This was a fun chapter to write :) It's a battle scene! I have a feeling there will be many battle scenes in this story. Anyhoo, yada yada yada, here's chapter 3.
Chapter 3
Lenalee entered the Black Order to find it unusually quiet. Her footsteps echoed in the large chamber. Everyone's gone, she thought, casting her gaze about. She spotted a couple of Finders but the two were much too busy to give her so much as a glance. She wondered briefly if Komui was here and the surprise on his face if he were to see her, having not expected her back so soon.
All the exorcists are away fighting the akuma. Lenalee stopped in the middle of the entrance hall and a small smile teased at the corners of her mouth. Reaching into her pocket, silently cursing this too-tight miniskirt, she pulled out a slim metal box with a single diode on it. She pressed a button and the diode flashed green.
The air next to her began to warp, shimmering as in an intense heat.
"Finally," she said and her features began to change, her skin darkening, bones and musculature altering. "The end of the Black Order begins today."
Komui thought for sure he would go hoarse answering all these calls and was just sighing in exasperation as the phone began to ring again when someone burst through his door.
"Sir, we're being invaded!"
"Whaa?" At first his addled brain couldn't process the information, but after a second, it hit him and he let the phone go on ringing. "What is it? What's happening?"
"Akuma just appeared in the entrance hall."
Komui shot to his feet. "Sound the alarm. How did they get in?"
"I don't know."
"Nevermind that. Find the rest of your division and barricade yourselves somewhere. Damn. We only have three exorcists. Where are they?"
"I think they're in the science section."
"Well, get them immediately!"
"They already know, sir."
Komui was on his way to the door. "Then get back to your division."
"But, sir –"
Komui opened the door and not a second later, an akuma bullet whizzed past and slammed into the wall, blowing chunks of stone everywhere. Komui slammed the door.
"We can't go that way," he said, his face pale, having been a hairsbreadth away from decapitation.
The man looked around the small office inquisitively. "That's the only way, sir."
"Nope," Komui said simply and dashed back to his desk, sweeping the mess of papers off of it and proceeded to push it aside. He seemed to have trouble with its weight so the other man, sighing, joined him and together they managed to push the desk aside. That done, Komui knelt, pushing more books aside, and tossed away an old moth-eaten rug he hadn't been able to see in two years, and pulled up on a ring in the floorboards.
"A secret door? Seriously?"
"Built for just this occasion," Komui said, descending the stone stairs. "Now off to the science division!"
"What do you mean, they're here?" Allen said, his expression suddenly grim.
"It's probably a glitch," Johnny said, peering over Reever's shoulder. "Right? It's a glitch right? Reever? It's a glitch, right? Reever…?"
"Shh, I don't know!"
"They couldn't have moved the Rosen Gate," Kuroh said, maintaining calm. "It would be impossible to haul it up the mountain."
"Well this signal's clear as day. Maybe they didn't even have to bring the Gate here. Maybe it just opened up here?"
"From what we've seen, it seems to open in a random location. Unless…" And here Shiro looked worried. "Unless they've found a way to control it."
"All the same, we need to know for sure." Reever reached for the phone but it rang before he could pick it up. He snatched it and held it to his ear. The others could hear faint shouting followed by silence. Reever hung up the phone.
"Yeah, they're here."
"We need to find Kanda and Lavi," Allen said. "And we need to barricade the science section. What a time for an attack," he muttered and then his eyes widened as realization dawned. "Damn it. Damn it! They set us up! The increase in akuma activity…it was to get all the exorcists away from headquarters. How could I have been so stupid? I should have seen it. It's only luck that we ran into you guys and came back early."
Shiro was taken aback by this outburst. "We'll do all we can to help."
"Thank you, but like I said before, they can only be killed with Innocence."
"Even so, we have power of our own. It might not be the right kind, but at least we can take the akuma by surprise."
Kanda was walking at a brisk pace, tying his hair back as he did. He'd been feeling increasingly uneasy over the last few days, sensing that something wasn't right. Each step he took, his scowl grew deeper, tiny bells ringing in his ears, and then he couldn't stand it any longer.
"Stop following me, pest," he said, his voice a low growl. But the girl's eyes were wide and innocent and paid no heed to his warning. Instead, she made a happy sound and latched onto his arm.
