I've been drawing so much art for this story lately, my hand hurts. I just drew a (handless) full-body picture of Elan and now I'm working on a bouquet of all things.

Also, I tried linking you to a piece of art my friend Riah drew, but my profile wouldn't link to Tumblr, so… I'll figure something out. Because you need to see it. RIAH IS AN AMAZING ARTIST DESPITE EVERYTHING THEY MAY SAY.

D. Gray-Man belongs to Katsura Hoshino.

"Take My Hand" belongs to Night Lights.

Take My Hand
"Lately I feel lost
Forgetful mind
Regretful thoughts
They eat away my soul
Peculiar taste with a heavier
Toll on my body
Becoming somebody else
I needed to hold on
But I cannot recognize myself

But you take my hand
To remind me I'm here
That I'm not invisible
Life's just a means to an end
You take my hand"
-Night Lights

Taryn blinked at the boy called Neah, surprised. "I sound funny?" she asked.

"Sorry," Neah's brother said hastily. "Neah's just in a bad mood today." He looked at his sibling. "See that crest on her coat? She's one of the church people Mother told us like to visit Barrow-in-Furness a lot. They're from lots of different places, remember? So it's just an accent."

Neah glanced at his brother. Then he refocused on Taryn with burning amber eyes. "Then where are you from?" he asked.

'He kinda sounds like Charlotte, doesn't he, Pax?' Taryn thought, to which Pax whistled a short affirmative. "I'm from Virginia."

"So you're American?" he went on brusquely. "Uncle Cyrus says Americans are annoying."

"Neah!" his brother protested immediately. "You're being rude!"

"I'm Virginian!" Taryn protested at once, her brow furrowing.

Neah made a face. "That's in America, isn't it?"

"Yes, but that's different!" Taryn answered. "State comes first!"

"That's just weird!" Neah retorted. "Uncle Cyrus is right! Americans are weird!"

Pax suddenly gave a shrill shriek, startling all three of them. Then he settled down again, turning around so that he faced the boys. He tilted his head. 'Rude little boys are just as annoying,' he said.

"Pax says he thinks you're annoying, too," Taryn told Neah simply.

Neah didn't have a response to that. He only regarded the young exorcist like she'd suddenly sprouted a second head.

"He said that?" Neah's brother questioned skeptically, studying the bird warily.

"Mhm, Pax isn't a normal bird," Taryn said. "He's real smart. He can even talk, too, but I'm the only one who can hear him."

"You're just weird," Neah repeated himself.

"Mother said some of the church people can do really strange things, Neah," his brother said quietly.

"That doesn't mean anything, Mana," Neah answered. "The bird didn't say anything."

Mana sighed at his brother before he looked at Taryn. "I'm Mana Campbell," he said, smiling at her politely. "This is my brother, Neah. I'm sorry he's being rude. He's just in a bad mood today."

Taryn hesitated. Then she smiled. "I'm—"

"Taryn!"

Pax took off with a loud screech of protest as a familiar girl barrelled towards them.

Taryn staggered forward as a weight suddenly collided with her back. "Oof!" she grunted, stumbling a little when she felt arms wrap around her neck. "Lottie!"

Charlotte snickered. "Gotcha, sis," she teased.

"Get off," Taryn grumbled.

Charlotte hummed contemplatively before answering with a blunt, "Nah, I don't feel like it."

Pax suddenly caught Charlotte's braid and yanked on it with his beak.

"Ouch!" Charlotte yelped, letting go of her sister and grabbing her braid. She turned to glare at Pax, waving him away with her bow. "What was that for?"

Pax screeched as he landed once more on Taryn's arm. The white gyrfalcon let out a loud cry, his wings pounding the air with noisy beats.

Taryn smiled at her sister, who was making a face at Pax. Then she looked back at the brothers. "I'm Taryn," she said. She nodded at her sister. "And this is my sister, Charlotte."

Neah eyed Charlotte. "You both sound funny," he muttered.

Charlotte turned her attention away from Pax to focus on the boy. "Well, you sound funny, too," she retorted.

While Neah looked indignant, Mana smiled with amusement.

Taryn opted to ignore Charlotte and Neah for the time being. Instead, she focused on the smiling boy with a cheerful smile of her. "Was that a metronome that Pax stole from you?" she asked.

Mana nodded. "Yes," he confirmed brightly, ignoring the way their respective siblings had started bickering. "Mother is going to teach us to play the piano! She says Neah has a gift."

