¬_¬ I am going to be sooo glad when School's over… This is driving me insane!

Sorry for the late update but it's here now so enjoy :D

Um.. just a warning theres a bit of course language so just a warning


Chapter 4 - Attitude


The pair continued dully along the path in silence. Krory was still worried for his partner's health but, at the same time he trusted him as well. In the end it would be Lavi's judgement to if he was fit or not and then Krory's job to act on it.

Krory's eyes suddenly flashed opened and he grabbed Lavi by the scruff of his jacket "GET DOWN!" he yelled whilst throwing him off to the side. Less than a second later the area they were just standing in was blasted with a dark matter bomb.

'Crap! How did I not sense it earlier?' Lavi watched as Krory pulled out a vile of Akuma Blood. "It's not much but it'll do until I get my teeth into some." He said to Lavi as he pulled out his hammer from its pouch and started to climb a tree. Once up he peeped through its leaves trying to get a clearer view.

"What do you see?" Krory said reducing his volume to a whisper. Up ahead they were approaching a large hill and where it flattened he could see clouds of smoke rising. 'Trang's just on that corner' he reminded himself seeing the coastline faintly in the distance.

"Bookman, come in Bookman. This is Krory speaking do you copy? Allen do you read me? Miss Lenalee? Miranda?" Krory called into his small black golem. Lavi landed his jump from the tree next to Krory. "I can't connect to them" Krory informed him. 'Crap this is bad.' Lavi thought to himself.

"It's going to take as at least another 6 hours to get to Trang and maybe 2 to actually get to the Akuma if we run it" Lavi informed Krory as he lowered his head in thought.

"That only inquires if you are running. You still have your innocence."

"Oh.. yeah" He felt like a fool. "Thanks Krow-san" he said as he held out his hammer in front of him and dug the drum into the ground. Once positioning himself he reached a hand to Krory and commanded "Extend!" sending them soaring into the air.

They travelled north vigorously as the falling sun started to settle over on the west. As they travelled Lavi could see an unnatural shape of a cloud, or a wave? It almost looked too thick if that was possible. His mind flashed…

'What is that..?' A young child no older than five asked as he stared into the blood filled sun falling down to the earth. He got out of his bed ignoring the flannel that fell off his singeing brow. He didn't stir, fixed in awe and beauty of it.

The boy walked to the square gap in the wall -a glass less window- leaving the screams of the sinful running out of fear.

Too young to notice his blood was boiling in excitement.

A woman burst into the room but she did not disturb the boy from his stares as she screamed his name with eyes filled with her tears.

'This child is the end of the world…' he heard a whisper in his ear as a father's arms enclosed around him. 'May God have mercy on us all?' he said holding the boy tighter as his bold exploded in him making him cackle manically he had never felt so excited, so alive. His eyes widened as well as sharpened at the sight. The thickness of the wave covered the entire sun destroying the light.

"Lavi!" Krory yelled breaking the concentration as a dark matter bullet cut across their path. Lavi opened his eyes back to reality to see dark matter bullets being sent everywhere and in between shots flashes of green and red deflecting them.

"That has to Allen and Lena Lee" Krory informed moving carefully on the handle to try and get a better view as they hovered above them. Lavi stopped the extension causing Krory to wobble a little but he soon regained his balance.

He looked over to Lavi in suggestion of a plan but stopped to see him shaking. "L-lavi are you al-right."

"A-ah" was the closest sound he could get to a yes. "J-just give me a minute" he winced over his shoulder with one hand gripped on the handle and the other wrapped on his shoulder trying to support himself.

For some strange reason he felt like his blood was boiling inside of his veins at the suspense, the recognition of the sunset 'End of the World...s-shut up!' he thought to himself closing his eyes again shaking still.

His eyes opened at the touch on his shoulder. "Take us to the side, you're not ready-"

"Heh, don't worry Krory I'm as ready as I'll ever be for a long time.. trust me" he smiled weakly looking over his shoulder before turning back and controlling his breathing, slowly, calmly.

As he scanned the battle area and out of the corner of his bookman trained eye, he saw both Bookman's and Miranda's seals working in sync with one another with Miranda's healing and Bookman's invisibility.

Lavi twisted again to Krory "I'm going to have to shrink my innocence. No matter how I think it through I'll be defenseless each time no matter what-"

"I got it, I'll be your shield" Krory nodded cutting his sentence.

Lavi had heard a phrase like that too many times before...

"I've got your back" a girl smiled at him.
"If you need anything you know where I am" a kid saluted playfully.
"We're partnersafter all" said a smiling general

"I won't let you touch him" a woman stepped out in front of him.