Gritting his teeth, Kanda pushed her away hard and she landed on her rump, her face an expression of shock.
"Go back to your master, before you really get on my nerves." He was already missing the akuma-infested towns outside London.
Neko just sat there and pouted.
"Tch." Kanda turned and continued walking.
"You're not who everyone thinks you are," Neko called out after him. "You have more memories than you should."
Kanda spun around, Mugen flashing until its blade was an inch away from her face but she didn't flinch. "You don't know anything about me."
Neko tilted her head. "Who's Alma?"
Kanda's knuckles went white as he tightened his grip on Mugen.
Just then, an alarm sounded and Kanda cursed. He withdrew the blade. "Watch what you say," was his only warning and then he was dashing off down the hall.
Allen landed heavily on the floor, his most recent kill exploding behind him. He grunted and a pained laugh escaped his lips. Of all the things that could have happened, he'd sprained his ankle.
Spinning around, ignoring the twinge in his ankle, Allen found himself facing a mix of level one and two akuma. But where were they all coming from? It seemed that for every one he killed, two more took its place. Where was the portal?
"Cross Grave," Allen said and unleashed the power of his Innocence. He needed to get rid of all the level ones and quickly so he could focus on the others. A cross of light appeared on several akuma and they exploded. Behind their flying remnants was a level two, a grotesque snake-like thing, finely chiseled cannons already firing rapidly. Allen raised his arm to block, too slow, but the bullets fizzled and crackled as they smashed into a silver shield.
Allen paused only to give Shiro a quick nod of gratitude before changing his arm into a cannon and firing energy palings into the nearby akuma, killing two of them. He aimed at another and fired a bright bolt of energy at it, wounding it but not killing it. He gritted his teeth. All he had to do was hold out until Kanda and Lavi arrived.
On the other side of the room, Kuroh moved swiftly, using his Silver aura and physic projection to carry himself nimbly overtop the akuma which turned and tried in vain to lock their weapons on him. He struck one's hide with his sword but it was like striking hardened steel. His blade did nothing to stop the creature. He struck again, this time aiming for the humanoid face among the bristling cannons, hoping to locate a weak spot, but it was just as tough as the rest of it.
Deciding to rid themselves of this nuisance, another akuma locked its cannons onto Kuroh and fired. Kuroh leaped straight upward and the bullets smashed into the surprised akuma that had been his perch. With a moan, the struck demon glided backward, crashing through a wall. It wasn't dead but it gave Kuroh an idea.
Komui and the man named Lin made their way swiftly down the dark corridor beneath headquarters, Komui wearing a headlamp he'd grabbed from a hook upon descending through the trap door. The pathways down were far more convoluted than Lin would have thought and though Komui insisted he knew exactly where they were going, Lin doubted it.
"Is this it?" he asked, spotting a wooden door which Komui seemed to have missed. Tentatively, he pushed it open to find a large room with a single cloth-covered bulk in its center, the shape of which was horribly familiar. "Please don't tell me that's another Komlin." Just the idea made him feel ill.
"Huh, how'd that get there?" was Komui's only response as he breezed past.
"Chief!"
Lin shut the door and sighed, staring at Komui's rapidly retreating back. They were definitely lost.
Blood soaked through the fabric of his shirt from cuts on his normal arm and Allen grimaced. He was thankful for the presence of Kuroh and Shiro for though they had no offensive capabilities against the akuma, their skills had other uses. Shiro used his aura to shield himself and those around him while Kuroh caused chaos among the akuma ranks, leaping around, drawing their attention, and distracting them so that Allen could take them out. All the same, it was exhausting work.
So there was no greater sight than when he spotted Kanda, sword drawn, leaping toward the akuma. The demon turned, locked its cannons, and fired. Hit Kanda square in the chest.
"No! Kanda!" Allen yelled even as his fellow exorcist fell and vanished. But the shock could barely set in before another figure leaped and skewered the akuma and it shattered. Kanda landed lightly and rushed back into the fray. Allen stared after him, confused only until he spotted the familiar feminine form that flitted over the rubble of the destroyed wall.
