Chapter 11
Encoding the Heart Apostle General
They came in the night. They barged into the room and dragged Laia away, who has just finished dressing herself in a long white flowing gown. She had wanted to go somewhere with Kanda, and did not have the chance to scream for help before they binds her mouth with sealing yellow talisman paper.
Kanda came along soon afterward. He did not realize that she is being dragged off to the lab. All he knew is that she is not in her room, and that stupid scent.
That evil scent.
He'd recognize it anywhere.
It was the Crows.
He follows the scent, and on the way, he saw Lavi.
"They've taken her…" Kanda said gravely, and Lavi immediately knew what it was.
He alerted the rest of the Exorcist, and everyone came at his callings and runs to wherever that Kanda had followed the scent to. They arrived in a wide white place, and it reminds them sickeningly of the hospital grounds.
Especially to Kanda.
They saw Leverrier standing in the middle, and Laia being held captive by a few Crow members. She tries to use her Innocence against them to protect herself, but they have sealed her abilities to do so. She fought against them fiercely, and her hair swings all around her. It is growing, and it has finally reaches her ankle. The flowers that she has put into her hair dropped to the ground, crushed like her virginity.
"Let her go!" Allen calls, and everyone draws their weapons against the Crows. The Crows wanted to pull their talisman against them, but Leverrier halted them.
"Let her go?" Leverier said to them. "Do you have any idea who she is?" Leverier said, his eyes going into slits as he said his words. "She is the Heart. She cannot leave the Black Order. She must stay here, where we will protect her along with the other Innocence."
"You're making her a prisoner like what you made Hevlaska do 100 years ago!" Lavi exclaimed in fury, his angry eyes fixated upon Leverier, who stared at Laia's futile attempt to break through their grasps.
They ties her hand up in talisman papers, and with that, they threw her into a large glass empty tube. She pounded the glass and screams with her mouth sealed shut by the papers. She couldn't break free, and soon, water starts to fill the glass tube. The glass tube that encased her starts to seal off her mind powers and her Innocences, which renders her useless. Her Innocence glows weakly, and with a last bout of power, the Innocence's light went out. The monitor's read that her heart beat increased and that she is trying to break the seal surrounding her, angry that she is forced to witness the cruel things that Leverier forced her to see.
"In a way or two, yes," Leverier said passively, admiring Laia fighting tooth and nail inside the gradually filling tube. She is floating in the water, which gave the effect that she is glowing and bathed in silver light. "The Heart is too important to us, we cannot lose the Heart."
"But she is an Exorcist!" Allen exclaimed angrily. "She fights alongside with us! She's a human being for God's sake, not a lab rat!"
"But she is the Heart. If she goes out, there is a great chance that the Noahs will kill her. She will stay here until the day the war ends."
Bubbles escaped her mouth when she screams against the glass through her talisman wrapped mouth, catching everyone's attention. Hitting the glass repeatedly, her eyes gave a glint of hopeful look and continued to pound onto the glass with renewed vigor.
The Crows that restrained Lavi earlier released him suddenly; all clapping their hands together and forcefully, Laia's figure in the water is pushed back to the center of the glass tube, her expression bewildered.
Words flew out of the Crows clasped hands, magically snaking towards Laia's form in the water in a very sensual way. As they touch the glass tube, it suddenly becomes violent and pushed itself into the glass and through the water, immediately changing themselves into long yellow stripes of talisman-like papers with the black words turning red printing on the paper. Wrapping around Laia, the yellow paper restrained Laia's movement. Laia gave Lavi a last look of helplessness before her eyes and mouth is covered by the yellow paper, stilling her figure in the water.
"Laia Elfreya, the Exorcist who wields the Heart Innocence," said the Crows. "Code name from now on, the Heart Apostle General. Encoding. Loading. Loaded. Restrained. All movements and senses are reserved until further orders are given by the Vatican."
Helplessly, the rest of the Exorcist went out from the room. They remember just how Laia is being sealed into the tube with the talisman paper. It was a gory sight to behold. Now she just looks like a mummy that floats with all the powerful talisman holding her.
"She evolved," said Lavi in a matter-of-factly tone. "Yeah. So what? Allen and Lenalee had had their Innocence evolved to a higher level. Does that mean they are to be put into a jail too?"
"Her Innocence protected her-" Link said, following the small group.
"And so does Allen's and Lenalee's Innocence!" Lavi intercepted Link angrily, frustrated that the Inspector doesn't get his point. "Didn't you know that Innocences protect their host in a life-and-death situation?! Take Allen for an example. The Innocence knew that he's going to die unless it did something, and it did!"
"I know very well about that, Lavi Bookman." the Inspector said in a stern tone. "However similar Lenalee Lee, Allen Walker and Laia Elfreya's Innocence reacted, there is still a vast difference among Lenalee Lee's and Allen Walker's Innocence with Laia Elfreya if they were to be compared."
