I do not own D. Gray- Man!

Chapter 24:

"Hannah! Hannah!" I heard the voice calling me and I woke to the sound of bustling and felt the burning in my side. I opened my eyes to see Lenalee, Lavi, Miranda, Arystar and Bookman over me.

"Lenalee!" I exclaimed sitting up quickly. My side burned in pain, but I ignored it. "You're all right! What happened?"

"My innocence saved me. It did something weird. I can't use it now. Are you all right?" She asked crying with relief, hugging me. She looses the use of her innocence and she asks if I'm okay- that was Lenalee for you. I patted her on the back to indicate that I was fine. I looked between them and saw a level two Akuma standing on the deck behind them. I activated my innocence and advanced on it. That's when I noticed that it was raining and the ship had stopped- better fighting conditions for me. Except for the rain.

"No, Hannah," Lavi stopped me, "this is Chomesuke. She's an altered Akuma from General Cross. She's going to help us get to Edo."

"Hmm…" Arystar said, catching my attention. I hadn't heard him speak yet. Well, much anyway. "Where is the crew?" The question made me realize that I had missed way too much.

"The crew, they're not…" Lenalee's voice shook. She was going to break down again.

"I'm sorry. I told them they didn't have to see you off." The Chinese woman said. I never heard her name before. "They're having a party below deck. Please forgive them. I thought they should enjoy themselves in these last moments." Naturally, Miranda couldn't raise the dead. No one could do that. And after a battle, she would be exhausted and wouldn't be able to continue the time recovery for much longer.

"You mean…" Lenalee was crying now. She had short hair too! Why did I only notice this now?! "You're the only survivors?!" She asked her voice breaking. Miranda was crying as well. She probably thought it was her fault, knowing her (Didn't take a lot of knowing). But she wasn't doing anything suicidal at least.

"It's all right." The Chinese woman said patting Miranda. "We all became supporters of the Order because our families were murdered by the Akuma. Only our desire for revenge kept us alive this long. No one on the ship has any regrets." She smiled.

"When you said you were going to Edo it made us happy to know that we'd helped make it possible for you to continue your journey." The bald woman said. Come to it, I didn't know her name either. How horrible was I?

"Win Exorcists!!!" Came a cry from somewhere. "For all of us! Don't give up! Press on!"

"The crew." Lenalee whispered.

"use our lives so that others can have a brighter future! Take care of those who survived! We want them to live! We want them to have peace! We want them to live on for all of us! Please, exorcists, win!!!"

"Old man," Lavi said, "this is really hard."

He stole the words right out of my mouth. I tuned out the rest of the noise. I didn't want to hear any more. Lenalee was crying. It seemed like the Chinese woman would die too, which broke Lenalee's heart. It hurt, to see it all, to hear it all. It was really hard, just like Lavi said.

It made me feel guilty for wanting peace. These people died because they wanted revenge and I didn't want to fight. Even after everything I'd seen, all I wanted was peace and no trouble. It made me feel guilty for being so self- centered.

Once again I was wishing that I had been there. If I hadn't made that stupid mistake I'd have defeated the Akuma and then stayed on the ship to deal with the ones in the sky. Lenalee wouldn't have lost the use of her innocence or her long beautiful hair. Not to mention people would have lived.

"I promise to win." Lenalee said, dragging me out of my thoughts of self- loathing. "I promise."

If that was her promise, I'd make sure she kept it. As absurd as it was. There was no way I was going to let her die.

Not before me.