Moments later, Lavi joined the battle, swinging away with his giant hammer, and Allen found himself filling with new strength. Ignoring his many cuts, he aimed his arm again and fired.
Kuroh staggered and grabbed his bleeding arm, gritting his teeth against the pain. His chest heaved, his heart pounded. Despite the chaos he'd been causing, it still wasn't enough. The akuma kept coming and with only three exorcists at hand, they were slowly losing ground.
A level two took a swipe at him and Kuroh instinctively threw up his shield which crackled wildly and then exploded at the blow, sending Kuroh flying. He hit the wall hard and the breath rushed from his lungs.
Amid the haze of stone dust and the rubble piled on the floor, he spotted movement. People. Gasping for breath, he felt a momentary hope that more help had arrived, but it was short-lived when he saw their calm expressions, their dark skin, the stigmata beneath their hair.
"Ng…" Kuroh winced and forced himself to stand on unsteady legs, grip tightening on Kotowari's hilt. He recognized the man from the alley in the future, the one who'd been, at least partially, responsible for the attack on Scepter 4. He looked exactly the same.
"Noah…" Allen breathed from somewhere to Kuroh's right, voice strained. Blood was running from a cut on his temple. "You're followers of the Millennium Earl."
"Quite perceptive," the man said, his voice a bored drawl. Beside him was a woman with the same dark skin and long hair.
"We'll destroy you," Allen vowed, ignoring his own injuries.
The slightest grin formed on the man's face. "Heh." he raised one hand and a spot of darkness formed in the air out of which flitted a dainty winged creature.
A butterfly? Kuroh thought.
"Only make promises you can keep, boy." With that, more dark portals opened up and butterflies emerged in a great swarm and flew straight at Allen and Kuroh where they stood against the wall.
Kuroh's Silver aura flared as he tried in vain to block them. They beat their wings frantically against the shield and several slipped in, slicing Kuroh on his face and shoulder, making him wince. Allen's arm was held in front of him, doing his best to ward off those that got in as the shield weakened, cracks spreading across its surface.
A hand rested on Kuroh's arm and he looked up into the face of his king. Instantly, the shield strengthened and expanded, pushing the fluttering creatures back.
"Tsk." Growing impatient, the woman strode forward and, faster than Kuroh could keep track of, her arm lashed out, transforming itself into a whip which cracked against the shield. Kuroh and Shiro staggered against the impact.
"We can't keep this up forever," Allen said. "We need to go on the offensive."
Kuroh exchanged a glance with Shiro. Shiro nodded.
A moment later, the shield fell.
"This is it!" Komui exclaimed and pushed open another door in over a dozen upon which he'd made that same proclamation. Lin sighed, seriously losing patience and faith, but his eyes widened as Komui threw open the door. Beyond the cabinet and cloth-covered equipment that had long ago been discarded, he caught a glimpse of white coats, all huddled behind a mound of tables and chairs that had been hastily piled up against the door. He recognized Reever, who was fiddling with some sort of device.
"Chief!" Reever exclaimed, looking up from the device. "How did you get in here?"
"Just the secret door behind the cabinet," Komui said.
"You mean there's a way out of here?" Reever said, deadpan.
"I thought it was common knowledge."
Reever was about to say something and then decided it wasn't worth it. "Anyway, I've pinpointed the location of the tachyon emissions. It's in the entrance hall." He scrambled to his feet. "We need to get this information to the exorcists."
Behind him, an explosion shook the wall.
"Allen!" a voice called out but he barely heard it above the ringing in his ears and the pounding of his heart. He staggered, spat blood onto the floor. His anti-akuma weapon felt unusually heavy, weighing him down.
"I must admit, this is disappointing," Tyki said, walking leisurely among the rubble. "It's been ages since I killed an exorcist. I was hoping for more of a challenge."
Allen gritted his teeth. He braced himself as a hammer descended onto the Noah, crashing into the ground. He winced from the sudden spray of dust, blinking, but the Noah was still standing, having dodged the blow faster than Allen thought possible.
Tyki sighed, as if he thought the intrusion was merely an annoyance. Without so much as a glance in Lavi's direction, he sent a blast of dark matter hurling at him, throwing him back into the mass of akuma that Kanda was still fighting his way through. Their grotesque bodies blocked Allen's view and he didn't see where Lavi landed.
