A/N: HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS I JUST FOUND OUT YESTERDAY THAT D GRAY MAN IS GETTING A NEW ANIME THIS YEAR THE ALMA KARMA ARC IS GOING TO BE ANIMATED OMG!
Can you tell I'm excited?
Chapter 11: Miranda Lotto's Feelings
This fear…It's been a long time since I've been this afraid, the last time probably being when Mana had died, and I'd attempted to resurrect him.
This terror…It stems from my confusion. What is this tiny creature before me: this girl with golden eyes and the mark of the Devil burned into her forehead?
I gasp, hardly able to breath; my left arm is numb from shoulder to wrist. The bolts that hold me to the wall send flashes of white-hot pain through my mind.
I'm in so much agony that my vision begins to blur in and out of focus; through the haze, I catch a glimpse of Miranda sobbing and trembling, lashed to her clock, and Lenalee sitting motionless in her chair.
I turn my attention back to the girl called Road.
She's still wearing that haunted smirk, plastered in a sinister fashion across her newly darkened lips, the shadows from her candles dance across her twisted expression.
"You Exorcists think your Black Order is so powerful, don't you?" Road sneers, "I did too; well, until we came along."
I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to clear the pain. I reopen them and fix Road with a hard stare. "The Family of Noah?" I whisper, "And you're not Akuma, but…human?"
I feel the sting of my left eye activating again, desperately scanning the void for any signs of tethered, rotting souls.
One…two…three, it counts the souls of the three Akuma slinking about in the shadows behind Road, and yet her aura remains bare.
My heart is hammering against my ribs so hard I feel as though it might burs through my chest. The fear burns like acid in my throat. How can this…How can this be?
"Shhh! Quiet, Road Lero!" snaps a frilly pink umbrella with a tiny jack-o-lantern at its point. "You should know it's forbidden to tell strangers all of our secrets."
Road regards the umbrella with a look of confusion. "Oh? And why is that?" she asks, tilting her head to the side.
"You just can't do that!" the umbrella insists, "The Earl is near finalizing his ultimate plan, which means you can only take the Innocence, fighting this Exorcists wasn't discussed! Not only did you smuggle me out without asking, you've been making too many decisions on your own. You're recklessness is going to get us a spanking, and I hate being spanked."
"Lord Millennium would never disgrace me with a spanking," Road asserts as she sits down on the arm of the chair Lenalee is sitting in, lovingly stroking the folds of my Exorcist coat draped around her shoulders. "Lero, you need to calm down," she adds to the umbrella, "This little game is all in the name of fun. Believe me, this show I've put on will not interfere with his plans."
I detect a dark under tone to Road's voice as she turns her eyes back towards me. I feel like the air is being sucked out from my lungs, my whole body constricted by horror and pain.
My thoughts pound violently in my skull
The Family of Noah
The Millennium Earl's 'ultimate plan'
A game for fun
I grit my teeth, trying to beat back the fear constricting my body. My whole body goes rigid as I struggle to regain my composure, concentrating it in its entirety to my single bound limb. I squeeze my eyes shut as electric shocks of pain streak through my system; I cry out as I begin to try and wrench my left arm free.
It begins to give and the bolts dig deeper, I scream as the pain climaxes, only seeing to make me pull harder, and then the whole thing gives way in a shower of dust and plaster.
My overly large arm drops to my side as I slump against the wall, now with a huge chunk missing, panting heavily. Wisps of pale steam rise up from the blackened, circular wounds the bolts have made in the grey flesh of my Anti-Akuma Weapon.
Road's eyes widen.
I raise my eyes to meet them. "Why would a human…" I gasp, the pain still swimming in my system as the wall behind me crumbles away, revealing nothing but a dense purple fog. "Tell me," my voice trembles, heavy with pain and rage.
The girl doesn't respond, she just begins slowly walking over to me, my coat trailing behind her like a cap. "What are you so angry for?"
Behind her, Miranda gasps as Road crouches down in front of me; she is so close I can count the inverted scars marring her forehead. "You don't believe I'm human, I can see it in your eyes," she declares smugly.
Before I can respond, she leans forward and wraps her arms around my neck, pressing her body up against mine.
I feel my breath hitch in my throat, hearing my heart hammering in my chest, but I can detect the sound of a second heart beating right alongside it.