"What's the difference!?" Lavi exclaims.
Link sighs. "I am not supposed to tell you this, but she can communicate with her Innocences."
Everyone stopped moving and walking.
"What?" Lavi broke the silence.
"She had claimed that her Innocences speaks to her and often told her of any impending dangers, which is why she had so often warned us about the impending Noah's activities," Link explains to them.
"Impossible," Lavi said his eyes wide and his hands going to his hair. "There are no such records in all the histories of the Bookman-"
"And now there is. There is a high chance, possibly 99.9% of our confirmation that she is indeed the Heart, and will thus be placed under 24/7 surveillance. It is to keep her safe from harm, and to keep the victories on our side."
"You can't-" Lavi said…
"Laia Elfreya is just another Exorcist, albeit a little different from your lot. You should worry about the upcoming war with the Earl and focus on your practice instead of pondering frequently on this subject referring to Laia-sama. What's more, it's not like you could help her even if you knew about her bargain with Inspector Leverrier."
"A bargain..." Lavi said, mouthing the word in his mouth repeatedly. "Laia is making a bargain with Leverrier?!"
"You did not hear it from me…" Link said, and strode off to the office to get his work done.
The war came soon enough. But it is not the war they are waiting for. The Earl of Millenium came to the Black Order and wreaked havoc. A lot of people die, and most were turned into his minions. Many escaped, and many dies under the akuma's powers.
"The Heart! Oh, the Heart! We've found the Heart, Earl!" one of the disciples said to the Earl. The Earl hopped to the side of the tank and saw a girl floating inside. He did not feel any innocence inside, but he felt that she is important to the Black Order in some sort of ways.
"The Heart!?" the Earl called. "Oh! The Heart! Destroy it! We WILL win this war, Exorcist!"
Everyone was surprised when Tyki came in to protect the girl floating in the water tube. The Earl, most of all, is more surprised than anyone else.
"Isn't that..." the twins said to themselves, realizing that she is someone they knew from a long time ago from lost memories. "The little girl that the 14th adopted?"
"Laia?" the Earl said to himself, his head snapping to see the girl floating in the tube.
"What?" one other Noah said to all of them. "Laia? She's not dead?"
"Impossible!" the Earl said to them. "It's been 7000 years since the great flood! She cannot be alive!"
"No!" Kanda screamed, coming in to crash into the lab hall and protects Laia. However, before he could do so, they have forced him to meet with his long lost friend, whom he had thought had died, Alma Karma…
"Stop it!" Allen screams, launching his Crowned Clown and protects Laia, who is still sleeping within the waters inside the tube. She is still sealed, and there is no way to wake her up. She might just be the only person capable of fighting on part with the Noahs. They need her to survive. They need her to save humanity. They need her to save the Exorcist and salvage their souls!
"The 14th and I sealed her within an enchanted glass box, to which she remained asleep and ceased aging, protecting her from the water and the wrath from the Gods since all humanity excluding the Noahs family is allowed to live," Tyki said, explaining to them all and casted a spell over her tube of water. However, before he could do so, the Earl destroys his spell and forces him to look at him eye in eye.
"Tyki!? Why?!" the Earl ask him, hissing into his face angrily.
"I can't kill her...she's the one and only person I ever loved for so long...even my inner Noah loves her..." Tyki said to him, and sheds a single blood tear out of sadness. He knew he could never have her as his beloved, and has resorted to instead protect her well from harm.
With that, the Crows came in. The Inspector is there as well.
"Protect the Heart!" the Inspector calls, pointing one long finger at Laia.
"Yes, Inspector!" the Crows obeys him, and rushes forward to form complicated seals. While they forms the seals, the Noahs picked them one by one and kills them gruesomely.
While they fight, both Krory and Lavi is slammed into the many wires and machines that kept Laia sealed within the glass tube. The wires dislocated from its socket, and soaked in water. Immediately, Madarao felt the barrier surrounding Laia loosened. Observing from the sides and determining to be the one and only person to witness her awakening, he watched as the seal weakened and starting to set Laia free.
Floating for a while, the sealed red handcuffs suddenly disintegrated and fell down into the bottom of the glass tube with a loud "clang!"
Using her mind powers and anger, Laia burned all the seal papers that sealed her ability to see, speak and listen. The long ribbons of seal papers burned within the water, sparks of red floating within the glass tube as if there is no water in it at all. Hair and her clothes floated in unseen wind, Laia opened her eyes.
She spins with her arms around her, flexing them and feeling the freedom given back to her. The seals all burned inside her with her powers alone, and the water started to vibrate with the intensity of her powers.