Then Tyki was on him in a flash, inside his defenses, one hand plunging itself into his chest.
Allen froze. He was acutely aware of the beating of his heart, the blood pumping in his veins. And the fact that suddenly he couldn't breathe, an agonizing pressure in his chest, squeezing like a vice. Allen gasped but couldn't draw in another breath.
"This is the power of the Noah," Tyki said, bringing his face close to Allen's. "You're completely powerless to stop me. All I have to do is squeeze and I can crush your lungs. Or your heart." His voice lowered to a whisper. "It's going to take a lot more than three exorcists to defeat me."
Tyki's eyes widened in shock then and he instinctively loosened his grip on Allen. A sword was buried deep in his side, Kuroh's blood-spattered face set in grim determination.
"Oh, what's this?" Tyki fixed his level gaze on Kuroh. "You're not even an exorcist. That was quite brave of you, boy. I didn't even sense your attack." His mouth turned upwards at the corners in a wicked grin. "You're something new to play with." He sidestepped, the sword phasing through him as if he were nothing but air, and lashed out at Kuroh.
Kuroh's aura flared, lifting him off the ground, and the attack missed him by mere centimeters. Briefly forgotten, Allen stumbled, gasping for breath, and collapsed, hand going to his chest. His vision was blurred but he could still see as Kuroh reached out a hand, projecting a ghostly limb to pull himself along.
Tyki attacked again and one of his shots hit Kuroh in the chest, sent him flying back to crash into Kanda and the both of them sprawled on the floor, momentarily safe from the akuma by the creatures' brief confusion. Kanda instinctively shoved Kuroh off of him and the two scrambled to their feet, swords at the ready. Around them, the akuma trained their cannons on them, prepared to fire.
A gesture from the Noah gave them pause. "Go find the other humans and kill them. I'll take care of these."
Grumbling in disappointment, the akuma drifted off, leaving the two swordsmen and the Noah facing each other.
"You're the man from the alley," Kuroh accused. "From the future. You and your akuma attacked Scepter 4."
"Oh?" There was a look of genuine curiosity in his eyes. "Oh, I see. I have much to look forward to then." A blast of dark matter energy shot from the palm of one hand, sending the exorcist and the clansman diving in opposite directions.
Kuroh took to the air, using his Silver aura to keep himself aloft, moving swiftly. Kanda nimbly leaped across the rubble, blade gleaming, summoning a horde of netherworld insects flying at Tyki.
The Noah skipped to the side, dodging the creatures, ducking his head as Kuroh came down at him, blade ready to skewer him for a second time. But this time, he was ready and Kuroh's expression became one of shock as the sword and then his entire body fell through Tyki as if the man were nothing but a ghost.
This attack was immediately followed by a sword thrust from Kanda. Sidestepping, Tyki avoided the point of the blade and it glided smoothly off the back of his hand. It was only the slightest touch, but hairline cracks began to form on Mugen's blade. Kanda set his jaw, whipped back around to face Tyki. He immediately registered just how dangerous this man was and knew that he would need to be more careful.
Kuroh lashed out with his projection, reaching for Tyki's throat. The Noah's skin was slippery, hard to get a hold of, the result of whatever otherworldly power that let him phase through solid objects. But, straining, calling upon his aura, Kuroh managed to get a hold, eliciting a surprised look from the Noah, but when Kuroh tried to squeeze, he found that the once overpowering strength of the psychic projection was now so weak. The grin spreading on Tyki's face, he grabbed the projection at the wrist, something Kuroh had thought impossible for anyone to do, and yanked it away from his throat.
Kuroh cried out when his aura dissipated and Tyki took another step, bringing him towering over the fallen clansman.
Suddenly Tyki was thrown off his feet by a powerful blow that rammed him into the wall. The hammer retracted and Lavi stood, panting, bleeding from a dozen cuts. He retrieved the hammer and twirled it around his shoulders.
"I'm not dead yet, you jerk! So don't write me off!"
"Heh. Now things are getting interesting." Tyki summoned more of those butterflies and set them at Lavi.
