I'm soooo so so sorry for the delay on this, guys. Life got in the way :I

By the way, a big shout-out to ChikitaWolf. This is actually the third iteration of this chapter and while I'm not sure she realized it, she actually helped a great deal through just normal convos about DGM :'D also, her and Papyrus-tree's blog dgmfanreviews . tumblr . com is a massive help, at least for keeping a lot of things in mind, so if you're ever stuck on something there might be something on that blog that can help. Even if you don't need help on stuffs I recommend it, there are some interesting topics/discussions there~

Disclaimer: I do not own D. Gray-man, the canon characters, many of the concepts presented, or the locations utilized. I do, however, own Adelphe McNeal, and Kahani and Devan Suryanarayana. The quote is courtesy of BrainyQuote

"In every conceivable manner, family is link to our past, bridge to our future" –Alex Haley

As it turned out, Jerry did know his way around curry—or at least it smelled like he did. Three months at sea had certainly dulled Adelphe's memory to its smell and taste, but now that she held a bowl of it once again it was all rushing back. What's more, the excitement the man showed at her request told her that he put great effort into it, which was more than could be said of the cooks in America who hardly knew what chicken was, let alone obscure Indian dishes.

Of course, it was hard for Adelphe to keep her focus on the delicious smell. Much as she wanted to block them out, all the people cluttering to get a glimpse at her or dropping their voices to a whisper drew more attention to themselves than deter it. Of course she was used to it, but it was usually from people outside the Order; having Finders and Scientists and maybe even Exorcists whispering about her was unnerving, to say the least. And annoying, very annoying.

She and Lenalee reached a deserted table against the wall, the furthest the Scot could find from the other diners in the cafeteria. Adelphe sat down with her back to the rest of the room and released a sigh.

"You'll get used to it."

The Scot turned her focus to Lenalee, who was offering her yet another smile. "Huh?"

"After a while thing will quiet down, but right now everyone's just curious."

"Mm." The blonde started idly stirring her curry with one hand, the other tucked under her jaw. "I'm used to the whispering and staring, just not . . . you know, here. Home. The Order is usually the one place I can get away from it." She looked to Lenalee. "Is it always like this when someone new comes?"

"Of sorts. It's always exciting when we get a new member to our family, but usually when we meet someone they're new to the Order. I think the fact that you were transferred from another branch is even more exciting in some ways."

Family, right. I haven't had one of those in a long time and I sure as hell won't be finding one at the Order.

Adelphe continued stirring her food, but showed no interest in actually eating at the moment. "And I imagine the fact I was brought in unconscious doesn't hurt?"

Lenalee's expression turned to one of sympathy. "Probably not. All we heard was that there was an Exorcist in distress, and next thing we knew you were brought here in a bloody mess."

Adelphe rolled her eyes. "It shouldn't have been such a big deal. Three months without training or any sort of activity just bit me in the arse is all."

The Chinese girl's ever-present smile returned, though it still held a tone of sympathy. "We can fix that here in a little while." She nodded to the bowl in front of her colleague, "But considering the past few days you've had, it would probably be a good idea to get something into you first."

As Adelphe looked down at it, the smell that she'd been craving returned to her senses. She thought about just pushing it aside and going straight to training, but if her fear of an enraged chef didn't deter such thoughts, her growling stomach did.

"Probably."

Kahani clung to Devan's arm as they walked through the streets. She knew Devan was looking for the way to the coach office, evident through his muttering to himself, but she was content to study her surroundings.

It was fascinating to see how even some of the more artistic buildings here were so different from those in India. She'd been raised with ornate designs on the buildings and incredible detail on everything from the ceiling to the floor they walked on, so seeing such simple, flat structures lining the streets was intriguing. Her family would make rude quips of them being commoner buildings not fit for walking amongst, but those intricate and complicated things that dominated her childhood were rather stifling; the simplicity in which these people lived, on the other hand, was liberating.