Tch…Yeah right

"Is something wrong?" Krory asked pulling a confused look on his face. 'Crap I didn't say that did I?'

"Oh, it's probably nothing" Lavi covered up smoothly. Krory nodded, "On your signal," he said slowly bringing himself onto his feet.

Lavi slowly rose to kneel on the thin handle balancing careful whilst watching, waiting for an opening. "Set… Now!"

He leaned to the right snatching the end of the handle and spiralled off it and dived to the ground. Ahead Lavi could see Krory holding off several of them.

"Dammit! There's way too many!" Allen yelled as he parried with another Level 3. He watched as it suddenly screamed and crumbled in front of him. Krory hopped off behind it. "Ha-ha, need a hand."

"Krory!" Allen smiled before suddenly twisting his head round quickly in search of Lavi. He lands his attack on another akuma before turning to Allen and giving him a wide grin with a thumbs up

"Let's do this" Krory smiled before biting another three Akuma and landing safely on the ground finding his next target as crowds of Akuma level's one and two continued to flood in.

"I guess this means we're getting close!" Bookman suggested, as he watched from within the cave.

"Ch-" Lavi moaned as he swung his hammer around whacking 4 sloppy level 2's in one go. 'It doesn't add up though. This isn't like the Earl at all.' Lavi thought again landing his attack on another nearby akuma, killing it instantly. All of these Akuma seemed dumb, if that was even the right word for it. Despite only being Level 2's they attacked just like a level 1! All their attacks are slow and completely off aim. And why here. '….It seems too random'


-2 Days Before-

"So the train company knew of the Akuma too… how irritating." Krory sighed as they continued down the abandoned train tracks.

Allen lowered his head in agreement, the tone of his voice low in lack of energy. "According to the conductor Trang should be around 44 miles." He raised his head again and pulled an unimpressed face. 44 miles was a lot longer than he thought.

The team continued walking for what seemed like eternity, but at the back watching silently observing. In the front where the adults, trailing behind out of fatigue the teenagers except.

"You're not struggling are you?" Bookman asked keeping his eyes fixed upon the others.

"I was just thinking" his accomplice started as he continued to trail next to him.

Bookman encouraged him "Go on…"

Lavi raised his head "Trang, why have I never heard of that village before."

"Wars can change towns"

"So why is no-one bothering to help."

"Why are you so desperate. As Bookman you must only observe the world and"

"Yeah yeah I know…."


Bookman's golem buzzed suddenly. "How come you're not in Trang."

"We were on our way to find you."

"What?"

"Trang is destroyed."

"No…" Lavi couldn't picture it. A thriving Trang after the war 5 years ago in which he -for records- stood in. Instead it was burnt to the ground, supposedly by the Earl. He lost his chain of thought as he quickly held his hand to the right side of his ribs; clenched it, and fell to one knee. "Dammit" he groaned, shaking a little as he felt blood oozing out under the bandages.

Maybe his wounds from his last battle with road still hadn't healed yet.

"LAVI LOOK OUT!" he heard Lenalee yell from above.

He quickly looked up saw the dark matter bullets heading towards him and darted out of the way. "What the-!" Lavi's eyes widened as he saw over his shoulder the bullets change direction heading straight for him again!

Lenalee turned at the sound of a large explosion to see smoke rising just above the trees where Lavi had been. "LAVI!" she screamed.

Miranda's eyes shot open and raised her head.

"What's wrong?" Bookman asked to her expression. She lowered it again.

"It's nothing I can't handle." She told herself and she shut her eyes again concentrating harder.

Lavi burst out of the clouds of dust and jumped into the trees. He knelt catching his breath back as the circles of Miranda's time reverse started taking affect, fading seconds after.

"Are you alright Lavi?" Lenalee asked hovering not too far away. He nodded rising to his feet his innocence held tight in his grip and eyes flickered at the sight.

It seemed like a standstill now.

Lenalee too noticed this "Why's it so… Quiet?" She wondered.

Literally, from around 49 akuma there was now, nothing. It could have been that they were performing a lot better, but somehow there was an eerie presence still.

"What is that?" Krory asked through the golem as he saw a large black cloud peering over the horizon. Lavi stood up and held his stance. That wasn't concerning him though.

"Allen, something walking towards us you're 11 o'clock." Lavi warned him through the golem

In front he saw a figure walking along the path. 'Is it one of the villagers?' Lavi thought to himself. 'But surely they would have the common sense not to go to a big exploding forest.' He looked closer trying to figure out a little more. But it wasn't easy, as a plain black coat cloaked him. Lavi cursed asking again raising his voice a little. "Allen? Is it an Akuma?" he turned to Allen.