"Feels nice, doesn't it?" Road whispers in my ear, "This is how it's supposed to feel when two humans embrace." I gasp, her words echoing in my skull.
Human…no
She can't be. She can't be human!
"My name is Road Kamelot, and I'm a proud member of the human race."
But why?
Why would a human side with Akuma, creatures who only exist to kill us all.
My left hand trembles; despite the pain, the urge to kill is burning through it.
I grind my teeth. "You're hiding something from me," I whisper, my voice trembling. "Aren't you?"
Finally, I can't take it anymore.
My arms rises up, despite an explosion of pain upon doing so. The gigantic white claw curls around Road, casting a shadow across her body, preparing to strike.
However, I cannot bring myself to delve the final blow, something inside me holds me back.
Suddenly, Road grabs my arm herself and brings it down on her head. Before I can even process what's happening, the girl falls backward, her head nothing but a flurry of smoke as she collapses to the floor.
I stare in shock.
"She…She killed herself."
My eyes snap open, I sit bolt upright as a surge of pain explodes in a torrent throughout my body.
"Holy balls, I felt that!"
It takes a few seconds for me to remember what happened; there is a pounding in my head as loud as a thunder, and twin streams of blood trickle down from my forehead and lips.
Then, awareness of my situation comes rushing back almost as fast as I'd hit that wall.
"Allen! Lenalee!" I jump to my feet and whip my head from side to side, my wet hair slaps against my sore neck. I look down to see that my clothes are equally soaked, clinging to my body like a soggy tissue. The alleyway is coated in frigid water, dripping down the cold cobblestones and pooling in the gutters.
"Where'd everyone go?" I wonder aloud. "The ice has all melted. How long was I out?"
I grit my teeth as I look about me, my hands curling into fists. The people on the street beyond the alley continue on their way, oblivious to the battle that had ensued here or to the soaked bisexual standing amidst the carnage, covered in blood and street refuse.
"Well, the town's still standing, so that's something at least," I muse to myself, stepping back out into the grey street. One glance at the pale sun slowly beginning to sink behind the rooftops tells me it is early evening.
Without another word, I take off running.
I have to get back to Miranda's apartment…I might already be too late, but if the Akuma have the Innocence, then I'll have nothing to bargain with for Lenalee and Allen. They most certainly have them…They wouldn't just leave me there otherwise. What happened after I blacked out…?
These thoughts circle around in my mind as I tear through the streets of the Rewinding Town and eventually arrive at Miranda's apartment complex. I sprint up the steps and throw open the door to the cramped space only to bear witness to a sight that made me feel like my heart had dropped into my stomach.
The first thing I see as I walk into the room is that the spot where Miranda's Innocence clock had once stood is now empty and in its space, splattered across the wall in a paint as red as blood is a sinister message:
Fuck You Exorcists! I Have Your Innocence HA HA HA!
Rage flares up inside me before I've even finished reading the message; I cross the room in two strides and slam my fist against the wall, beating it out of helpless frustration.
"What am I supposed to do?" I snarl through clenched teeth, pounding my now paint-smeared hand against the wall a second time. The Akuma have the Innocence and my comrades, and I didn't have any idea where-
What was that?
My head snaps up as, whether by my ears or merely my empathy, a very familiar cry splits through the haze of my thoughts.
"Allen!" I yell, immediately going back to pounding against the wall. My fist tingles with slight pain as I repeatedly beat at the plaster, pulling back momentarily only to wind up for a large impact that shakes the entire half of the building.
This does it: a huge chunk of the wall comes way beneath my fist, falling away to reveal a haze of some kind of deep purple smoke.
I stare at it, mesmerized, as I slowly reach out to tenderly brush my fingers against it. An electric shock shoots up my arm, and I leap back in surprise as a familiar sensation fills my mind. I'm suddenly lost in a haze, floating as though on a fog, swallowed by dreams that are not my own.
Although, I'm used to such as sensation, I momentarily lose myself within it, before Allen's voice snaps me out of it.
Cas.
I don't hear him; I feel him, calling out to me from the other side of the veil; I feel his pain, his confusion, his agony. My eyes snap open as the fog dissipates, and I'm left with an alarming clarity.
