Author's Note: So here it is. The long-awaited second installment of This is for Real. I was supposed to post this practically three weeks ago. But thing is, I wrote chapter three first, thinking it was going to be chapter two, then realized that it would work better as chapter three. After that, I had to write the real chapter two, which took awhile. And then we had a week of anatomy reporting and testing and I had absolutely no time to edit. But here it is, finally. And as I'm sure you're all fed up with my excuses, this note is done.
This is for Real, a Criminal Minds and D. Gray-man Crossover fanfiction
CHAPTER TWO
Penelope Garcia was in her cave when JJ called her.
"Almighty Penelope Garcia here, speak and be heard."
She heard JJ laugh a little on the other end. "We need everything you can find on something called the Black Order. Go international."
Garcia swiveled back into place in front of her monitors and began the search. "How soon do you need this?" she asked.
"As soon as you can get it," replied the Communications Liaison. "Could you put a file together and bring it up when you're done?"
The technical analyst gave a "Mhm" in response. "Consider it on its way."
"Thanks, Garcia."
"Can I ask what this is for?" she asked, her brow furrowed a little at the lack of pinging going on.
"Some people are here for Reid," she said in a very hushed tone, "and they say that they're from the Black Order. Prentiss recognizes the name and their uniform, but no one else seems to have any idea about it."
"Then I will do my very berry best, scout's honor," Garcia replied, ending the connection. As she continued scouring, she wondered why the universe had it in for Reid.
JJ re-entered the room in time to catch Erin Strauss interrogating the children. None of the others in the room were speaking, either because they had no idea what to say or because Strauss' authority seemed to be seeping out from her pores.
"We're not lying, ma'am," said the boy, Walker. "And our sources are completely reliable." He and the girl, Lee, were sitting on the couch with Morgan on the very edge, looking extremely uncomfortable.
"How are you so sure that Agent Reid is the one?" she asked, voice hard.
"There have been quite an increase in Akuma sightings around two areas," said Walker, "And the only connection that these two areas have is that they are frequented by Agent Reid."
"And what are Akuma?" the chief asked, tripping over the unfamiliar syllables.
Walker's face fell, "They are machines created by the Millennium Earl to kill. Akuma are made from the souls of the dead, called back to this world by misled loved ones. They can make bullets out of their blood which are very poisonous, and as soon as you're hit by one, you'll die if you don't cut the part off." He sounded so sincerely sad.
"And what is Innocence?"
From her position by the door, JJ noticed everyone's attention perk up.
"God matter," said Walker. "It is a crystal that is the polar opposite of Dark Matter, which is what the Akuma are made of. It is only Innocence that can cleanse the souls chained within the Akuma and free them, and only certain people that are able to use the Innocence, and those people are recruited by the Order and become Exorcists. They are the actual soldiers in this war."
"And you expect the kid to fight this war?" Morgan asked, speaking for the first time since he entered the room. He was pissed, if the glare he was sending the Exorcists was anything to go by. And had they been anyone else (read: people who hadn't faced hordes of Akuma, the Noah, the Earl, and Kanda after being mistaken for a girl), they would have wilted.
"Reid isn't cut out for war. Hell, he can barely shoot!"
Just then, Garcia entered the room. She was aghast, and nearly dropped the file in her hands. "You're sending Reid to war?"
After the brief introduction, Garcia looked as though she would cry.
Lee sighed. "Besides, ordinary guns wouldn't work. Only Innocence can destroy Akuma. And we wouldn't just throw him to the wolves! He would be properly trained by very capable people who – "
Whatever else she was going to say was cut off by a pained gasp from Walker and a weird whirring sound. All eyes flew to the youngest in the room, who was covering his left eye with his hand and wasn't doing a very good job of it. They could see whirring golden gears around it.
The girl stood abruptly, "Where? How many?"
Walker too stood. "Three Level One fifty meters north, one Level Two in the alley behind the building." Then he turned to the adults in the room and said, "If you'll excuse us, we have something to take care of."
