A/N: A new chapter! Wow, nine chapters already! This is going fast. There will be more Miguel (Yay!) and some cute moments with Kanda. REMEMBER: READ, REVIEW, REPEAT! OTHER STORIES HAVE BEEN UPDATED IN THE PAST FEW DAYS SO THERE'S A LOT OF WRITING GOING ON!
Peace.
Chapter 9: Stone
The following morning, Allen awoke slowly. Not wanting to open his eyes, he groaned softly and snuggled into the pillow. He felt something skim up his side, but he ignored it, eyes still closed. Suddenly, the blanket was yanked off and he yelped as the cold air assaulted his skin.
"Bakanda!" he cried as his husband threw the blanket on the floor.
"Get up moyashi. Your stomach his been rumbling for the past ten minutes," the samurai said, Miguel asleep in his arms.
"Fine, fine," Allen yawned, sitting up and stretching his wings.
He slipped from the bed, shuffling blindly over to corner where Kanda had thrown their sacks of clothes the night before. Rifling around for a shirt, he found a button up and threw it on. With the buttons done, he slid on his shoes, crinkling his toes to stretch them.
Kanda waited impatiently by the door, Miguel nestled in his arms. Mugen was one again hanging from his belt, the black sword sheathed.
"Done yet?" he snarled as his husband threw a single, fingerless glove over his Innocence hand.
"Yes," Allen whined, rushing over to the samurai.
Together, the couple left the room, heading into the hall. The corridors were mostly abandoned and empty, but they weren't worried. It was better that way, actually, with a still-sleeping baby. As they got closer to the dining hall, voices filled the air, reaching them. Miguel squirmed a little as they entered the busy room, but didn't open his silver eyes.
Seeing Lenalee calling them over, Kanda huffed and took off towards the other exorcist. Allen rolled his eyes as he went to go order food from Jerry. The happy-go-lucky chef was thrilled to see him again.
"The kitchen has been so boring without you to cook for," the chef whined, already starting on several orders of dango for the albino.
"I always enjoyed keeping you on your toes," Allen laughed.
He was cut off by a soft whisper in his ear. He straightened up, a frown spreading across his face. Glancing over each shoulder, he found that no one was there. His eyes narrowed slightly as he left the counter, his gaze turning upwards. He had never noticed the statues lining the upper reaches of the dining hall, each holding a sword of some style. His frown deepened as the whispering continued.
"You alright Allen?" Lavi asked, clasping his friend on the shoulder.
"I dunno," the albino said slowly.
"So you hear it too, huh?" Marie asked as he walked up to them.
"That whispering sound?" Allen asked.
The blind exorcist nodded. "I've been hearing it for a while now, but I still don't know what exactly it is. It always seems to be strongest here in the dining hall. Komui has been getting a weird feeling in here as well, though he says he can't hear the voices we do."
Allen's gaze traveled back up to the statues above his head.
"I think it's those statues," he said slowly.
"Komui mentioned that once too," Marie added.
Feeling an intense stare drilling into his back, Allen sighed and headed over to where Kanda sat. Miguel was finally awake and cooing in Lenalee's arms as she played with him.
"Do you hear it?" Allen asked his husband as he sat.
Kanda nodded once, his eyes narrowing as he glanced up at the rock sculptures above.
"Any ideas?" the albino asked.
His husband shook his head. "None. Do you think it is a coincidence?"
"What is?"
"That we come back as Archangels and suddenly, we can hear whispers coming from statues of angels."
Allen frowned, thinking about it. It did seem like a strange coincidence and Marie had mentioned hearing the whispers before he and Kanda had actually returned.
"It does seem rather strange," he murmured, tapping his chin with a finger. "Almost too strange to just be a coincidence."
A chirp rung through the room and Allen jerked back from the sheer force of it. He glanced over at Miguel, but found the baby silently playing with one of Lenalee's pigtails. Frowning, he and Kanda exchanged a look. They batted their wings against each other as they stood, a loud humming growing in their ears. Marie met them in the halfway, nodding that he too could hear it.