I return my attention to the large sliver in the wall I'd opened up; it stares at me like a gaping wound. It's not that big: an advanced escape artist might not be able to make it through there, and I'm no escape artist.
But I have to try to get through it.
Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes and unfurl my throbbing fists. I slowly retreat into myself, concentrating all of my attention on the blood rushing through my body like a turbulent river.
My eyes snap open, and I take off running.
I don't really remember much of what happened after that, but it felt like my entire body was suddenly consumed in an eruption of pure lightning, my whole body lit up in white hot pain, not nearly as intense as it might have been but it ricocheted around beneath my skin and left me twisting and writhing, twisted in discomfort.
As quickly as it'd come, it vanished once more and I was left bursting back into clarity, into a darkness lit only by suspended candles.
I access the situation fairly quickly: Allen is on the floor, there is what appears to be a headless corpse lying beside him.
Suddenly, the arm of the cadaver shoots out and snatches at Allen's collar. He recoils in horror as the eroded face of a young girl with blue, spiked hair shoves her shriveled, raw, burned, and blackened face before his.
"I'm superior to you in every way; we are super humans, who have inherited the DNA of Noah, mankind's greatest apostle. So, we're not much alike at all." As she speaks, the girl's skin reforms across her raw face, returning it to a dark brown-grey palate with gleaming gold eyes. "You are what we refer to as 'sub-human."
SMACK!
My hand snatches at the girl before she can utter another word; I close my fist around the collar of Allen's Exorcist coat that she has draped around her shoulders. "Okay, there's a line," I pause to throw her backwards, flying back towards, "And you just crossed it."
I then step fully into the black room, passing through the void and coming back into myself, standing beside Allen, the wall to my back. Before me, an unresponsive Lenalee sits in a chair, a sobbing and whimpering Miranda is lashed to her clock in the corner, dozens of spiked candy cane stripped candles hover in the air along with a handful of dolls, teddy bears, and brightly colored presents.
The three Akuma from before are also there; their bulging eyes growing even bigger as they look at me.
The girl straightens up, her gaze murderous as she fixes her golden eyes on me. "Where'd you come from?"
"Cas!" Allen cries before I can respond. I turn to see him looking up at me, his face nothing but pure shock.
I gawk down at him, he looks awful. His clothes are torn to bits, he's covered in bruises and scorch marks, and there are several gaping wounds in his Anti-Akuma Weapon.
"Kid, what happened to you?" I cry, dropping to my knees in front of him and leaning closer to inspect his injuries.
My fellow Exorcist ignores my question; he reaches up to tenderly touch the side of my face, as though I might suddenly disappear.
"You're alive…" his voice reflects his relief, his grey eyes shining as I raise mine to meet them. "But how? They said your heart had stopped beating."
My mouth parts slightly. "What?"
"So, you managed to survive after all?" I whip my head around to see the girl watching our every move. "How annoying, and my Akuma had said you'd been killed," she adds, glaring at the Akuma flanking her.
"We're sorry Road," Ice-Man cries, "Her heart had stopped, that usually means a human is dead, doesn't it?"
Road's eyes darken. "Maybe you ought to be a bit more thorough next time, and why exactly did you leave her lying in the street? Why didn't you take her Innocence while you had the chance?"
The Akuma recoil, faltering under the look she's giving them.
"We're sorry! Please forgive us, Mistress Road."
I blink. "Road? Wait…" My eyes widen as my mind fills with recognition, "You're that kid from the performance tent, aren't you!"
It all makes sense now: she was the girl who had deterred us away from Miranda, so that her tickets could be stolen. It had all been a ploy. And yet, there's something else. I continue to stare at the girl called Road, feeling something almost like waves of some kind of rotting energy rolling towards me. Whatever it is, it makes me sick to my stomach. "Who are you?"
"She's human, Cas." Allen weakly calls from beside me.
I glance down at him. "What?"
"She's a human…who's sided with the Akuma."
My mouth falls open; I turn back to Road. "Are you insane? Why would you...?"
Road just laughs.
I scowl. "Human or not, I can't allow this to continue," I tighten my stance and square my shoulders, fixing Road with a determined glare.
She smiles smugly. "Oh? And who's going to stop me? You?"