The two practically ran out of the room, everyone else following close behind. Walker disappeared out some obscure window, calling out, "I'll get the ones by the subway!" and leaving them with Lee at the back entrance.
Lee looked at them with pleading eyes and said, "Please stay here; I don't want any of you getting hurt," before she too flung herself out a window and into the alley with a yell of "Innocence activate!" and a flurry of light by her ankles.
-break!-
Now, after years of working in law enforcement, Derek Morgan thought that he'd seen it all. He learned how very wrong he was as he watched the scene unfold a single story from where they stood. He had never seen anything like it at all. And judging by the looks on everyone else's faces, none of them had either.
A single strange black-and-white humanoid stood in front of the girl, calling out, "Exorcist, Exorcist, din' 'spect to see one of you here! Gonna kill you, Exorcist!" in a very taunting voice, and the Lee girl running towards it at break-neck speed. The anklet he had noticed her wearing earlier were now some strange pair of boots that glowed green and were sort-of butterfly-like. The creature stuck its hand out in Lee's direction and fired bullet-like things from the palm. Morgan watched in awe as Lee leaped an inhuman distance into the air and did an array of acrobatic maneuvers to dodge the projectiles sent her way, and landed elegantly behind it with not a single hair out of place.
The thing giggled and turned to face her. "Flippy, aincha, Exorcist?" It raised its hand at her again and she tensed. "Fun's you've been, I gotta kill you now." And Lee jumped again, vacating the space just before the projectiles got there. She soared above the creature and practically bounced off of the wall by the fire escape. She landed right on top of the creature, right boot first, and split it in half. It disappeared in a flash of light and at the end of it, with Lee landing lightly where it once was.
Morgan took a step back from the window. "That's what they want him to do," he murmured under his breath, so quietly that he doubted anyone had heard him.
In a clearly seen effort to get some air of familiarity back, JJ turned to Penelope and asked, "So what did you find?"
The other blond handed her the file with a slightly offhand, "Not much."
-break!-
JJ was surprised that the file only contained a single sheet of paper with only one paragraph written on it, which she read out loud for the benefit of the others:
The Black Order, also known as the Dark Religious Organization, is an international, non-profit organization that is dedicated to the saving and protection of human lives. It has members from all around the globe, most of whom have joined after a personal tragedy. There is no known age-limit to the admissions. It has branches in all six inhabited continents and connections in nearly every organization. It reports directly to the Vatican, however the location of the Black Order headquarters is unknown.
"Is that it?" Morgan asked.
"I've searched every database and every webpage I could, and that's all any of them say," Garcia said, looking defeated.
-break!-
Lenalee walked lightly up the stairs to where she had abandoned the adults, pleased to have quickly finished the Level Two. She wasn't all that surprised when she saw that their faces had mixed expressions of shock, amazement, curiosity, and plain old oh my god, what the hell?
"What was that?" one of them asked.
"An Akuma," she said simply. "Level Two. It was probably just newly-evolved, nothing too big. It's the Level Threes and Fours that you really have to worry about."
"And you want Reid - klutzy, pacifistic Reid - to do kill them? Wouldn't someone like Morgan be a better choice?" asked the one she thought was Agent Rossi.
"We don't kill the Akuma," she said, wondering if they had already explained this. "We free their souls. And since Agent Morgan doesn't have any Innocence, there's nothing he could do against the Akuma. Finders have machines that can produce a barrier to contain an Akuma, but its radioactive and it won't hold a Level Three. Only Exorcists can help them."
And she wondered if it was only after that explanation that the people before her understood what was expected of their youngest teammate.
And here ends chapter two. I think it might be longer than the others, but that's only expected, seeing as it took forever to get out. I doubt chapter three will be as long. As always, this is unbeta'd and anyone who wants to fill the position is welcome to PM me. Reviews are great - I want to know what you thought of it and what you want to see in the coming chapters. Speaking of which, would you like to see Kanda here? (Alma would be included, because I can't bear to just bring one of them back. There will be a legit reason for Alma not being dead. . . at least, I think it's legit.) If there are any mistakes, please point them out so I can fix them.
