Alright. I know it's not too long, but I'll try and write over 5000 words next time. I had too much to do this week. I don't own D. Gray-man or any of its characters, blahblahblah, on with the violence.
In the glowing rectangle of burning white light, the three exorcists and one human gawk shamelessly at Tyki and Evelyn, incomprehension flitting across their expressions. The silence is so thick, it could be breathed.
Ouch. Tyki winces slightly as he stares into the gobsmacked faces of the exorcists, down the long length of tablecloth. He quickly drops Evelyn's hand, unconsciously running his own through his hair. "Ah, yes, about that–"
"ALLLLLEEEEENNNNN!" Road's shriek of delight drowns out Tyki's words. The spiky-haired Noah, dressed in a neat little skirt and blouse, explodes towards Allen, flinging her arms about his neck, and kisses him.
Tyki drops his fork in shock. Lavi, Lenalee, Chaojii and Evelyn gape soundlessly. Actually, Lavi makes a strange sort of choking noise. Leaning toward Tyki, Evelyn mutters, "Did you know about Road's obsession?"
Tyki shakes his head mutely. His day couldn't get any weirder.
Lero, though, screams in indignation. "ROAD-TAMA! You can't kiss an exorcist lero!" The shrieking pink umbrella slams into Road, flinging her backwards, pumpkin head pressed against hers. Behind them, Allen crumples halfway to the floor, eyes glazed.
"Allen, wake up! Hey, Allen!" Lavi yells, shaking him.
In the cacophony of sound, and with everyone absorbed either in staring at Road or revitalizing Allen, Tyki risks a lean toward Evelyn, whispering, "Are they always like this?"
The corner of Evelyn's mouth twitches. "You could say so."
For a moment, they stare at each other, then something sparks in Tyki's gaze, and they sit upright, each absorbed in their own thoughts. Evelyn evaluates this. The spark looked like envy – but no, it couldn't be.
Tyki says hoarsely, "Road, what are you – do you really like that boy that much?" From his breast pocket, a wailing sound emerges, and Tyki rolls his eyes in annoyance as he removes Cell Roron's card, allowing it to hang by his right shoulder.
"Alllllleeeeennnn Waaaalllllkkkkeeeeeer!" Cell Roron screeches. "Heeee's alliiiiiiveee!"
"Yes, yes, I know," Tyki says distractedly, as he absentmindedly flicks Cell Roron in the face. Raising his voice over the pathetic sobs of Roron, Tyki asks, "Road, what was that? You've never kissed anyone except the Millenium Earl before."
Road skips happily toward him, squealing, "I won't give you one." Her gaze moves slowly to Evelyn. "You'll have to ask her for one."
Tyki clears his throat quickly, pointedly not looking to his left, where Evelyn is quietly turning red. "What are you waiting for? Sit down," he calls to the shadowy figures framed by white. "I got hungry while we were waiting for you, so I invited Evelyn to dinner."
Lavi looks at Evelyn keenly. "And you accepted?" Grudgingly, the small group moves toward the table, sitting as far from Tyki as possible. Allen glares down the length of the table, over mounds of delicacies and bottles of wine, into Tyki's unwavering gaze. Road prances over and squishes next to him.
Evelyn shrugs. "I didn't have much of a choice. On the plus side, I got this rather nice dress." Then she stops, and frowns. "Where's Krory?"
Tyki snaps his gaze toward her. "You mean there's another one behind?" His horror is evident in both his voice and the way he leans forward, eyes wide.
"He stayed behind to delay the twi–" Lavi stops as realization dawns on all those present.
A gust of air ruffles the exorcists as Tyki speeds past, but a blur to them, desperation and denial lending his pace impossible velocity. The tall, slim figure in black halts by a pillar, the wind from his passage sweeping his hair into disarray, the delicate chain on his hip swinging. For a moment, he pauses, supporting himself, with a white glove on white marble, gazing out at what was the city of the Noah. But the city is no more. Then Tyki's shoulders sag and he turns. Evelyn feels sorrow well up within her as he shakes his head.
Lenalee breaks the silence with a few whispered words. "The download is almost complete, isn't it? They are gone." Then she raises her head to stare at Tyki, eyes glimmering with tears. "But why would you care about our friends?" Beside her, Lavi grasps her hand, stilling her tears.
Tyki strides with leaden steps back toward his seat of at the head of the table, head bowed. Evelyn interjects for him, eyes wet. "He promised me that he would try to save you from harm."
"That I did," Tyki murmurs. From next to Allen, Road looks at Tyki in shock.
Allen narrows his eyes. Speaking slowly, he calls down the table, "If that is so, then you have changed much, Lord Tyki Mikk." He pauses, words falling like hammer blows. "Or is it Mr. Sticky-fingered and Immoral Orphan Tramp?"
"I prefer moron, but that'll do." Evelyn directs a piercing glare at Tyki. "So, I think it's time you told me what you did to Allen."
Tyki stares at her, lost. "I…"
Allen says dispassionately, "Not much, really. He threatened to rip out my heart, then tore my left arm off, almost destroyed my Innocence, and left me for dead, with a hole in my heart." His gaze moves to Evelyn's. "You should dump him."