"As a matter of fact, yes," I reply as my Blood explodes out from my body in a tangled mess of tendrils. I curl them towards Road and am about to strike, but before I can do so, Road raises her hand and all of the needle-point candles hovering around us suddenly turn their sharpened ends towards us and fly right at Allen and me.
A gasp barely leaves my lips as the candles rocket towards us like bullets. At least a dozen strike at my body, burying deep into my limbs and chest. I let out a strangled cry as I'm thrown backward, the candles dancing around me as I hit the wall; they pin me down as still more stick all around my head like darts on a board.
Several fly straight towards Allen, sticking at his feet, besides his arm, several landing close to his head. He can barely move. I turn my head, about to yell at him to duck, but I'm too late as one of Road's candles hits its mark.
I feel Allen's pain explode across our empathic link as the boy let's out a blood curdling scream. Miranda cries out in horror as I jerk my head to the side despite the barrage of flaming needles pinning me down.
"Kid!" I yell as Allen's head droops, his hand shooting up to cover his face as his left eye gushes with thick, dark blood. The familiar scent of it twinges my nostrils as the now doused candle falls to the floor with a clatter and slowly rolls away.
Road bends down, plucking the sharpened wax from the ground; smiling wickedly, she licks the blood from the tip.
I look at Allen, hunched over on the ground with his hand clasped over his injured left eye, gushing blood, whimpering in pain.
"You…" I jerk my head back to Road, "You little…bitch!" I shriek before lunging my body forward, ripping my skin clean through the candles pinning me down, the pain drifts away behind me as I lunge at the girl.
She easily sidesteps me as I throw a punch. I grunt in exertion as I stagger forward, preparing to pivot back around as my Blood flows all around me. I've barely regained my footing to turn on my heel when Road dives forward and stabs the candle in her hand into the point where shoulder meets my neck.
"Cas!" Miranda cries as I gag, a torrent of Blood sloshing from my mouth. I hit the ground hard, a groan escaping my lips as more Blood pools around my prone form.
Road cackles gleefully, jamming her foot into my lower back. "Killing you is no different than snapping off a tree branch or stepping on an ant," she declares, pressing her heel down into my abdomen. I groan, my mind distant as my Blood scrambles to close up the wound. "I hate this world because it has become full of sub-humans like you," Road continues, "So He says we must eliminate each and every one of you."
She slams her foot down harder into my back. I hear something snap. I jerk my head, "Aah!"
"And while we're on the subject: God would also like to see your kind cast into the pit of fire. Why do you think he gave us Akuma in the first place?"
"Y-You're wrong," Allen hisses, still gripping his eye with one hand as he staggers to his feet, "That isn't God's will. It's just your own."
Road smiles smugly, bouncing her thick soled foot against the base of my spine. I groan again, feeling bruises peppering my tender flesh; my Blood churns.
Allen clenches his jaw. "Now, why don't you get away from her right now, before I give you something to scream about!" In a flash, he raises his arm and it becomes consumed in Innocence, reforming into its flaming gun form. "You hear me?"
Road shakes her head, her expression patronizing. "Go ahead, try to kill me." As she speaks, I feel the pressure of her foot against my back suddenly lifted. Before I can react, she's grabbing me by the shoulders and hoisting me to my knees with far more strength then I would have thought her tiny form could have mustered.
I gasp, jerking my useless body weakly as Road props me up against her chest, supporting my hips with one hand and tenderly stroking my hair with the other. "Let's see how good your aim is," she adds, resting her cheek against my head.
Allen tenses, his form trembling as he continues to point his Weapon at me and Road. His eyes widen as they meet mine. "C-Cas…"
I smile weakly. "Go ahead, kid. Blow her away."
Allen looks horrified. "N-No! Cas, I-"
"Do it," I urge. "If it means finishing her off, then what's it matter if I die?"
Road chuckles. "Well, aren't you the noble one," she leans in close to me before turning back to Allen. "Catch."
Without warning, she then shoves me forward. I cry out in shock, stumbling several steps as Allen lunges forward to catch me. "Cas, you alright?"
"Not really," I reply grimly.
From behind me, the Akuma suddenly lunge towards us.
"Cas!" Allen cries, and I struggle to turn around as Ice Man bears down on us.
"Ice Fire!"
