Disclaimer: D. Gray Man is Hoshino Katsura's property.

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Chapter 10

As Kanda grabbed the door handle straightaway, Lavi put a hand on his to stop him.

"Hey, wait a second Kanda. We don't know what's behind this door so we should be careful."

"I'm not stupid." the Japanese man replied sharply.

"I know, but lately you tend to be rather… impulsive."

"What does that mean?" Kanda glared at Lavi.

"Kanda, don't take it like that." Lenalee cut. "We're as worried as you are about Allen-kun, but we must remain as careful as possible, that's all."

Kanda turned to Lenalee and shot her an icy look with his dark eyes, which sent a chill down her spine, and made Miranda step backwards.

"First, I'm not worried about the moyashi. Second, useless chat here won't help us being more careful."

Lavi sighed, then release Kanda's hand.

"Fine, fine. You're not wrong after all. Let's go." He said with a small smile.

Kanda ignored him and opened the door, ready for whatever would come behind it. It was another room, which strangely looked like the piano room in the Ark, except that it was totally black, and there was no piano inside. The four Exorcists stepped inside, looking around them but the room was empty.

"Great. So what do we do now?" Lavi asked.

"Maybe throw you against the wall to break it." Kanda replied, obviously irritated.

Now it was Lenalee's turn to sigh.

"Kanda, please, try to cool down a bit. It's getting hard on all of us." She said.

"Che."

The Japanese man cursed silently. He knew he was being abnormally rude to everyone around him and couldn't help it; he blamed it on a certain moyashi who kept messing with his mind.

"Back to the topic, what do we do now?" Lavi asked once more.

"Do think the golem General Cross gave you could help?" Miranda asked the Chinese girl hesitantly. The latter took the said golem from her pocket.

"Oh, we can try but I don't think…"

She stopped speaking as the small golem flew to the middle of the room and opened its mouth, a luminous word came out, but it was written in the sorcerers' language.

"Damn, Bookman isn't here to read it." Lenalee said.

"Hey, hey, don't forget you have an apprentice Bookman here!" Lavi replied. "While Panda was reading his stuff, I memorized everything with my Bookman eye, and I can read this word." He said proudly.

"Then hurry up and do it." Kanda snapped.

"Right away, my Lord."

As soon as Lavi pronounced the word, several large screens appeared on the walls around them, exactly like in the white piano room, besides, under each screen a white door appeared. The displayed scenes were familiar to none of them, until Lavi pointed out at one:

"This one! Look at this one!"

The other three turned their heads to the screen, and Kanda's heart jumped.

"It's Allen-kun!" Lenalee said.

"No, it's the 14th." Lavi corrected gloomily.

Indeed, they could see him on the screen; it was that same usual young face, the same silver hair, but it wasn't the Allen they knew. It was a stranger, who had taken possession of his body. He was reading in what seemed to be a room of a Japanese-style house, and there was a small black butterfly on his shoulder.

"A Tease, Tyki Mikk probably put it there to keep an eye on him." Lavi said.

"Do you think all the places we see on these screens are the different destinations we can go from here?" Lenalee asked.

"Given the fact that there are doors under each one of them, I'd say yes. It's exactly like in our own Ark where we are able to see the place we want to go before going." Lavi replied. "Which means that if we take this one, we'll get to Allen. But I can't see Cross anywhere."

He barely finished his sentence that Kanda was already heading for it.

"Ah, Yuu! Wait, there's Tyki's Tease. The Noahs will be aware of our presence as soon as we are there. And we have to find Cross too." The glare Lavi received from the Japanese Exorcist had dissuade him from telling Kanda not to be so rash.

"I'm not stupid. And Cross can take care of himself alone."

"I know, but… bah, never mind… You're right, we might as well go and see by ourselves." Lavi gave up.

Lenalee couldn't help but smile, and she whispered at Miranda's ear:

"No matter what he says, Kanda does care for Allen-kun."

"You-you think so?"

"Yup! Come on let's go, Miranda." Lenalee said happily. The golem flew to her and landed on her shoulder.

Then the two female Exorcists followed Kanda and Lavi, crossing the door.

As expected, on the other side of the door, it was the 14th's room. The Noah was quietly reading his book, and raised his head when he saw the four Exorcists appear in front of him. There wasn't even a glimpse of surprise in his dark brown eyes at the sudden intrusion, instead he merely raised an eyebrow and said:

"Oops. There's gonna be some action here."

"What do you m…" Lavi didn't have time to finish, as he was cut by a voice behind:

"Pleased to meet you again, Exorcists."

Miranda jumped as she turned round to face the Noah of Pleasure who was displaying an elegant smile. The four Exorcists immediately got into fighting stances, as Tyki spoke again:

"The Earl was expecting your visit, but I'd say I'm rather surprised at how quick you were to find us. I wonder how you managed to do it."

"We're not here to talk." Kanda replied coldly.

"Ah, yes, I guessed so. You plan to take our dear 14th away from us again, don't you? But I'm afraid I can't let you do so."

He was standing between the Exorcists and the gate they had come from, preventing them from escaping.

"I don't give a fuck about you. We'll simply beat the crap out of you and take Moyashi with us. Innocence, activate!"