The people themselves were fascinating as well. The Egyptians themselves were kind and helpful, even if Kahani's liberal use of her sari earned a few glares, but she was also surprised by the amount of Europeans she found here. It was one thing to read about them or hear that they travelled all over the world, but this was probably the first time she ran into so many in one place – aside from the English who had a strong presence in India.

"There we are." Devan's voice pulled the girl from her musings and she glanced up at him with wide eyes. "I think . . ."

Kahani followed his gaze and found that across the way, a nondescript building with a coach in front of the door with a sign above the entrance written in Egyptian Arabic.

"Well it does have a carriage in front of it, and the sign has 'coach' in the name." She glanced up at him again before coming to a realization. She smiled, "Why Devan, in the four years I've known you, you never told me you don't know Arabic."

Devan looked away, scratching his head with his free hand. "I never thought I would leave Dehra Dun, so I just didn't get to it."

"I'll have to teach you someday, mere suravira," she smiled as the two started heading for the office.

"Did you hear about the ruins outside of Cairo?" Two Egyptian men were standing just off to the side of Kahani, speaking in the local dialect of Arabic. Curiosity drew her attention away from Devan and the station as the men spoke in grim tones.

"Don't tell me the English are moving in."

"They are, but they say there's something strange happening. Their men keep disappearing. And when I was there a few days ago I saw a group of armed men headed in their direction."

The second man scoffed, "Do they not read the warnings? They weren't mere words to deter thieves; many men have died 'investigating' the tombs. I guess that's what grave robbers get, past or present."

"Kahani?"

She turned back to Devan, "Yeah?"

"Something going on?"

The girl shook her head and shrugged, "No. Just thinking . . ."

Devan leaned down and examined her face. When he didn't seem to find what he was looking for – deception, if that squint was any indication – he straightened again.

"If you're certain." He still eyed her with a mildly suspicious eye but seemed to drop the issue as he turned his gaze back to their destination.

Kahani's mind, on the other hand, lingered on what the men had said; and she couldn't help but think that something terrible was happening, or going to happen, in Cairo.

Komui noticed something of a crowd forming around the sparring area as the session continued. The area wasn't flooded with people by any means, but the only times he'd seen nearly this many interested in sparring was when Bookman and Kanda trained together. The chief didn't question it, though; this was an interesting match.

It had been an exciting couple days, actually. When the girl was first brought to the Order, unconscious and in an old and beaten up uniform, everyone was cautious. Many were undoubtedly so from the invasion of the previous headquarters, while for others the newcomer was simply an unknown in their home.

If the scene before Komui was any indication though, said caution gave way to a curiosity, maybe even excitement.

Redirecting his focus to the match, Komui noticed that Lenalee and their newcomer seemed to be focusing on basic hand-to-hand, resorting to activating their Innocence only when one was knocked back; at which point they seemed to mock-battle for a few moments before the distance was closed and they returned to hand-to-hand.

Despite her wounds Adelphe had fairly decent speed, dodging Lenalee's maneuvers with quick dives and landing hits on her Dark Boots with "water blades" before she got too far. The three months at sea and away from combat scenarios had no doubt taken their toll, but as someone who had been fighting and physically training themselves for several years Komui had no doubt she would quickly recover what she'd lost.

He had to admit he was glad to finally see Tonn an Dochais in person, as well. It was a fascinating weapon. Komui knew of equip-type Innocence bonding to a variety of objects, but he'd never heard of it physically bonding with an element; and even though he'd read about the girl's abilities in her file, it was nothing compared to seeing them in person. Her weapon aside, after the rough time the Noah had given the Order having her at HQ was something of a relief – at the very least, after the loss of so many exorcists of late they needed the numbers.

"Chief Lee."

Komui sighed at the sound of the voice off to his right, "Just taking a break, Miss Fey."

"I'm not here about you neglecting your duties." Komui turned to face the woman and found her holding a piece of paper out to him. "This was just sent from Cairo."