A blast of burning frost consumes my form, sending me flying backwards into the wall. Allen tries to run to me, but Scissor-Boy slashes at the air between us, cutting him off and knocking him to the ground.
"Kid!" I struggle to stand, barely rising before Skull-Kid's sonic waves slam into mine and Allen's ears. We both crumple to the ground, buckling under the assault on our ears.
Through the fireworks, I catch a glimpse of Road throwing off Allen's Exorcist coat and slowly walking over to Miranda.
"I guess now's as good a time as any to attack," she declares, raising her arm and summoning more candle darts.
Miranda whimpers, her dark eyes overflowing with tears. "Please…don't."
"Road!" I thunder, lunging forward as I dodge the Akumas' attacks, my Blood striking out to wrap around the girl, but my tendrils encircle her form too late as the candles are sent hurtling straight towards the helpless woman.
"Miranda!" I cry as the woman screams in fright, and I hear the sound of impact as the candles descend on her and her clock. I feel an explosion of pain in my mind that almost knocks me out. I stagger where I stand, my vision slipping in and out of focus.
I'm not even able to regain my composure when Road suddenly gets a hand free and, snatching at the end of my Blood tentacle and whips it across the room, dragging me with it. I hit the ground hard and roll over onto my side. I feel something else crunch, confirming that several ribs are now either bruised or broken.
However, as I slowly raise myself into a sitting position, the sight I behold immediately makes me forget about my own injuries.
"Allen!" Miranda shrieks as I see that the boy has thrown himself in front of Miranda, his gigantic Weapon having blocked most of the attacks: the candles now protruding from the large limb like a collection of splinters. The rest of the tiny spears are poking out from puncture wounds all over his body.
His shirt is drenched in crimson, and my nose is filled with the aroma of his freshly spilled blood.
"Allen!" his name rips through my chest as I rise to my feet and stagger several steps, images of red water and destruction and a single boy exploding into blood are running through my mind as I stumble over to him and Miranda.
This can't be it…This can't be the dream…Not now!
"Allen?" Miranda asks gingerly.
With great effort, he slowly lifts his head. "Don't move, okay?" he whispers before slowly raising his arm and tearing the ropes that had bound Miranda to her clock to shreds. As they fall away around her, the frantic woman scrambles away to cower against the wall in fear.
I make it over to Allen as he slumps against the clock, his whole body as limp as a rag doll's.
"Allen!" I call again, dropping to my knees in front of him, a trickle of red slides down my vision, noting me of a bleeding forehead as I reach forward and pull Allen towards me. "Kid, come on."
Allen's face twitches, he cracks an eye. "C-Cas?" his grey irises shine with unshed tears, his entire body convulsing in pain. If I didn't help him, he could go into shock.
But my own injuries prevented me from doing anything. I could heal others if I myself were uninjured. That's the way it works.
Frustration burns within me with an intensity I haven't felt in years. Allen's head slumps against my chest, his shallow breathing sharp in my ears, and this emotion is replaced by a far heavier notion.
Fear. It crushes against my chest and makes it difficult to breath. I can feel it: Allen's life force slipping away like grains of sand between my fingers.
I squeeze my eye shut and will my pounding Blood to heed to my commands, but it does nothing for my demands.
"C-Cas," Allen's voice trembles and his chest heaves.
"Kid, please, don't do this to me," I almost beg, tightening my arms around him as I fist my fingers in his powder white hair. "Don't die. You hear me?" I snap, my eyes stinging with tears I can't shed "I can die; that's fine. That's just fine, but you can't. Are you listening? Don't-"
Allen's fingers unfurl from their grip against my cloak, his arms falling limp at my sides.
Don't do this to me, please. Don't do this to me, Emma
"C-Cas, I'm going to be fine."
"Don't you lie to me!" I holler as Allen's starts choking, his coughs raw against my wet shirt. "Don't you fucking lie to me, Allen Walker. And don't' think for a fucking minute you're giving up and dying on me, do you understand?"
Allen chuckles. "I really like you, Cas. You know that?"
"Allen, don't' die!" Miranda calls. "Please, stay strong."
"M-Miranda," Allen's voice trembles. I tighten my grip and bury my face in his hair, the helplessness burning through me like fire in my veins.
Why can't I heal him?