Bidding his hammer to grow, Lavi activated one of his anti-akuma weapon's many stamps and a torrent of wind swept over the swarm, casting them away. Tyki raised his arm against the powerful wind, slowly being pushed back across the floor, his dark hair streaming out behind him. With effort, he managed to leap clear of the wind, alighting on a pile of rubble. Lavi's attack died down and he swung his hammer around, quickly casting about for another strategy.
"Hey, Yu!" he called over his shoulder. "This guy's pretty tough but we can take him all together."
Kanda frowned deeply at the use of his first name, but now wasn't the time to argue. He and Kuroh came on either side of Lavi.
"You picked the wrong guys to mess with," Lavi said, the incantation for the Iron Hammer's fire stamp settling in his mind.
"No matter what happens here, the Black Order ends today," Tyki said. "You're so focused on fighting me, there's no one to stop the akuma from killing everyone in this castle." Several long strides brought him in front of Lavi. "The Black Order will fall and without a home to return to, we'll hunt down the exorcists and exterminate them and destroy their Innocence." He reached out and Lavi, having seen what the Noah was capable of, swerved to the side, just as Tyki's hand grazed the inside of his flesh, sending a sickening tingle up Lavi's spine. The man's hand only barely brushed his ribs before passing through his arm and a sudden pain shot through him as if the tendons in his arm were being torn away from the muscle.
Lavi cried out, hammer falling from suddenly useless fingers. Gritting his teeth, he snatched it up with his other hand.
"Fire stamp," he spat amid the pain and great, hot flames shot up all around him.
"Shoot through it, idiot!"
"Alright, alright, already!"
"There are humans on the other side!"
Allen lifted his head from the rubble, a trickle of blood running down the side of his face, vision swimming. Whatever Tyki had done to him, he could still feel it, the damaged tissue of his lungs, and he struggled to breathe. Through the dust and haze, he caught sight of the akuma, their cannons trained on the wall this room shared with the science division.
"No…" Allen clenched his fists and tried to push himself up. His wounds had taken their toll and his arms and legs shook with the strain. "No." He forced himself to move, tried to get to his knees, aimed his anti-akuma weapon at the demons.
They fired at the wall, sending chunks of stone scattering.
"Stop it. No." Allen's hearted clenched when he thought of Reever and the others huddled behind the tables, holding out, trusting the exorcists to ward off the threat, unable to defend themselves. He rose shakily to his feet.
The akuma fired again.
"Stop it!" Allen shouted and fired, poured all his remaining strength into protecting the people he'd sworn to protect.
Another shot and a great section of the wall exploded outward.
"Everyone get to the secret door. Now!" Reever ordered and his fellow scientists didn't need to be told twice. "Then go down to the waterway. We're evacuating. That means you too, Komui. As chief of the Order, you need to survive."
Komui pursed his lips, the stress showing on his face, but he knew he couldn't argue. Headquarters was as good as lost.
"What about you?" Johnny asked, his eyes wide behind large glasses.
"I'll be right behind you. I need to get this information to the exorcists first. It may be our only chance."
Johnny nodded stiffly, understanding, but hating it.
"Good. Now go."
People were already scurrying into the tunnel and Reever would have to trust Komui and Lin to lead them out to safety. He stood up from behind the makeshift barricade, gripping the tachyon detector tightly by the handle in one hand.
A moment later, the wall blew inward. Dust filled the air and there were screams and the sound of akuma cannons.
Reever dropped the device.
Only a meter away, hands covering his head to protect him from the falling debris, Johnny blinked through the dust and smoke, his eyes watering, staring at the shocked look on the science chief's face.
Slowly, dark pentagrams began forming on Reever's face and hands and his eyes locked onto Johnny, who stood frozen.
"Tell the exor…cists…" Reever began. And then he was gone.
Johnny could no longer feel his legs or his trembling arms or anything but the frantic beating of his own heart. His eyes remained fixed on the place where Reever had been and then, no longer in control of his own body, he fell to his knees, quivering all over.
"No…" he breathed, even as the akuma entered, firing more of their lethal bullets. "No…"
People were dying all around him but he shut out their screams. It was all real, so real, and now everything was coming to an end.
With the shadows of the akuma filling the room, Johnny Gill closed his eyes.