Komui took the paper and read it with a grim expression. Once he'd finished he looked to Brigette again.

She lowered her voice a little, as though just to avoid drawing attention to their conversation. "The situation's getting worse. You need to deploy an exorcist as soon as possible before this gets out and people start panicking."

The chief nodded before glancing back to the sparring match. There were only a handful of exorcists at HQ . . . some of which had only just returned from previous assignments. Let's hope she's ready.

Adelphe panted lightly as she sparred with Lenalee, though she was very glad to be doing so once again. She still had a headache that took a toll on her concentration and her skin was irritated after taking blows for the first time in several months, but if she was going to get back to work she had to get fit again — headache or no.

The Scot was distracted from her musing as a heavy blow landed on the solid blades around her arms, sending her backwards. She couldn't find her steps fast enough, so she found herself thrust onto her back with a less-than-dignified yell.

As she sat up with a groan she heard the fast-paced clicking of high heels approach. She looked up to see Lenalee approaching with a concerned expression.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to knock you over."

Adelphe waved one hand while the other rubbed her sore back. "Think nothing of it. I think I just tripped on—" She looked to where she'd been standing as she spoke, but lost her train of thought as she saw that there was nothing to trip over. She then saw that one of her ankles had gotten caught on the front of the other. Bloody hell, Adelphe. First you lose to two Level Ones then you trip over your own feet in training?

Lenalee followed the blonde's gaze before offering a sympathetic smile. "We've all tripped over ourselves from time to time." She bent down and offered a hand to the Scot, "And it probably doesn't help that you're still recovering."

"Probably not," she groaned as she took the Chinese girl's hand. Once she was back on her feet she started brushing herself off. "Pick up where we left off?"

"Actually I think what we've already seen should suffice." Both Adelphe and Lenalee turned to the source of the voice and found Komui wading through the crowd that had collected around the two. He stopped next to them, eyes on the Scot. "Want to finish your tour?"

She glanced back and forth between the siblings. "I think I saw most everything. Besides, don't you have work to do or something?"

Snickers filled the crowd as Komui didn't immediately move to answer. Over his silence his light expression faded, but he resumed a small smile after a moment. "This is involving my work, actually."

Adelphe raised an eyebrow but, rather than push for a clarification, simply shrugged. "Alright then, but I'm not sure there's much I missed."

The man nodded and started steering her towards one of the halls nearby, "Oh believe me, there's something you haven't seen yet." He turned back to Lenalee. "Can you ask Johnny to have that uniform done by tomorrow?"

The girl paused for a moment, nodded, then turned away from her brother and Adelphe.

Once Lenalee had started on her way Komui continued on his, walking a step ahead of the blonde Scot.

Movement caught Adelphe's eye and she shifted her focus to it, finding a sheet of paper in Komui's hand. She couldn't see most of the content, but the longer she let her eyes linger on it the better she could see a few lines: "Fifteen dead as of last week, twenty more missing. Possibly aku—"

"See something interesting, Miss McNeal?"

The Scot directed her attention to the woman with curly hair on Komui's other side, who seemed less than amused with Adelphe's side-tracking.

She was tempted to shake her head and turn her eyes back to her tour, but her seasoned-Exorcist side worked in conjunction with her attitude to get the better of her. "I know a damage report when I see one." She turned her eyes to Komui. "Possible thirty-five dead in just one week? Please tell me you're investigating. Unless . . ."

The chief neither slowed nor turned his focus on the teen. "I know what needs to be done concerning this situation, just as I know that you're eager to get back into the field. But there are still steps to be taken before I can allow you to resume missions."

"Like finishing that uniform by tomorrow?"

"And our next stop."

Adelphe nodded and looked to the hall they were passing through, satisfied with his explanation. Then she remembered one thing, "Um . . . with all due respect, how can you tell that I'm ready for missions again?"