Taryn's eyes lit up. "That's neat!" she said. "Mama used to play the piano for the local church, too, before she married our papa."

Mana looked intrigued. "Where are your parents?"

Taryn faltered before looking down a little, her expression flickering with a hint of sadness. "We had to leave them back home in Virginia," she told him.

Mana's features twisted with surprise and confusion. "Why?" he exclaimed.

Pax bowed his head and nipped at a stray curl of Taryn's dark hair, drawing her attention.

Taryn glanced at the bird before her gaze returned to Mana. "Master Jian Li said it'd be safer for everyone if we did," she said.

"That's horrible!"

"It's not so bad." Taryn offered a small smile. "I've got Charlotte and Pax!" As she spoke, she glanced at her sister and blinked in surprise when she saw the archer and Neah staring daggers at each other. "Should we stop them?"

Mana followed her gaze. "I don't think so," he answered after a moment. "Neah's being a little mean today. He's usually not like this. I'm sorry if he offended you."

"But…" Taryn started, only to stop herself when she realized that if their siblings did start fighting, it would be entirely their own fault. "I guess you're right." Then her lips quirked up in a smile. "Don't worry about it. I'm okay!"

Mana looked back at her, smiling again. "So how old are you?"

Taryn returned her focus to the boy. "We're both twelve," she said.

"Us, too!" Mana said merrily. Realization struck him a moment later, though, and he frowned at her in confusion. "How come you work for the church if you're our age? And you're both girls, too…"

"Hey!" Taryn exclaimed indignantly. "What's wrong with being girls?"

Mana held up his hands apologetically. "Nothing! Mother just said that girls don't usually work for the church unless they're nuns, but neither of you look like nuns."

Taryn relaxed. "Oh. Well, we work for a different branch of the Vatican," she explained. "I don't really understand it myself, but our master said that we're sort of chosen?"

"By the church?"

Taryn shook her head. "By God," she said. "At least, that's what everyone keeps telling us."

Mana stared at her with wide eyes. "By God?" he asked in a strange tone.

"Yeah," Taryn agreed. "But I just think it's all kind of silly. Why would God pick us? We're just little girls." She shrugged. "Anyways, I don't feel any different from before, so maybe they just took the wrong girls."

Pax tugged on her hair again, this time a little more sharply. 'Mother!' he protested.

Taryn focused on Pax with surprise. "What is it, Pax?" she asked.

'They didn't choose wrong!' the gyrfalcon insisted with an indignant screech. 'You wouldn't be able to control me if they had!'

Before Taryn could respond to her avian companion, a sharp voice cut through the air, coming from one of her pockets. "Pax!"

The sharp voice startled Mana and Neah, who turned to look at Taryn in surprise as she produced her golem from one of her pockets.

The pitiful little golem had flown into one too many things, because now one of its wings didn't even work anymore and its audio device was beginning to produce an irritating static noise just like Charlotte's. It was silent for a moment before its one remaining wing suddenly flapped wildly as that same voice came through, "Pax, Retribution!"

Charlotte immediately whirled, spitting venomously, "Those aren't our names!"

Taryn glanced at her sister warily before refocusing on the golem. "Yes, Mister Stefano?"

"What are you two doing?" the Italian snapped. "You're supposed to be scouting, Pax!"

Taryn winced.

Had the Finder overheard everything that was going on? They would be in a lot of trouble if he had. After all, he was right. They were slacking off.

Before either she or her sister could respond to the Italian Finder, though, a hand reached past them and plucked the golem from Taryn's palm.

The group of four turned their heads to look as a tall, teenage exorcist lifted the golem. "Hey, Finder," he greeted nonchalantly. "The girls were just telling me the plan, that's all."

Taryn opened her mouth to call him out on the blatant lie, but he held up one finger to cut her off, smirking slightly as he peered down at her with dark eyes.

"Judgment," Stefano grumbled. "It's about time you got here. Where have you been?"

Well, it seemed the Italian hadn't actually heard what the twins were really up to, since he had dropped the subject so easily.

"I don't control the weather," the red-haired exorcist answered almost lazily, shrugging even though Stefano couldn't see him. "Anyways, there's no reason to yell at the girls. They were being helpful," Then he squeezed the fragile golem until it made a soft cracking sound before crunching under the pressure. "Oops."

"That was lying," Taryn murmured at once.

The teen shrugged. "Sometimes that's the only way to get them off your back," he said. "I don't know which ones are worse, the Finders who worship the ground we walk on or the Finders that treat us like animals. Stefano's pretty bad, though."