The bruises are fine; the sprained pelvis manageable, the splintered ribs insignificant. Damn it, Blood; heal him!
And then suddenly, Miranda is there. She has rushed back over to us, her long arms are wrapped around us both, holding us together as our blood pools in my lap. She's trembling, her shoulders shaking as hot tears spill down her cheeks.
"You know you can't save them," Road calls over to her. "What are you doing?"
Anger mixes with my own frustration, and I want to constrict my Blood tendrils around Road's form and squeeze her until she pops, but it's all I can do to will my trembling limbs to keep me upright. I'm not even sure I can properly walk.
"She's nuts; the woman has lost her mind," Ice-Man declares of Miranda. "What's she think she's doing? Being a meat shield?"
"Look at how pathetic she is," Scissor-Boy agrees.
"Y-Yes," Miranda breathes, a miserable smile forming on her lips as she stares the three Akuma and Road down. "T-That's right. I'm pathetic, aren't I?"
"What a great choice of words," Road muses. "But I suppose you're no more pathetic then any other weak sub-human who awaits their death."
"But I'm-," Miranda hiccups a sob, "-Giving comfort, and u-understanding."
Road shakes her head. "Idiot."
She then raises her hand once more and more candles come at her call.
I fell my Blood run cold at the sight of them; I try to will myself to stand, but I can't seem to find the strength, whether through my own injuries or the crushing weight of Allen dying in my arms with me having nothing to show for it.
"That's right. I am an idiot," Miranda whispers.
"No, you're not," I reply quietly, causing the other woman to turn and look at me in shock. I meet her eyes just as a thin trickle of Blood runs down my cheek, "You don't give up. You never gave up. Any normal, weak person would have given in to their shortcomings long ago, but you never dead. It's not in your nature to submit is it?"
Miranda looks at me, her teary eyes gleaming in the candlelight.
"You don't give up when others have. People like…People like me. I gave up a long time ago."
Miranda sighs, dropping her eyes. "I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment."
I laugh grimly, in spite of everything. "Maybe with both are." I then reach forward and curl my fingers around her own, squeezing them tightly in my first, "But never, under any circumstances, is Miranda Lotto an idiot," I declare.
She raises her eyes back to me, a single, shining tear falling from her cheek and alighting on the ground between us.
It falls with no sound but what follows in an eruption of noise and light. The clock beside us strikes a chord with an alarming impact and everything is consumed in a golden light that assaults every sense of my being in an overload of emotion that coats the entire space. I can feel it, a bubble of warmth blooming at the central point and slowly expanding outward.
The wind is violent, stinging my eyes. I bury my face in Allen's hair as I feel the bubble continue to grow, erupting forward and consuming everything it touches in that same pure feeling. I suddenly don't feel angry, helpless, or scared.
I only feel…warm. Like coming in to a hearth and fire after a long winter's day.
The sound of the clock striking echoes in my ears as does Miranda's thoughts, churning all around me like paper in a storm.
What's happening? I can feel a…presence.
Tick
Tick
BONG!
My clock…It's…Innocence.
The light ruptures outward, almost burning my face, and I feel as if I had my eyes open, I might have been blinded. So, I just continue to hang on to Allen, feeling weightless and detached, like nothing that's happened, happening, or is going to happen ever really mattered, feeling it all slowly slipping way, leaving nothing behind but a pure, blank, peace.
Slipping away, everything's slipping away.
I dare to reopen my eyes and immediately have to slam them shut again when there are bombarded with a golden light. Trying again, I crack a lid to find that the light swarming all around us is emanating from a large dome that has completely encircled my immediate area. Allen, Miranda, and I are enclosed inside the space, bathed in the strange golden light of the clock with Road, the Akuma, and everything else cut off and banished to the other side.
I turn my attention to Miranda, and my mouth falls open in shock. She's kneeling before me with her eyes raised skyward, her arms open and raised as the light flows around her. Her dark hair has come loose from its bun and whips about her in the storm. And from the light, images dance through the air, the face of a clock, winding back as the two hands circle the wrong way around the numbers. The clocks drift around us like fireflies, hovering over Miranda before slowly seeping into her skin.