"I had a chat with Chief Epstain while you were otherwise engaged. I believe she told me 'when she's training she's usually ready and waiting for her next assignment.' And while I was warned to not assign missions until my medical staff was certain you were ready, I'm afraid I might not have such a luxury this time."

Adelphe rolled her eyes, "Okay look, she only brought that up because after my eye was injured, I went back into the field while it was still healing. One time."

She paused as her mind betrayed her, reminding her of several other incidents where she'd left against medical advice. And Chief Epstain's. And her mentor's . . . "Okay, maybe it happened more than once but I always made it back in one piece."

"Not according to your medical reports." The woman next to Komui opened a large file in the crook of one arm and started flipping through the pages. As she turned the first one Adelphe caught a glimpse of her own name, place of birth, and a few other items that told her this was "the file" Komui had on her.

Out of curiosity to see exactly was in this file, Adelphe snatched the thing from the woman's arm and started flipping through the pages. It was surprisingly heavy, and as the Scot flipped through she found that most of the pages that made it so were, as the woman had said, medical reports. As she looked at the pages she couldn't even understand what a lot of the words on them meant, but the sheer quantity was enough to rest her case.

"Alright, so maybe sometimes I came back a little worse for wear. Doesn't everybody?"

The woman took the file back with an annoyed expression. "Bruises and cuts are to be expected, yes. But hobbling out to a mission on crutches? Coming back with broken bones and sprains as a common occurance? That's just reckless."

Adelphe glared at her, "Hey look, I don't know how many Exorcists you have at your disposal here, but in America I was one of two—and the other was training me—so when assignments came in I couldn't exactly decide I wanted to take this one easy and hand it off to someone else. Especially after my teacher was reassigned."

The elder Black Order members seemed to get the point, as neither made a move to speak.

The group continued to walk in silence for a while, and after staircases and hallways and more stairs Adelphe got the sense that they were heading down to a deep and potentially very strange area of the Headquarters. Strange and dare she say . . . scary. The further they went the less natural light there was, leaving all illumination to small lights on the walls and something far ahead—something that they were heading towards. She had the urge to activate Tonn an Dochais—the glow of the Innocence within the water was better than no light at all—but if the others could get by without light, she could too. Really she was just worried that she didn't know what she was walking into.

Adelphe fought to keep herself cool and relaxed—if such a thing was possible at the moment. I'm an "important asset" to the Order. They need Exorcists. They wouldn't do anything to jeopardize that . . . would they? Damn it, I can never figure these people out. Why don't they just say "by the way, Miss McNeal, we're going to sacrifice you to the sun god of Pechuchua" or some crap like that? It's always "you'll find out when you see" or "you'll be doing damage assessment upon arrival."

Once they finally found the source of the light, Adelphe stopped dead in her tracks.

T-Tonn an Dochais . . . "A-activate!"

A/N: Okay guys, I'm sooooo so sorry for this uber late update (and I thought last time was bad, yeesh). Work and other commitments meant I had little time to write—but what's more, this is just a really hard part to write for period. But don't worry, TIAFD is very much alive in my mind and I have a looooot of ideas for where I wanna go with it. Just . . . getting the time to write and motivation for certain chapters is what's doing me in

Sooo yeah. Kinda boring chap but at least we have some Devan/Kahani and Adelphe being a brat xD by the way I don't think there's such a thing as Pechuchua, and if there is I mean no offense, but this is just Adelphe being . . . well, being her bratty and sarcastic self
I also don't mind telling you guys this is the first time I've actually thought seriously about Kahani, and I really like 'er. Hope you do too~

Also, I has an ask blog for my characters now 8D it's been up for a while, and probably all my readers know about it but what the heck. If you have any questions for our sassy Scot or Indian lovebirds, feel free to hop on over to ask-chikas-charas . tumblr . com.

Any feedback you guys have to offer would be greatly appreciated ;w; and as always, if you see any mistakes or have any questions feel free to review this, PM me, contact me on dA, whateeeever your heart desires

Catch you lovelies next time~