"We had everything under control," Charlotte hissed.

"Sure you did," he replied dismissively, making Charlotte seethe with anger. "So you're the new exorcists, huh? I'm Cross. Who are you?"

"I'm Taryn and she's Charlotte," Taryn said.

Simultaneously, Charlotte declared, "That's a dumb name. Who names their son Cross?"

Taryn sighed with resignation as her sister and Cross began to argue immediately, both bristling angrily at one another. Then she stepped back to watch.

Beside her, Mana and Neah were looking on curiously.

"Is your sister always like that?" Mana whispered.

Taryn shook her head. "No, she's usually really nice," she murmured. "She's just been really upset lately. And she really hates that guy that was talking to us before Cross got here, so that doesn't help, either."

"What was that thing, anyways?" Neah asked, looking away from the fight to focus on her. "That thing that was talking. I've never seen anything like it."

Taryn blinked at the brothers. "They're called golems," she said. "The scientists at the Vatican just made them. We were supposed to be testing them out here, but none of the ones they gave us work right."

Neah snorted, "Then they don't work. What's the point of giving you things that don't work?"

Taryn shrugged. "I dunno, but at least they didn't explode," she pointed out. "One exploded two weeks ago."

Mana looked aghast at the idea of the little things exploding. "Why'd they decide to give you one of them if it might explode?" he asked.

Taryn shrugged, glancing at her twin and Cross again before refocusing on the boys.

The argument probably wouldn't end any time soon, so she didn't feel bad for ignoring the exorcists in favor of her newfound friends.

"I dunno," she told them. "The science department said it was just the one that could've exploded, though."

The brothers frowned as they thought over her answer.

Then Mana began softly, "Hey, Taryn?"

"Yeah?" Taryn answered.

"Why did that man call you 'Pax?' Isn't Pax…" Mana gestured vaguely at the gyrfalcon perching on her left wrist. "The bird?"

Taryn shrugged. "Most everyone at the Vatican calls us things like that," she said. "Our weapon names."

"Weapon names?" Mana echoed, perplexed.

"Yeah, we're supposed to protect people from monsters with special weapons." Taryn pointed at Pax with her free hand. "Since Pax is my weapon, they call me Pax. My sister's weapon s called Retribution, so they call her Retribution. I guess Cross's weapon is Judgment, since that's what they call him."

"Well, your sister was pretty angry about it," Neah noted quietly as he scrutinized the falconer.

"Yeah, Charlotte really hates it," Taryn told him. "She says they do it because they don't care about us, so they don't think it's worth it to learn our names."

"That's horrible!" Mana exclaimed.

Taryn shrugged. "I don't think that's really it," she explained hurriedly. "Naz—she's an exorcist like us—says they just don't want to get attached to the exorcists like us since we have to leave so much."

Neah made a face. "It's still bad," he retorted. "You have names, so they should use them."

Taryn shifted uncomfortably, glancing at the arguing duo again before she looked back at the brothers. "It's alright. We'll be okay."

"Taryn and Charlotte, right?" Neah said. His amber eyes focused on Pax suspiciously. "And he's Pax?"

Taryn met the boy's eyes curiously. "Yeah," she agreed quietly. "Why do you ask?"

"You work for the Vatican, so that means you have to leave," Neah pointed out. "But Mother told us people who work for the Vatican come here all the time."

As Mana glanced at his brother curiously, Taryn furrowed her brow. "Yeah," the young exorcist agreed hesitantly. "Master says there's a lot of monsters here, so the Vatican likes to send people like us here every few months just to keep the number of monsters down."

"So that means you'll probably come back here a lot, too, right?"

Taryn nodded at the short-haired boy. "Actually, Naz said that they're probably gonna send Charlotte and me here a lot more than usual since we're the newest and youngest exorcists. Why?"

Neah shrugged, his gaze shooting to his brother before he looked at the ground. He mumbled, "Well, if the church won't do it, we'll just have to remember your names instead."

Mana adopted a surprised expression before his eyes lit up. "That's a great idea, Neah!" he agreed eagerly.

Taryn's eyes glittered with excitement before she remembered something. "But sometimes we won't get sent here at all," she said quietly. "It could be a long time before you ever saw us again, so what if you forget?"

"We won't!" Neah insisted, making a face at her. "Why would we do something like that?"

"Because it could be a long time before you see us again," Taryn reminded him. "And even if you did remember our names, what if you're not here next time, either?"

Neah scoffed, "Mother likes to brings us on trips into town all the time, so we'll probably be here. Anyways, how are we going to forget two annoying church girls and a big bird?"