"We need to bring this up to Komui," Marie said. "We thought that it was just us two that knew that something strange was happening."
"As much as I dislike having to inform that sister-complex idiot, it looks like we have to," Kanda snarled.
The humming grew louder, drawing Allen's attention away from the two other men. He turned a little, looking up at the furthest state from him. The stone was pure white, paler than even his hair if such a thing was possible. It was carved into the shape of a giant man. Each of his arms was thicker than Allen's entire thin body and raised, holding a broadsword overhead. His mouth was open in an eternal yell and his clothes seemed to be in tatters.
Walking away from his husband and the other exorcist, Allen made his way to the center of the dining hall. Finders stared after him as he passed them, whispering quietly among themselves. At the center of the room, the seal of the Black Order, a rosary cross, was built into the marble floor. Stepping onto it, Allen flung his wings outwards to their full length, barely avoiding some tall Finder's head. Under his feet, the seal started to glow faintly and the floor started to rumble, his silver eyes glittering in the light.
Staring after his husband, Kanda strolled over to stand just beyond the round edge of the seal. Lenalee came over to stand beside him, handing a happily chirping Miguel to him. Kanda glanced down at his son, whose silver eyes were wide and staring up at the statue that Allen was looking at. He followed the gaze of his son up to the sculpture and an unexplained shiver ran through him.
The light beneath Allen's feet grew stronger as the rumbling and shaking became fiercer. A loud crack filled the air as the stone of the seal broke, crumbling into hundreds of tiny pieces in the light. Each shard of stone from the broken seal flew upwards in the blast, disintegrating.
Kanda pulled Miguel tightly against his chest, shielding the baby's sensitive eyes as a precaution. Somewhere, deep inside him, he knew that no harm would come to his young son. Everyone else around them cringed away from the blinding light.
Slowly, the rumbling came to a stop, as did the shaking. The light receded, revealing Allen to be standing just where he had been before and unmoved. The albino's gaze was still locked on the statue above him, ignoring the shallow circular hole around him. Kanda glanced down at his husband's feet and nearly gasped.
Where the seal of the Black Order had once been was now a three-inch deep hole in the floor. The marble was the same white marble that the angel sculptures were made of, a shimmering white. A new seal, a rounded triangular crest was carved at the center of the circular hole, the cross inside filled with a strange red stone. Four large wings peaked from behind the crest, two at each side.
Kanda's hand flew to the back of his neck as Marie came up to stand beside him.
"What is that?" the exorcist asked.
"The crest of the line of Michael," the samurai murmured, pulling the charm necklace from under his son's black t-shirt to show his friend. "What is an Archangel family crest doing in a building owned by the Order?"
Allen's cursed eye, usually inactive unless an Akuma was around, was burning red, a few tears of black falling from the corner. Within it, he could see the faint white souls of the dead Archangels that were trapped inside the stone of the sculptures.
"Descendants of the line of Michael, ancestors of mine," Allen shouted, "What is it that you wish to say? The seal that has blocked you from speaking to the world of the living is gone."
"We wished to welcome you, your family, and allies, second youngest descendant," the angel wielding the broadsword replied, his voice deep and resounding.
Everyone in the hall grew still as the statue started to move, lowering its arms, but keeping the sword firm in one hand. The stone angel crouched, crossing its legs and setting its sword atop its thighs. A circlet unseen by Allen before adorned its forehead.
"You're Michael, the founder of our line," Allen said quietly.
"Yes, I am and those around me are the others of our line, your predecessors and my eldest descendants," Michael replied, "But you are the first in many generations to live within the walls of our church."
"Your church?" Allen asked.
"This church was build by us as a home for our line. It was where we would return to after we had completed reaffirming the balance of the world, just as the other six lines did," another stone angel, a woman, replied as she took up the same position as Michael.