I cry out in shock, but the other woman seems unfazed. The clocks encircle Allen and me; I recoil slightly, unsure as my grip tightens around the semi-conscious boy, but the warm continues to unfold within me, and I eventually relent, allowing the clocks to phase into Allen's skin as well as my own.
Upon doing so, I'm shocked to see Allen's wounds suddenly closed up, the skin is left clean and fresh, not scared over and raw like it is when I heal. No, there is no remnants of the injury at all, as though it was never there to begin with.
As I look on, I feel the clocks bubble around my skin, slowly slipping under my body and setting my Blood to work. It's a rapid acceleration. I don't even have time to form a thought before all my injuries vanish as well, leaving no trace behind.
But it's not just the wounds that heal, tears and slashes in Allen's and my shirts are also repaired, traces of dirt and debris that have gathered in our hair are removed, dents in the walls and floor are closed up.
Everything returns to as it had been before.
Resting on my lap, Allen's eyes suddenly snap open.
"Kid!" I exclaim.
Miranda looks down at him. "Allen, are you okay?"
He smiles. "I guess you're an Innocence Accommodator after all."
Miranda blinks in astonishment. "An Accommodator?"
I nod, squeezing her shoulder. "That's right."
"I think all my injuries have healed," Allen adds, slowly sitting up as he runs his fingers across his arms and chest, searching for any trace of the wounds.
I watch him; suddenly overwhelmed, I lunge forward and throw my arms around his neck. Allen, slightly startled, tenses up as I bury my face in his shoulder.
"Jesus Christ, kid. Don't do that to me," I hiss in his ear.
"Cas?" he asks uncertainly.
"Shit," I quickly release him, feeling my perpetually flushed cheeks redden still further. "Sorry. It's just…Fuck, I thought I'd lost you."
Allen smiles slightly. "So did I…before," he looks at me. "How did you survive that?"
Before I can respond, Miranda suddenly interjects. "What about the Akuma? And that girl? Do you suppose they can get in here?"
I glance up at the ceiling, the dome has become a pattern of clock tiles, all linked together by the golden light as they wind round and round together.
"I don't think so," I reply. "Akuma's greatest weakness is Innocence after all."
"But what about Lenalee?" Miranda adds.
Allen and I exchange a glance. "Hang on," the latter replies as he slowly gets to his feet.
"Careful," I urge him.
He flashes me a smile. "Don't worry; I'm fine." There is a suddenly flash of pale green light as Allen's arm reactivates; now fully healed of its injuries, the gigantic silver claw is thrust outward, extending like a rubber band as it passes easily through the clock barrier before quickly retracting again, now with the chair and Lenalee clasped tightly in its fist.
Allen gently rests the chair in the middle of the dome. Lenalee rests slumped on the throne, form limp and eyes glassy.
"Lenalee?" he crouches down in front of her. "Lenalee, can you hear me?"
"Want me to take care of it?" I offer, pulling off one of my gloves.
Allen shakes his head. "I don't think you need to."
"Are you sure she's alive?" Miranda whispers.
I crouch down beside Allen, taking Lenalee's wrist in my palm, feeling a pulse. "Yeah, she's alive," I reply, "I think she's just in a daze, most like temporary nerve damage caused by that sonic Akuma's attack."
"But how can she be okay after something like that?" Miranda cries.
No sooner had she said this that Lenalee's form is consumed in the same golden light as the clock bubbles encircle her still form.
"Don't worry," Allen reassures Miranda, "As long as she's in here; she'll be safe."
"Hey!" I suddenly cry as Lenalee blinks and raises her head.
"What the-?"
I grin. "Hey, Legs; welcome back."
"Cas?"
"Lenalee!" Miranda exclaims gleefully.
Lenalee shifts uncomfortably, still slightly dazed as a tiny flash of gold suddenly burrows out from her sleeve in a flurry of feathers.
Allen beams. "Timcampy! I didn't know you were here, buddy," he says as the Golem circles around us.
"What's happened?"
I turn back to Lenalee. "You remember anything?" I ask.
She looks thoughtful. "I think I remember…dreaming."
"About what?" Allen inquires.
"It was my past, I think," Lenalee replies, "But I can't remember any details."
"I wonder if your dream was siphoned off too," Allen muses.
"What does that mean?" Miranda asks.
