The darkness was cold; turning the huge tunnel I was walking through into a mass of shapeless nothing. It seemed never-ending and a chilly draft breezed against my bare legs and face and I suppressed the urge to shiver.
That wasn't the worse of it; I could feel something powerful somewhere at the end of the tunnel, wherever that was.
There would be something dangerous there for sure, I had no doubt about it but I was going to have to deal with the fear choked in my throat and face whatever was waiting for me at the end. I was an exorcist now, I couldn't handle the shame of running away.
I had been homeless and walking along the line between life and death for so many years, to run away would be a huge blow on my self-esteem. I halted and fixed my eyes on the only thing I could see in the darkness swirling around me, tempting me with cold caresses.
A faint green glow that seemed to be one hundred miles away in the distance, it seemed to flicker as if to tell me to come closer. It lit a small flame of warm and hope inside of me and a small grin slid across my lips.
I picked up my pace, stumbling to the side to place my hand against the jagged icy rock, feeling my way along, getting closer to the green light with each step.
The tunnel opened up into a large airy chamber, the ceilings high above me and only faintly visible with the limited glow that lit the huge hall.
I stood silently at the entrance, my hand still firmly grasping the wall and I gazed around me in amazement. Then my eyes drifted to the center of the room where a natural rock monument, twisting up and creating a cradle around a small green glowing ball emitting a pulsating light.
I stared with wide eyes for a minute before my brain processed it. There was innocence here, I suppose that was blatant; there had been plenty of Akuma around. But for those staggering numbers… It had to be something unusually strong. The heart maybe?
I frowned; I couldn't be sure until I obtained it and brought it back to the headquarters to be examined by Hevlaska.
A small movement causing a long shadow to be cast across the rocky wall grasped my attention and my eyes flicked to the tall, slim figure standing before the innocence.
From what I could see he was wearing a crisp black suit and a top hat, like he'd just stepped out of a high-class party in London. My eyes narrowed as I watched him, making sure to keep as quiet as I could. What on earth was a nobleman doing in a place like this?
I was gripping the wall so hard a slither of rock crumbled off and tumbled to the ground, barely making a noise but I stiffen and watched as the figure turned slowly, golden eyes full of deceit holding my gaze. It was silent, neither of us made a move we just appraised each other carefully.
Then the corners of his mouth pulled up revealing a perfectly in control white smile, a fake one. I could see now that his skin was an odd shade of gray and as he pulled of his top hat to sweep into a gentleman's bow I saw he had dark wavy hair slicked back and small cross stigma's across his forehead.
He wasn't normal, that was for sure but then what he was exactly was a mystery. From the way he stole glances back at the glowing innocence he had to know what it was and most likely saw me as a threat to him obtaining it.
"My dear, pleasure to meet out on this balmy Australian evening. What brings you here today?" His voice was silky and had a touch of sickly sweet kindness tacked to it. I didn't trust him, how could I with that derisive mug of his smiling at me, trying to intimidate me.
"Who are you...?" I asked him, suspicion rolling off my tongue as I eyed him.
He chuckled, a low smooth sound, and he took a few steps forward, gesturing casually in the air to wave the thought away.
"I'm no one really, just passing through…" He said nonchalantly but when he looked back at me his eyes turned hard and he paused, eyes locked on my clothes. I blinked as his almost serpent-like golden eyes scanned over me and a nasty sneer appeared.
"That uniform… You're part of the Black Order?" He asked, trying to sound as indifferent as possible but I knew he already knew my answer. When I stayed silent he took another small step forward, smoothing back his hair.
"An exorcist perhaps…?" The word came out like poison, detest written all over his speech.
Warily, I took a firm stance, bracing my hands by my sides, preparing to dodge anything that would come my way and gave him a goading look.
"So what if I am?" I challenged him.
He seemed amused by my attempt at bravery, and to be perfectly honest I had to side with him. I'd never say it out loud but I was deathly afraid, there was an aura of power and despise coming from him and it was aimed at me.