"How then did this church come into possession of the Black Order?" Kanda asked, stepping up to stand beside his husband.
Michael sighed and shook his stone head, his long hair unmoving.
"In the beginning, we saw the Black Order as a human nuisance, as is the Millennium Earl. He cannot match our power, no matter how powerful he becomes. We did not entangle ourselves in the lives of men. The Noah family, including the Earl himself, is human, even as strange as it sounds. However, one of our descendants, your ancestor, supported the Order with our consent. The war between the Order and the Earl was encroaching upon the rest of the world that we, the Archangels, maintained," Michael explained. "We allowed them access to our Churches, all seven of them, as resting places or hospitals if they were ever needed."
"After the Vanishing though, the Order overstepped its boundaries. It sealed our mouths and stone bodies with magic," a third angel added.
"The Vanishing?" Allen asked.
"Over seventeen years ago, there was a great battle between the Order and the Earl. Many humans died and our descendants went out onto the battlefield to help. In the midst of the fighting, some our magic rebounded from the Earls and the battlefield was wiped clean of all life from the chaos," Michael said.
"So everyone died?" Kanda asked, frowning.
"No, not at all. We do not know what happened to those Archangels that participated. Only human bodies littered the field. Our descendants just disappeared. If they had died, their souls would have joined us here within the Church," the female angel said.
"After that, we believed that the seven lines were no more, destroyed in the battle, but not yet dead," Michael continued. "Until you three returned, of course."
Just then, Komui came rushing in with Rouvelier and Link not far behind. They gasped as they looked up at the angels above them. Each individual statue turned their heads to look at the newcomers, a communal growl rising them from.
"Walker, what in the-"
Kanda shot the Investigator a glare, silencing him. Up on his perch, Michael examined the three new men carefully. He huffed in displeasure.
"Two of you are from Central, no?" the stone angel asked.
"Investigator Malcolm Rouvelier and his assistant, Howard Link," Komui said, bowing to the angel.
"And you're Komui Lee, the one who stand there and watches us all the time," another angel, one that was much slimmed and smaller than his older counterparts, added.
The Chinese man nodded quickly. "I hope you weren't offended."
"Of course not," Michael sighed. "It's nice to gain attention once in a while. Now, you two from Central!"
Both Rouvelier and Link stood up completely straight, eyes wide with a tad bit of fear.
"Go back to your masters and tell them that we're back," Michael snarled. "If Mikael here wasn't already an exorcist, I would throw you lot out on your backsides. So, instead, I want control of the Church of Michael back in the hands of my descendants! Bark! Pull on your leashes! Bite the damn beasts you call masters! Do whatever it takes to get them to listen or I'll have your heads!"
Both men nodded and Michael narrowed his gaze at them, the stone eyelids creaking slightly.
"What are you waiting for? Go!"
Link and Rouvelier scrambled away, rushing towards the gate that led back to Central. Feeling proud of himself, Michael retook his seat, the sword resting back on his thighs.
"Well Mikael, hopefully that reduces some of your clear problems," the founder of the Archangel line said.
"Mikael?" Allen repeated.
"Aye, that's your real name. I never met either of your parents, but that was supposedly what your mother named you."
Allen recoiled at the words, nearly hissing in reply. Balancing Miguel in one arm, Kanda wrapped the other around his husband's waist, pulling his smaller souse against him. He ignored the shocked stares from those around him, scowling.
"How do you know if you've never met them?" he asked.
Michael smiled, setting his chin in his hand, elbow balanced on the edge of his knee.
"Because Angelus Coniux, this is my family, my line, and Mikael, or Allen as you all call him, is one of that line. I know everything about my descendants, including their partners, eh Lotus Boy?"
Kanda snarled, but the Archangel just laughed.
"Either way, that's not really important. Now, bring Miguel up here would you? I want to meet my one-hundred times over grandson."