The seal written right onto Laia's arms and feet disappeared, alongside with the long thread of paper surrounding the glass tube burned away with angry fire from Laia's sheer will alone. Willing herself to float closer to the glass tube, Laia looked around before touching the glass tube, feeling the powers of the seal sealing her within the glass tube weakening rapidly. Pushing herself back, she raised her arms straight. Palms facing the glass, Laia blasted the glass barrier around her and released her from the many seals that kept her a prisoner.
The water around her disappeared suddenly, leaving her floating around for a little while more with thousands of glowing water droplets around her, looking every bit like an ethereal water spirit.
Dropping down heavily from the lack of water and gravity, Laia gasped and takes a deep fresh breath, savoring the long forgotten smell of fresh air. The smooth light breeze caressed her face, drying her skin while water gradually leaves her body. That is when she heard a loud crunch of boots crushing glass. Opening her eyes, she was greeted with Madarao's face, the Third Exorcist.
Unexpectedly, Madarao offered her his hand, his face remained expressionless. Placing her hand in his, Madarao helped her to step away from the now smashed seal tube, one arm around her waist to lift her up and to protect her from the jagged glass. Releasing her, Laia gave him a slight nod and said softly, "Thank you, Madarao, for staying with me all the time."
"It's my duty, Laia-sama," said Madarao formally, his head in a slight bow to her. Nobody had known that he had greatly admired Laia's strength and strong decision to sacrifice her just for the sake of those that are dear to her will not be harmed. She had agreed to Leverier's decision that she is to be sealed and not participate in the war. She agreed that Leverier and the American branch could perform experiments on her and draw out her blood for any purposes that they are to do to her blood, only if he promised not to harm the Exorcist in any form or any way. She kept the part of her deal till the end, but he did not.
Leverier's lie to the accommodator of the Heart of the Innocence had been displayed like an opera in the theater. Laia had seen how Leverier forced the Exorcist to continue to fight even if they're on the verge of dying, and she had seen how he had treated the Third Exorcist like they're a bunch of successful lab rat. He had harmed the Exorcist's spirit and greatly diminished their strength in battle.
The deal is officially off.
"Verdict of Vengeance, Last Anarchy," said Laia softly. The Innocence symbol on her forehead and on the center of her palm glowed silver light. "Innocences activate."
The silver light in her palm formed a long silver bow while the Innocence on her forehead glowed even brighter and formed a blooming red lotus that continued into her forehead's hairline, which slowly transformed her long jet black hair into a swirling river of silver hair, flowing behind her like a glowing silver cape. Levitating herself off the ground, she quickly flew herself towards Kanda.
Taking a quick aim, Laia released a surge of air pressured into becoming her arrows. Coated alongside with the deadly Innocence dust that seemed to come out from her hair like fairy dust, the Innocence-coated air arrow flew right into a long line of Level 3 akuma, effectively killing the akuma that had dived in to kill Kanda.
Surprised by the long silver light that came from behind him; Kanda looked up and saw Laia, in all her silver glory, floating in the air, her eyes focused on him.
Neither of them said anything. Their eyes focused on each other, as if it has been years since they've seen each other.
Without ceasing from staring at Kanda, Laia raised her bow and whispered softly, "Forest of Fury." Immediately, a silver light encased the bow and it formed a long silver walking staff with a silver crystal swirling on top of the staff.
"Laia!" a shout came from Lavi's direction, awaking both Laia and Kanda from their staring. Turning towards Lavi, Laia saw a huge swarm of Level 3 aiming towards all the Exorcists. Landing right in front of Kanda, Laia focused on erecting a barrier around every Exorcists and the Black Order's staff that is present at the war seconds before the Akumas dive in for the kill.
Moments later, everything is drowned in a sea of Akumas, leaving the rest of the Noahs to slowly realize the truth of what the 1st disciple did to them.
When the Exorcists raise their heads up from being covered by their arms previously, they realizes that each and every one of them is surrounded by what had surrounded Lenalee when her Innocence decided to protect her from Akumas. A green glowing crystal surrounded them from all sides, and they couldn't break free from it.
Pressing their palms and face into the crystal, they tried to see what the limited views would provide them. What they saw is a glowing red light floating in the air, and that when it suddenly glows brighter, the green crystal barrier from the Innocences disintegrated into thousands of tiny glasses.
What they saw surprises them in many ways. Where Laia had previously stood in the air with all her Innocence activated, there is a red-ruby colored crystal glowing rhythmically like a heartbeat. All the Innocences that still have not found its accommodator surrounded the red crystal, circling it round and around in a never ending cycle. The red crystal is different from the green crystals, as it had a heart shaped, gold colored glowing crystal in the center of the red crystal, confirming to all of those on the scene that Laia indeed is the Heart.