"Do you still not see what happened?" I ask her. "The Innocence that is coursing through your veins has saved all of our lives, Miranda."
Miranda's eyes widen, her mouth parting slightly. "What? You're joking…Aren't you?"
Allen chuckles. "I know it's probably hard to believe, but think about it: when you activated the Innocence inside you, it reset time to before we got hurt." He gestures to the clocks all turning backwards as they hover over us.
Miranda gapes, growing weak at the knees as she falls to the ground, gazing up at the clocks encircling our heads. "So I really have…Innocence in me?"
"Yep, and it's because of you that we're all still alive," I declare.
"So, thank you," Allen adds.
Miranda gawks at him. "You're thanking me?"
"From me too," Lenalee agrees. "Thank you."
"Same here," I conclude. "Thanks a million."
Miranda stares at us in utter disbelief. "I can't believe it," she whispers as tears start streaming down her face; although these are not the same tears of misery from before, these were new tears, bright tears.
Allen, Lenalee, and I all smile warmly, however our expressions harden as a heavy shadow suddenly passes over our heads.
Raising our eyes skyward, we catch sight of four shapes prowling around the clock dome. "We should probably take care of that," I observe.
My two fellow Exorcists nod in agreement.
"Innocence, activate!" Lenalee commands as her skirt flies up to reveal her Dark Boots, now consumed in a deep green glow. She then propels herself into the air, guided by the force of her Weapon. Kicking her legs out as she turns a spin, a torrent of violent window suddenly churns out from her feet in a violent cyclone, smashing through our barrier and striking at the three larger shapes.
From beyond the wall of clocks, I can hear them shrieking.
"The wind, it's hurting me!"
"I think it's coming from Road's doll."
"I can't see!"
Lenalee jumps back up and strikes again, aiming at the smallest of the shapes, undoubtedly Road, but she easily sidesteps it as the tornado crashes into the wall behind her.
But that doesn't deter Lenalee as she continues to strike at the Akuma, hitting them again and again with wave after wave.
"Amazing," Miranda breathes.
Allen places a hand on her shoulder, "Just stay put," he reassures her when she turns to look at him.
I nod. "We'll take it from here."
As I speak, my blood gushes out from under my sleeves in twin waterfalls that coat my wrists.
"Allen!" Lenalee calls.
"Right!" Allen's arm is consumed in Innocence as he rushes forward, his body being swept up in Lenalee's next attack and his hurtled through the barrier directly into the Akuma.
I rush forward and slam my Blood-coated fists into the ground. The liquid explodes outward form the impact, rushing along like a churning river as it slips under the dome, rising upward and hardening into spikes that strike at the Akuma who all shriek in pain.
I then jump through the barrier, passing through as easily as if it were smoke and join Allen in the flurry of wind caused by Lenalee's Weapon.
The Akuma flounder around inside storm, screeching in pain and confusion.
"Where are you, filthy Exorcists?" Skull kid snarls.
"Right here!" Allen calls back, alighting on its head as his arm form into a gun.
The Akuma screams as his form in consumed in the light of the attack, and his body crumbles to dust.
"I'll get you," Ice-Man thunders as he and Scissor-Boy attack Allen from both sides.
On the gronud, two gigantic spikes of blood form on my arms; I raise them above my head and fire the assault, both spikes striking the Akuma in the face and pushing them back just as Lenalee leaps into view, snatching Allen's arm and tugging him out of harm's way.
They alight on the ground beside me. I straighten up, allowing more blood to pour from my skin and form my signature snapping tentacles that encircle me and my friends. Lenalee's boots gleam with power as her wind churns around us and Allen's gun glows with another waiting attack.
We all turn toward Road who's standing a short distance away, hovering on the pink umbrella known as Lero, fixing us with an unreadable expression.
I grit my teeth as Allen addresses her.
"Alright, Road; it's your move."
A/N: Just a quick clear up: At the beginning of the chapter, when Cas says she 'felt' that she was not referring to when Road cut her head off, she was referring to when she hit the wall in the previous chapter, she felt that pain.
Speaking of which, there is a lot of pain in this chapter, like a lot of it. Poor Allen…Poor Cas. Well, at least Miranda's there to save the day! God, I love her. She's a million times better than Lenalee, and I wish she was in the story more. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Stay tuned for more :)
