Title: Wonder, Faith, Choice
Chapter Title: A Room at the Inn
Summary: In this world, there are three different Noahs. These Noahs—the children of "wonder", "faith", and "choice"—will tear the Black Order's delicate balance to pieces. Yullen TykiLavi RoadLenalee OC
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own D. Gray-Man. I own Mie. That's about it.
Warnings: Blood, violence, spoilers through chapter 143, and an OC (one major one, plus a few fillers)
Pairings: Lavi/Tyki, Road/Lenalee, Kanda/Allen, Miranda/OC if no one objects (all slash)
A/N: Okay, here's chapter 4! It's been a week, which is a long time for this story… But if I waited until I finished the next scene, it would take a lot longer. So here's this chapter.
Oh, and I must now say that there will be a few more OCs, but they're just filler characters.
A man dressed in the white robes of a Finder stumbled down the road. The sound of footsteps followed him through quiet streets to a back alley that dead-ended against a wall, where the Finder stopped and turned, panting, to face his pursuers.
Both of them were pale as death. The girl looked almost normal, but for her stick-thin figure and paper-white skin; but the man, when he pushed back his cloak, revealed a right arm that was a three-foot-long needle and syringe filled with a strange, thick, luminescent liquid.
"This is the Un-Doctor," the girl told the Finder. "He's one of my specialized Akuma. Oh, but don't worry." Her eyes glittered. "He won't kill you."
The Finder began backing away, but not quickly enough. Another figure faded out of the shadows and seized him by the arms, holding him still. The Un-Doctor approached slowly, syringe arm slowly lifting. The Finder watched in horrified fascination as the syringe bent as though it had an elbow.
Then the Un-Doctor pulled his arm back and stabbed it viciously into the Finder's neck.
The man's shrill scream tore through the air. The liquid emptied from the syringe quickly, as though hungry for the human it was being offered. When the syringe had emptied, the Finder collapsed to his knees, the Akuma behind him releasing him.
Leisurely steps announced the girl's approach. The man on the ground looked up at her. As she crouched in front of him, he saw for the first time her golden eyes and the crosses on her forehead.
"Noah…" he whispered.
"Yes," she agreed. One long, black-gloved finger reached out and ran down his face. He shuddered in revulsion. Ignoring his reaction, she continued, "And you thought I was an Akuma. It's ironic, really."
The Finder blinked, vision blurring. "Why—?"was all he managed to say before the stress and terror became too much for him and he passed out.
The Noah girl smiled and stood. "Take him back to their hotel," she ordered. "And make sure you're gone before he wakes up."
Cross didn't say anything about his meeting with Bookman when he returned to the compartment. Even as he was relieved, it made Lavi nervous. He almost wished Cross would just confront him.
They reached their inn before sunset. While the others looked for the Finders in the guest book, Lavi watched for the Noahs to leave the train station.
Road had disappointment etched on her face, and Tyki had reverted to his White form. Lavi guessed that Road hadn't gotten to see Lenalee (which, considering Lenalee's lack of panic, was pretty much a certainty), but was Tyki just trying to hide from Allen? It made the uncertainty all the more frustrating knowing that he could find out in an instant if he really wanted to.
The Finders met the Exorcists in one of the small dining rooms.
"We'll head into the town tomorrow," the taller Finder, Mack, told them. "Once night falls, the place empties and the Akuma take over. The inn's getting plenty of business," he added wryly.
Where did they get so many Akuma? Lavi wondered suddenly. It should have occurred to him before. Sure, the Noahs had enough Akuma to pull this off, but Mie would never have consented to dragging in enough of her precious lab rats to make this place an Akuma anthill. Besides, finding several hundred grieving families wasn't as easy as it sounded, and also happened to be almost a complete waste of time, especially if you were planning on just letting some Exorcists use the resulting Akuma for target practice. The Noahs had to have gotten some of the Akuma here.
"What do we know?" Lenalee asked as Lavi tuned back in to the conversation.
The second Finder, Juan, took up the thread of conversation. "The Noahs have been surprisingly peaceful."
"What, are they trying to hide?" Kanda almost laughed. Lavi would have joined him. The idea of Mie or Road trying to hide their heritage was honestly funny.
"No," Juan assured them, "it's nothing like that." His expression darkened. "I didn't say they were being quiet," he specified. "Just peaceful. They show up everywhere, always with the crosses and golden eyes visible. Sir Walker's report said that Tyki Mikk has a 'normal' form, but he doesn't seem to be using it much."
"The blue-haired girl is still with them?" Allen asked.
"Every time," Mack said, nodding. His right hand ran, apparently unconsciously, up and down his left forearm. "She's always with them when one of them shows up in the town. Once or twice she's gone out on her own, but usually she's with them."
"Road Kamelot seems determined to expose them as Noahs," Juan added. "She uses her ability every time she comes into contact with someone, but never to kill them—only to show off, or at most to hurt them."
So they're letting the Akuma do the work, Lavi thought. They really are just trying to get me here. What are you going to do then, Tyki? Are you going to expose me now that I'm off the train?
"Peaceful or not, they'll most likely attack when they see us," he said aloud. 'Most likely' meaning '100 certainty'… The only question is who, if anyone, they will leave alone.
"Agreed," Cross said. Turning to the Finders, he asked, "What about the Akuma?"