Mana smiled as he returned his focus to the stunned exorcist. "Neah's right," he said. "You're Taryn, Charlotte, and Pax. We won't forget! Promise!"

There see? Neah's not so bad. Pax just put him in a bad mood with his prank, so he was being a little bit of a jerk, like most grumpy little kids are.

Anyone notice how I said that Taryn identified as Virginian before American?

That's a fun little historical tidbit: before the American Civil War, American-born citizens were loyal to their state more than they were to the country as a whole (the same could not be said for most immigrants, who didn't viewed the United States as one single nation). States also had more powerful governments than they do nowadays, too. That's why it was relatively easy for states to secede back then.

On another note, I'm trying to draw reference pictures for certain characters and objects that will appear throughout the story. I'm working on Elan (in werewolf form) right now. While drawing him, I realized two things: A) I have a better grasp of male anatomy than I do of female (I'm looking at you, hips and legs (and what even are those bizarre assortment of things that go on the front of the head?)), but I still suck at drawing anything remotely humanoid. B) Elan is pretty much a furry with his Innocence activated… which is hilarious, honestly. What a dork. I love him.

When the story has progressed more, I might publish a collection of short stories that didn't make it into Devil's Backbone itself. They'll probably be things that I mention in the story that I never actually included, like training with Jian Li or Pax's hijinks, or possibly even little snippets from the backgrounds of certain characters, since I've put such a ridiculous amount of detail into all of these characters. There might also be a few AU-ish one-shots for Bella (that feeling when your own AU gets an AU, eek).

Now that we're beginning to see two canon characters that we know very little about, at least personality and history-wise, I'd greatly appreciate any constructive criticism on how I portray them.

Note that I said constructive criticism. That doesn't mean scream at me if I mess up. It means politely point out how I made a mistake and then explain why you think it was a mistake. I'll try to make amends to the best of my ability.

I'm human. I make mistakes.

There's another thing I wanted to tell you: this story is going to be very long. Right now, I'm anticipating the total number of chapters to be somewhere between 60 and 80, and it's looking like it's going to be closer to 80. That's barring any unforeseen events, because I've got a loose plot. I know where I want this to start and where I want it to end, as well as all of the major plot points that we have to hit along the way, but for everything in between? Sometimes I'm going to be just as surprised by what happens as you are (minor example: Pax eating the Innocence. I didn't see that coming).

Well, anyways, on to reviews:

BloodyCamellia: Weesht, I'm glad it helped. I kinda thought I was rambling too much, to be honest… well, anyways! I hope you enjoyed the new episode! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter and all of its glorious shortness! I'm working on the lemons, but they're taking me a while, partly because I'm still a little uncomfortable with smut writing, partly because I want to focus more on the main story, and partly because I'm focusing on some other things like going back to college.
Hopefully I won't ever take any longer than a month to update. This is one of the first stories I've actually fallen in love with and dedicated so much time to (you can thank Taryn for that one; she's become something of a muse for me). However, with college about to start again, I might actually wind up slowing down, depending on my course load.

Bri: I know you are. xD Neah's being a little shit and isn't cooperating with me at all right now, so I guess he gets to be grumpy for the time being. Hopefully he gets over it soon.

Kalmaegi: Pax is quite a little troublemaker, isn't he? He doesn't have the best decision-making skills, either, unfortunately for the Foleys.
Haaa, well, I guess I was foolish to expect smooth sailing this early on. Mmh, well, they got off to a rocky start, but it'll get better with time… if Neah will actually calm down for a second.
Grumpy Prussian's secretly a decent guy. He just doesn't like the fact that... well, again, that's something I'll get to later on.
Thanks! Of course, it's just a theory, but that and a few of my other headcanons are going to be coming into play in this story. Hopefully I can remember to explain them as they come into effect, but sometimes I get so caught up in what I'm doing that I forget. Don't be afraid to ask if I mention something odd and don't explain it; chances are, I'm being forgetful again.
No more waiting! There he is! Well, sort of. He's lingering in the background with Charlotte this chapter, but he'll play bigger roles later on

Bella: WILL YOU PLEASE JUST LEAVE YOUR REVIEWS ON THE STORY, LADY? Sheesh, you're crazy (that's probably why we get along so well). Anyways... yes, maybe I'll write you a one-shot later. No, I'm not doing it right now. And also no, do not give me another sin prompt. I've already got four, maybe even five, lined up and if I get anymore, I'm not going to get anything done.