Did he have something again the Black Order? From the way he spoke it sounded like he specifically disliked exorcists like myself, which didn't put me in the best position.
He laughed quietly to himself like he was enjoying his own private joke as I glared at him, trying to keep my hands from visibly shaking.
Suddenly he stopped and his gold eyes frowned at me, like I was some pest. He moved forward in an instant, one moment he was back near the innocence then he was right in front of me, looming over me.
He had unsympathetic look on his face as he pulled out his hand and shot it through my chest before I could even react.
I cried out, expecting to feel unbelievable pain but in return he yelped and quickly yanked his hand back, letting me fall to the ground wheezing and anxiously feeling my chest expecting a huge gaping hole. There wasn't one, I was completely fine.
I looked up in shock, he was shaking his hand and cursing, like he had been burned.
He looked at me, annoyed and scrutinized me.
"Why'd it burn me?" He muttered to himself and I took advantage of his distraction to mumble the activation words.
That familiar rush of pain coursed through me as huge white wings unfurled and instinctively hovered around my body to protect me.
He blinked, truly surprised and scratched his head as he tired to work it all out.
"Little lady, those wings would be your innocence then? That would explain it, I tried to go through her chest but that damned innocence is in your back, blocking my path…"
I ignored his chatter and pulled out one of my feathers, feeling it transform into one of my short and especially sharp iron spears. I didn't know exactly who this guy was but he tried to attack me and was obviously an enemy, an enemy I had to eliminate.
I whipped my arm across my body and hurled the spear at him with all the speed I could muster. It almost missed him, cutting a clean slice through the arm of his suit, catching his attention.
He glanced down to feel where the fabric had ripped and looked back at me, accusations burning in his eyes.
"I must commend you." He said calmly and as brushed his damaged suit off. "You've really managed to irritate me girl."
This time there was a true snarl in his voice. I had crossed the line. I kept my mouth drawn in a straight line and said nothing, pulling out another feather and taking a battle stance, I wasn't going down without a fight.
A faint smile was on his lips as he mumbled to himself.
"The Earl hasn't told us to start ridding the world of any of you exorcists yet, but what harm would come from starting a little early?"
I froze, my spear cutting into my palm from how tight I was holding it.
"Did he just say The Earl?" My thoughts panicked; if he had something to do with the Earl then this was a problem on a much larger scale than I knew.
A small ball of dark shadows formed in his palm and as his hand rose to my eye-level I bent down and shot up like a bullet, air whistling past my ears.
I came to a stop, floating up near the ceiling, the wings huge and powerful flapping quietly to keep me a float. My heart was pounding at double time in my chest, my breathing hitched.
I was going to have to step carefully, I didn't know everything this guy was capable of but it seemed he was more serious about putting an end to my existence now, not a smart move on my part for provoking him.
It came at my at a hundred miles an hour, that small of writhing black substance that had been in his palm and hit my right thigh.
Burning, it felt as though it had hit and begun eating into my leg. I hissed but tried to ignore it, any lose of concentration and I'd be falling out of the sky and would be dead for sure with a fall like that.
"If that's how you want to play it…" I growled softly and allowed my eyes to close, the silence taking over.
"I know I'm not that experienced yet, but please, I need your help if I'm going to get through this. We need to work together…" My thoughts whispered pleadingly to the innocence within me and there was a change in the air.
Slowly I let one of my eyes open, trusting that my powers had stayed true to me and had allowed them to be in affect.
But as I stared at the whirling winds around me, my throat caught on the cry of joy I had been about to make, I knew I had failed.
It had been presumptuous of me to think that with one little plead I'd be given access to all the potential my innocence had. It had only been a short while that I had been an exorcist, I had gotten to conceit from my glorious victory outside and thought this would be another win.
"You can still hear me, am I right?" That silky voice called out and some part of me noticed my wings had stopped and I had been lowered back down to ground level by this raging current of air blocking me off from everything else.
