Chapter Two
"I'm sorry for your loss." The doctor bowed and left the room. Cross couldn't even think, much less try and speak to the man leaving the room.
How could this have happened so fast, so soon? He'd only been home one day and she was already gone. Just like that. He felt so…empty, like he was sitting on a whole other plane of reality with no one else around.
It made him want to cry.
And so he did, without caring if anyone else was around to hear him.
His father had gone to the coroner's and the church to make arrangements for the funeral. Cross was alone, which he found oddly…comforting.
He heard a tentative knock at the door. He wondered who would be coming at this time of night. It was only about nine, but it was still late for anyone to be showing up at someone else's house unexpected.
Cross got up and went to the door. He knew he probably looked like a mess, but he didn't care.
A man with a bag full of drawing notebooks and pencils stood at the door. His brown hair was streaked with gray, his clothes rumpled and smeared with charcoal.
"Can I help you?" Cross snapped. He realized then he'd been a bit harsh, but the stranger seemed to pay no mind to it.
"My name is Theodore Tiedoll. I am an Exorcist from the Black Order. My superiors tell me there is an Innocence in this area. You wouldn't happen to know anything about it, would you?" He eyed the man suspiciously. Could he be trusted? After a few moments, he finally answered.
"Yes…I do. It's in my possession, and it's chosen me as its…accommodator." The man's eyes grew bright and he smiled.
"Praise God! I go searching for an Innocence and find a new Exorcist to train! This is surely a prosperous trip!" He hugged Cross, who promptly pulled away.
"You must come back with me to Headquarters! Oh, I don't think I've ever been happier. General Yeegar is sure to be pleased with me!"
"I can't go with you. My mother just passed away and I'm not missing her funeral," Cross said bluntly. Tiedoll was unfazed however.
"I can wait a couple of days, it's no big deal. I just have to call in and report…"
"What if I don't want to go with you? What if I want to stay here?" Tiedoll looked at him.
"You have no choice in the matter, son. The Innocence has chosen you, which means you are chosen of God. And if you don't use that Innocence to do God's work, then it will destroy you. Because the Innocence has chosen you, you are an Exorcist. Unofficially, of course."
"God's work? I'm a priest now, and never did my teachers say that I would have to do anything like this…"
"The Black Order is under the jurisdiction of the Pope and the Catholic Church. We are not the enemy here. Now I must leave. I have to give my report before eleven tonight. Oh, and one last word of warning…"
"Yes?"
"If a man comes to you offering to bring your mother back to life, refuse him. He is called the Millennium Earl, and he is nothing but bad news. Also, keep your Innocence with you at all times. I will return in four days. Please be ready to leave by then." He left Cross standing in the doorway with many more questions.
Just who was the Earl? What was the Black Order?
Who were the good guys and the bad guys, really?
Cross shut the door and went up the stairs. He decided he would go along with the man from the Black Order just to see where it would take him.
"Good evening. Such a lovely night, isn't it?" Cross turned quickly and faced the man standing in his living room, if he could be called a man.
"What the hell are you doing here? Who are you?" Cross demanded. The man simply laughed, smiled eerily etched on his face.
"I am the Earl," he replied. "And I want to help you. Your mother just passed away, did she not?"
Cross could feel Judgment shaking in his pocket, heat against his leg.
Don't trust him. Tell him to leave.
"Yes she did. What's it to you, old man?"
"I can bring her back for you."
"She's in a better place now, where she's not sick. I wouldn't bring her back just so she could be miserable. Now leave and don't come back." Cross turned and began to walk away.
"She wouldn't be sick. She would be just as healthy as you remember her in your childhood." He froze. Tears dripped from his eyes.
"What would it cost me?" he asked.
You fool! He's evil! He'll kill you! Don't!
"Why nothing, my dear boy," the Earl said. "My work is a labor of love for the people of this world."
Bullshit, Judgment snarled in Cross' head.
"An Exorcist visited me and told me to stay away from you."
"And if the same Exorcist told you to jump off your roof, would you? Come now, my boy. I am not the one in the wrong here. I am only trying to help." That creepy smile seemed to grow wider.
Cross smirked. Maybe he could get what he wanted from both of them.
"Fine then. You have a deal, Mr. Earl."
"Excellent! Now, what was your mother's name?" He produced a robotic looking unit seemingly out of thin air.
"Hannah," Cross replied.
"Alright then." The name "Hannah" appeared on the unit. It shook for a moment, then stopped. It spoke.
"Wh-where am I? What am I doing here?" Cross recognized the voice.
"Mother?" he asked.
"Marian? Why am I here? Why did you bring me back to this world?"
"Because he loves you," the Earl said. "Now, kill your beloved son and wear his skin."
Cross began backing away.
"This wasn't part of the deal!" he cried. "You promised!"
"Yes, and promises are almost always broken, naïve boy. It doesn't matter now considering you're going to be dead soon, does it?" The robot grabbed onto Cross's face and began prying his mouth open. Its claws raked against the right side of his face, ripping into his flesh painfully.
USE ME YOU IDIOT!!KILL THAT AKUMA!! Judgment yelled in his mind. Cross pulled the gun from his pocket and shot the machine. Once, twice, three times. It dissolved into a pile of ash and his mother's spirit left it, going back to where she once was.
"Oh my, an Innocence. And here I thought you and I could be good friends."
"You thought wrong, Earl. Now get the hell out of here and don't come back. Don't think this is over. I will become an Exorcist and I will hunt you until the day I die. I will kill you for this, even if it costs me my life."
"Well then, I shall look forward to our next meeting, Marian! Goodbye!" The Earl opened his umbrella and floated away.
"Damn you Earl! I will have my revenge! I will hate you for the rest of my life!!" Cross shouted after him, blood dripping from his face and a crazed look in his eye…
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A/N: In order to clear things up, Cross' father gave him the gun because he said that he thought Cross was meant to have it. I'm going off pure speculation, but in what I'm writing the Innocence has the ability to communicate to some degree with people other than those who wield it. Judgment communicated with his father and told him that it was meant for Cross. Sorry if I caused any confusion on that aspect.