"Give me a second!" Allen said as looked around with his left eye it was activated but there wasn't anything there. Lavi's gaze flashed back to figure but it was gone. "Allen?"

"I can't see anyth- gahh!" Allen cried suddenly. Lavi looked back to see Allen being lifted around 50 feet in the air above the figure by the scruff of his uniform.

"ALLEN!" Lavi yelled, he pushed from the tree aiming for the figure.

Allen weakly opened his eyes. It laughed to himself before tossing the unconscious Allen to the side focusing on the next exorcist. "Allen-kun!" Lenalee called taking hold of him breaking his fall from behind. As she was about to use her innocence to fly them safely to the ground. "Foolish girl!" she heard in a deep voice behind her. The next thing she knew she was flying into a wall and fast.

"Big Hammer, Little Hammer, Grow, Grow, GROW!" Lavi yelled behind the figure "Die" Lavi commanded. It quickly turned and blocked it his attack smiling. "Why don't you!" it yelled back sending Lavi flying up.

Lavi spiralled out of the hit and extended the handle of the hammer. He hooked it onto a tree below and shrank it sticking his leg out in front of him, aiming for the Figure as he rapidly dived to the ground.

"Persistent aren't we." It commented and then vanished from Lavi's view. 'What the?' Lavi stopped looking round for it thinking it'd be a trap.

Miranda clasped her hand to her eyes holding back several tears of distress. "Bookman! I can't reach them from here." She lowered her head into her chest. Bookman watched as Allen and Lenalee had crashed into the wall of rock in the distance.

Bookman spoke through the golem again "Hang on Allen, Lenalee." He said as he dashed out of Miranda's time dome. "Krory hold them off for a second." He ordered as he dashed past him.

"I understand" Krory replied following after him, attacking the Akuma blocking Bookman's path to the pair. When he arrived he found them both surrounded by rubble and piled on top of each other.

"I'll take Allen if you take Lenalee" Krory said still holding off some of the Akuma. "Right" Bookman agreed and he wrapped Lenalee's arms around his shoulders. "Let's go." Krory nodded and they dashed back. Bookman occasionally threw several needles at the Akuma still trying to block their path to the dome. Watching above was the figure from before.

It turned to see how the red-head was doing, and then laughed as he fell to the ground. It walked towards the exorcist sprawled out on the path with fallen trees.

"Go on, crawl back to the magic dome. You're lucky you have that Miranda bitch. Otherwise you'd be freaking dead already."

"Ya wanna bet!" Lavi answered back rising sharply to his feet.

"DIE ALREADY!" he yelled charging at him.

"Switch!" Lavi commanded throwing the hammer into the air and catching it as an axe. He smirked. 'I didn't think that'd actually work!' and he looked back to the figure now metres away. "Now, grow, grow, Grow!" He yelled swinging the giant axe blowing the figure off guard and off its feet. Lavi span the axe around his body and in his hands. "FIRE SEAL! CONFIGURATION OF ASH!" he yelled hitting the figure with the end of the axe consuming it in a column of flames. "Check" Lavi laughed to himself slightly.

"Miranda how is everyone." Bookman asked as he placed both Lenalee and Allen next to him on the ground before turning and readying his stance to go and fight in their place.

"Fine for now, just give me a second and Allen with Lenalee should…" she started only to be interrupted as Allen sat up instantly. Allen reached for the back of his head and rubbed it curiously "Ow my head…" he moaned then questioned "What happened?"

Bookman pressed on him "What did you see Allen? We have to know what we're dealing with if we have any hope of coming out alive." He said raising his tone a little. Lenalee now was awake and moving her arms and legs. They were a little stiff but she could manage.

"I don't know, it was like a level 3 but it's figure and attitude is much more.. Human, like it still had its whole life implanted in it?" Allen struggled to describe it "What was stranger was that it doesn't seem to have any traces of the Earl, meaning something else lead it here."

Krory leaned in "And the other Akuma?"

"In sync with him."

"So we have an akuma that seems to be controlling a vast amount of others in its own will?" Bookman confirmed as Allen nodded.

"Could it be the reason that Trang was destroyed?" Lenalee wondered out loud listening on the conversation.

Allen turned to her "It – " he was suddenly interrupted as a large cry and crash was heard outside the cave.

"Lavi…?"


AN - Thanks for all the support I'm getting! Please let me know what you think wether you like, don't like the story, if I'm keeping the characters in character and so on! :D Thanks again and please review! Love Cloaki xx