothing were below her, nor with her – just the presence of someone with her. Eliza saw that Hevlaska close up didn't look much like a monster. She was a gentle creature, very soft with others and gave off an aura of meaning no harm. Eliza was brought from far away to closer and closer to Hevlaska. Their foreheads touched. Eliza felt as if something was in her mind, penetrating all her thoughts and memories, but at the same time, it didn't. She heard Hevlaska say a few words, no, not words, numbers. She was counting. But counting what?

"…50%...64%...68%...71%...74%." Hevlaska put Eliza down on to the spot she was in before she picked her up.

"74% synchronization?" Komui asked, writing something down onto the clipboard paper. Eliza noticed that he didn't have that before. Just how fast was this guy?

"74% synchronization? What do you mean?" Eliza asked, curiosity sparking inside her. Komui turned to the younger girl, his clipboard at his side.

"It means that you are 74% synchronized with your Innocence. Hevlaska was just checking what kind of Innocence you had and what synchronization rate, too. She can also do fortunes, and they're pretty accurate. Actually, we haven't had a false one from her." Komui smiled. Eliza only nodded.

"Komui…There is something oddly strange about this girl's past and her future." Hevlaska said, her voice of a deep female and slow. Eliza whipped to face her. What did that exorcist just say? That she was strange? What was she going on about?

"Is there a prophecy?" Komui asked. Hevlaska nodded slowly.

"This girl – Eliza Rickards – will become the central of both." Hevlaska paused and added, "That is what I have prophesized."

Komui stared at her, unblinking. "What do you mean, Hevlaska? What is the meaning to that?"

"I cannot foretell." She replied.

Komui was silent for a second, before he smiled at her. "Thank you, Hevlaska. We'll be going now."

They hopped back on to the elevator and rode back up, to the highest floor. Komui said that he would be the one who would lead Eliza around for a tour of the Black Order, since she still needs to know everything.

As they toured around, the thought of what Hevlaska said stayed in Eliza's mind, sitting there like a stone statue. She wondered what the cube exorcist meant. It was strange and eerie – as if something would happen. She didn't know what, though. She guessed she would need to wait and see.

"Hevlaska said that Eliza was the 'central of both'." Lavi reported to Bookman. Bookman hadn't gone with the three of them when they went down to Hevlaska and toured around the Black Order. He had his own jobs to do.

Bookman's eyes shifted from the koi fish in the pond to Lavi, who sat beside him. They were outside in the afternoon. It was quite serene and peaceful.

"Is that so?" Bookman stared at the koi fish again.

"Yeah. Don't know what Hevlaska means, though." Lavi frowned, propping his elbow on his leg and putting his cheek against his hand. He probably wouldn't get what it meant until it happened. There's no explaining what it could possibly be.

"We'll just have to wait and see, then." Bookman stood up. "Come on, Lavi."

Lavi followed Bookman back into the Order. Heavy thoughts in his mind, he wondered why Eliza had such a prophecy. He thought and thought, his mind jumping from one thing to another. In the end, he gave up. It was no use. Just like both Bookman and him said before, 'We'll see when the time comes'. Lavi sighed and ran his hand through his soft yet somewhat spikey hair.