"You should be honoured girl, it's only when I get serious in a fight that I bring out my Refusal technique. I had hoped you'd put up more of a fight than that though…"
I could barely concentrate on his words, my head was pounding and I felt dizzy. This wasn't just a blockage of air, it couldn't be.
"What you're in is a vacuum. I am able to reject the oxygen and air pressure around my foe. Right now you're suffocating and perhaps if you're unlucky the pressure will crush your body completely. A rather messy way to end in my opinion…"
I was dying? In my life I had imagined all the ways I'd probably die but this hadn't been one of them, this whole world of exorcists and Akuma had never fit into my image of what my life would be like. I couldn't say I regretted it though.
I had made so many friends and had finally been accepted into a place I could call home. That alone had finally given my life some meaning.
My eyelids drooped and instantaneously the vacuum around me dispersed and I crumbled on weak knees to the floor, my face lying on the dusty ground.
"Don't think so highly of me girlie, I want to finish a pest such as yourself off with my own hand. As painfully as possible."
The world around me was vague, with my head pounding I couldn't find the way to focus on anything; it was all too fuzzy for me. His hand grasped the front of my uniform and he hauled me up, holding me there, my feet still dragging on the ground.
"This will be a most fitting death for you girl, it's been a pleasure knowing you." He said the words quietly and sincerely, a gentleman to the end.
He held me up with one hand and with the other he reached back and brushed across my wings, taking a good hold of the left one.
The excruciating pain burned through me, a blood-curdling scream pierced through the night and it took me unfocused mind a moment to realize it was my own cry. I shrieked and thrashed in his grip, feeling warm salty tears run down my cheek as he took a tighter hold of my wings.
He bent down as I sobbed so that his lips caressed my ear.
"I didn't mention it to you sweetheart, but I have the gift of destroying any innocence I come in contact with. That's the power of the Noah... Since this innocence is bonded inside of you it must be unbearable..."
In reply I let out another scream as the pain heightened.
I was terrified, my wings, that comforting embrace I felt when they wrapped around me, that would be gone forever. I'd have no one else. I'd have to leave everyone behind and be the nothing I was before. I didn't want that… I didn't want to go back to that sorry existence.
Somewhere beside me I heard a loud grunt and the grip he had on me slipped and I roughly tumbled to the ground, lying motionless, the pain still scorching my back.
It was unclear to me, but I could hear muttering and the sound of steel slicing against something hard. The noises of battle.
Then it was replaced with a loud unamused chuckle.
"Girl, lady luck must be smiling down at you for now. I must make my departure back to my clan but we'll be seeing each other again very soon…"
Then the voice, still chuckling faded away and I heard quiet exchanging of words and footsteps.
A cool hand touched my arm and the fuzzy image of a young man's face in a hood with purple markings under his eyes blinked at me with concerned eyes. His face disappeared and I heard him speak to someone else.
"She's seriously injured, we need to get her to the Order immediately…" He explained to his partner and I heard a grunt in reply.
"Do you think there's a way to get her… well what's left of them… to retract?" He wondered quietly, there was no reply.
Some small part of me registered this and softly my thoughts whispered, "Innocence… You've done enough, thank you. You can depart now…"
I gritted me teeth as I drew my wings back in, leaving me dirty, broken and in pain.
"Uh… Let's go then, you take her…" The man said, a little bewildered.
A pair of cool but strong arms slid under my body and I was easily lifted up. It was strange; I had to be delusional but this hold… It felt so familiar…
I peeked up at the face of my second saviour but there was no energy in me left to feel surprised, so I simply remained watching him through glassy eyes.
His eyes, dark and mysterious glanced down and met mine.
"Why is it you always seem to be dangling between life and death and I always have to come help you?" Kanda asked me quietly, not really expecting an answer.
MAKE SURE TO REVIEW. So sorry for not updating in so long! *facepalm* But review and tell me what you thought of it! :D