Kanda charged at Tyki, who dodged, leaving free access to the gate. Lenalee reacted immediately:

"All-I mean, 14th, please come with us!" she said as she grabbed Allen's wrist and pulled him to the door.

But a swarm of Teases surrounded both of them, stopping their movements.

"Damn it! We must close the gate before they enter and reach the Ark!" the 14th shouted. He pronounced a word, and the door disappeared. For now, the Ark and the Order were safe from any invasion.

Lavi activated his own Innocence, ready to get rid of the black butterflies; however, a scream from Miranda drew his attention:

"Lavi-kun! On your left!"

The red-haired man turned his head in time to dodge the knife blade aimed at him. Lulubell attacked again. Where the hell did she come from? Lavi wondered, as he knew she couldn't go through the walls. Then it suddenly came to him.

"You were the Tease on Allen's shoulder!"

"Correct. And you are going to die." She replied placidly.

Meanwhile, Kanda was having a hard time against Tyki, since the Noah was pretty good at countering his attacks with his strange star-shaped weapon, careful that the Innocence blade didn't touch him. Kanda swore; he was getting more and more irritated as he couldn't land a single blow on the Noah. And fighting in such a small room wasn't very convenient. So he did something very natural to solve that problem: he blew out a wall, making the ceiling collapse as well. There was a huge hole in the wall, opening on the outside.

"My, my, aren't we pretty hot-blooded?" Tyki sneered.

"Kanda! Be careful, damn it! The ceiling is falling over!" Lavi shouted at him, while trying not to get hit by the pieces of ceiling. "Miranda, Lenalee, watch out!"

The two women, surrounded by hundreds of Teases, were trying to find a way to escape since they couldn't reach the gate because of the Teases. Then Lenalee activated her boots, grabbed Miranda with her hand.

"Miranda, take Allen-kun's hand and don't let go!" she ordered.

As soon as the German woman did so, Lenalee used her boots to jump through the whole Kanda had made, and landed outside, as Miranda and Allen fell on the ground.

"Ouch… that was pretty violent, young lady." The 14th complained.

"S-Sorry, but we couldn't stay over there any longer, I just wish Lavi and Kanda managed to get out as well.

She looked at the house, but could barely see anything due to the clouds of dust raised by collapsing of the room. But soon enough, the figures of the two Exorcists appeared, along with Tyki and Lulubell who were still fighting against Lavi and Kanda.

"We have to go help them." Lenalee said.

"Agreed." The 14th replied. "But first, we need to put your golem somewhere safe. If something happens to it, we may not be able to go back."

Lenalee thought for a second, then handed the golem to Miranda.

"Miranda, since you can't really fight, please keep it for me and stay behind."

"B-But…" Miranda stuttered.

"Please, we don't have time. Keep it safe, we're all counting on you!" Lenalee repeated as she ran back to Lavi and Kanda, followed by the 14th whose Innocence was already activated.

"How come you can use Innocence while you're a Noah?" Lenalee asked.

"Simply because Allen Walker is my host, which means I can fully use his body as mine."

Lenalee didn't say anything for a second, then:

"I'm warning you: we will do whatever possible to pull you out of this body and get Allen-kun back after we're done here. So don't think you'll be able to keep this body for long."

They didn't have time to add anything else, as they joined up with the four others who were still fighting.

"Hey, now it's four against two, Lulubell. Shall we call for reinforcement?" Tyki asked.

"Pointless." She barely replied.

"I know, I was just asking in case you didn't want to tire yourself too much."

"Hey, don't ignore us like that!" Lavi shouted as he cast a huge snake of fire on the Noahs. Lulubell jumped on the side while Tyki simply let it pass through his body.

"You're right. We're being rude to you. Well, let's fight seriously!" Tyki said, grinning.

Meanwhile, Miranda felt helpless watching Lenalee, Lavi, Kanda and Allen – no, the 14th – struggling against the two Noahs. Were they that strong that even four Exorcists couldn't do anything against them? And where was General Cross? And the Earl? All that uproar should have drew him out, yet he was nowhere to be seen.

"Hello, there." A voice behind Miranda made her jump. She turned round and saw a man, a Noah given the color of his skin, who slightly resembled Tyki Mikk, though he looked older. She stepped back, as panic started to overwhelm her.

"Oh, my apologies. I didn't want to scare you, I'm here to ask you to hand me this nice golem here over, that's all."

"Wh-who are you?" Miranda asked as she stepped back again.

The Noah raised an eyebrow, then chuckled.

"God, you're right! I didn't even introduce myself to such a lovely lady! I'm Sheryl Kamelot, at your service. Now, may I have the golem you're holding? I promise I won't do you any harm."

Miranda shook her head firmly, though she was slightly shaking out of fear.

"I can't do that. I was told to keep it safe."

"Really? Well, that's a pity because I'd rather avoid hurting women whenever it's possible, but it seems you don't give me any choice." Sheryl replied, sighing.

Miranda gulped. She didn't have time to escape.

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So, here is the 10th chapter, as promised. First attempt at writing some action, so tell me what you think? And since I've been really motivated lately, the next chapter will be out soon as well. Anyway, reviews are always welcome :]
And to wishingstar7: I couldn't reply your review since you commented anonymously O_o, so I'm doing it here: thx for the nice comment, and you keep it up with your super story too!