"The Noahs each command several," Mack answered, rubbing at his arm again. Lavi's eye flicked down to the man's arm. What was it that he was reacting to? "They attack far more often than do the Noahs."
"And they are obsessed with protecting the Noahs, too," Juan added. "Anytime someone comes near or starts asking about the Noahs, at least five Akuma transform."
They're willing to kill everyone in this town to get what they want, then, Lavi thought, frowning. This can't just be about me.
Mack's hand had finally moved away from his arm again. Lavi saw, so quickly he couldn't be sure he hadn't imagined it, the vein stand out and then fade back in, as though a bubble had formed in the blood and run along the vein.
He suddenly felt sick just looking at the Finder.
"Is there anything else we need to know?" he interrupted. "We know about the Noahs and the Akuma; if there's nothing else, we should get some sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a long day."
Juan nodded in agreement. "That's all," he said, standing.
The Exorcists stood as well. After quick "Good night's", they separated and headed to their rooms.
Lavi couldn't sleep that night. His head felt like someone had sliced it open with a red-hot scalpel, as though it was trying to make up for the half-numbed pain he'd gotten away with recently. When he touched his forehead under the headband, his fingers came away sticky with blood.
His right eye was driving him crazy, showing him glimpses even through his eye patch; and the Innocence on his nightstand was a constant reminder of what would happen the next day that did nothing but aggravate his Noah genes even more.
"Dammit," he hissed finally, giving up on sleep and standing. If he wasn't going to sleep, he might as well take a walk.
Slipping out the door, he was confronted almost immediately by General Cross Marian.
"Lavi," Cross said. "You're up late."
"So are you," Lavi shot back. "Watching to make sure I don't kill anyone?"
"No," Cross said simply.
"Then what the hell are you doing out here?" Lavi demanded.
Cross reached out and before Lavi could react, snatched his headband away. Lavi's one green eye widened. "What are you—Give that back!" he demanded.
Cross watched him for a moment. Lavi knew what he saw; he could feel the blood from the cuts on his forehead sliding down his face.
"I knew the Fourteenth," Cross said softly, "a long time ago. He told me that when he tried to actively defy the Noahs, it was worse. I don't know if there's anything that can be done… but I figured this would probably happen." He handed the headband back.
Lavi wiped off some of the blood on his face with his hand and put the headband back on. "Yeah," he answered, just as softly. "I really should have seen this coming. Not like there's anything I could have done…" he added wryly.
"Pretty much unavoidable, huh?" Cross asked.
Lavi laughed bitterly. "It's ironic, really. I'm the one 'precious Child of God' who's guaranteed the right, every generation, to refuse to mission of the Noah family." His eye was sad. "But I really don't have a choice. I've never—"
"No 'precious Exorcist', let alone a General, ever managed to avoid the Black Order for four solid years, either," Cross interrupted. "I managed it."
Lavi's hand rose to his headband. "You didn't have a constant reminder of why you should go back, though," he argued.
"No… Just my Anti-Akuma weapon," Cross said. "And as a reminder of why I didn't want to go back, I had Maria. And as a reminder of why you don't want to go back to your 'family', you have Nyoibou."
Lavi stared at Cross. The General had no love for his apprentice, no loyalty to the Black Order… yet he was standing here, stubbornly refusing to let Lavi believe he was going to fall.
"Either way, I won't be much good in a fight tomorrow," Lavi said finally. "If there was only one of them, maybe… but the more of them there are, the more of a betrayal it is for me to try to fight them."
Suddenly he remembered something he had needed to tell the General. "When we split up tomorrow," he asked, "are we splitting up into two groups or into pairs?"
"Pairs, most likely," Cross answered. "Why?"
Lavi looked up at Cross. "Make it groups of three with the Finders," he said. "Two Exorcists with each Finder. Trust me."
Cross frowned. "What's wrong with them?"
Lavi sighed. Trust Cross to ask that question. "The one Finder, Mack… he's sick."
"You'd think he would have mentioned it."
"He doesn't know." Lavi didn't see any way to talk around the subject, so he finally just said, "Mie has a few 'specialized Akuma'. One of them is the Un-Doctor… who has the ability to turn living souls into Akuma slaves."
"That's not possible," Cross said sharply.
"Don't you remember how I described Mie the first time, when you didn't know she was a Noah, or even a person?" Lavi watched him cynically for an answer.
"A gift…" Cross said slowly, "…that has yet to find anything impossible."
"Yup," Lavi said. "Mie is very interested in Akuma. She wants to know everything about them—whether you can make a specialized Akuma, programmed for a certain ability from Level 1; whether you can level down an Akuma, and what will happen when it reaches Level 0—actually, last I heard, she was still working on that one; whether you can make a living soul into an Akuma…" whether you can use the Akuma procedure to truly revive a person, he added silently. He wouldn't mention that one out loud. Cross knew that he was a Noah; there was no need to put anyone else's secrets at risk.
"How do you know about these things?" Cross asked. "Genetic memories wouldn't help you when you get into this generation."
"I've met Mie," he answered shortly. "I've encountered others. And even when family loyalty fails, there are ways to ask questions so that they'll answer."
Cross nodded, obviously unsatisfied. "Good night, Lavi," he finally said.
"Good night, General," Lavi replied.