Evelyn lays a hand on Tyki's wrist, applying pressure until he winces and meets her eyes. Reading Tyki as if he is a book, Evelyn examines the intricate lines of words wrapped in his gaze, woven in threads through his golden irises. She sees guilt, self-loathing, and above all, dread. Dread of what, though?
Evelyn nods, releasing her grip on Tyki's wrist. Tyki flexes his fingers, and whispers, "I'm sorry," to her. She does not respond. Raising his voice, Tyki lets laughter dance across the tablecloth. "Don't be so cold, boy. You were the first exorcist to make a Noah strip down to his underwear in a game of poker. Was I the first?"
"Not really." Allen's voice is almost bored. "I've made plenty of people do that before."
Acutely aware of Evelyn's sly grin, Tyki coughs and stutters, "What a dark thing to say!" Then he sobers, and abruptly changes the subject. "More importantly, Road's door is above us, in the highest level of the tower. But I worry that if I allow you to leave, unimaginable things will happen. Things that I…dread." His gaze moves slightly to his left, where Evelyn leans against her chair.
Dark chords of music build within Tyki's mind. The Noah within him, a supple creature with no trace of humanity, stirs and shuffles its wings. Please, not now, I beg you, not now. With a blindingly fast motion, he dashes to the furthest pillar from the table, leaning his weight against the cool marble, hoping to still the fever in his head.
In a whisper so low that it sounds like a gentle wind through grass, Tyki says, "Go, Evelyn."
"What?" The surprise in Lavi's voice is all too evident.
Raising his head, Tyki chokes, "All of you, quickly."
Evelyn stifles a cry. A line of black stigmata is slowly spreading across Tyki's forehead, his skin darkening towards grey. "No!" Evelyn screams. "You gave your word!"
Road laughs delightedly. "The Earl told me this would happen."
Tyki looks upwards. "Must I?" he asks in despair. Tears shimmer in his golden eyes, diamonds on metal. The Earl's answer comes in a shivering of the entire Ark, and an ominous feeling of anger. And all around the music is building, building, and the war drums are sounding. Tyki steals a look at Evelyn, desperation and guilt flitting across his face.
Tyki sends one last message to Evelyn, to make her understand. "Forgive me." The words come out in a rush, laced with pain.
Then something bursts in his mind, and Lord Tyki Mikk, Noah of Pleasure, Third of the Noahs, the servant of the Millenium Earl, stands, no longer who Evelyn knows him to be. Tyki looks at Allen with a curious expression, and smiles. "Road, let go of that boy."
"EEEEEHHHH! But I love him!" Road wails.
Tyki's next words stab into Evelyn like rusted daggers. "Nothing can come out of love between and Exorcist and a Noah."
Evelyn quietly lowers her head.
"Well, you know the Duke's scenario of demise?" Tyki strides gracefully to the centre of the room, halfway between Evelyn and Allen. "Half of me's taking part just for fun." He glances at Evelyn. "I seem to have forgotten that part of me for a moment, but, as always, moments pass."
A flutter of movement by Evelyn's shoulder, and to her shock, a black-winged butterfly hovers by her ear. A flick of her fingers later, two sable wings fall to the floor, severed neatly by the sharp edges of a card.
Allen speaks. "If you harm our friends, I may kill you." Leaping forward, Allen sprints down the table, his long tapered fingers gleaming in battle-hunger.
At that same moment, Road slams up a barrier around Chaoji and Lenalee, lifting them into the air. To Lavi, she says darkly, "Don't interfere." She smiles coyly. "Let's play, Bookman Junior."
Spirited steps of sable light wrap around Tyki's mind, imprisoning the small part of him screaming for and end to this. He spreads his arms in time to the music of the Noah, welcoming the two exorcists. "Let's dance our last dance, shall we?" His gaze moves from Allen's determined face to Evelyn's sorrow-filled one. "The three masters of poker. Who will be the victor of this game? Evelyn, will you play?"
"We shall see," Evelyn whispers.
Tyki laughs. "White in white and Dark in dark, boy!"
From the corner of her vision, Evelyn is aware of Lavi falling to his knees, immobilized, Road looking at him interestingly. The power of dreams.
What to do… Evelyn grips the armrests of her carved chair, watching Allen and Tyki dance their macabre steps. "Tyki!" she screams. "You brainless moron! Wake up!" Darting from her chair, she explodes toward Tyki like winter wind, flurrying her cards around her like snow.
Road's voice stops Evelyn like a sledgehammer. "Stop."
Evelyn screams, falling to her knees. A thousand shards of glass stab into her mind, filling her sight with a million reflected images of the eldest of the Noah. Road smiles as she murmurs, "I won't let you take Tyki from me." Waving her hand, she rips reality to shreds, and all the world becomes a dream. "Dreams aren't real, are they? But you soon will think they are."
For a moment, the grey shade of Tyki's face lightens, and he shakes himself, as if awakening from a dream. "No! Don't–" Tyki yells, but he shudders, black and white sides vying for control, blocking Allen's attacks all the while.
As Evelyn falls into the spinning vortex of jeweled stars and inky black, she sees Tyki shake his head and stand tall, every bit of him a Noah, shaking off all traces of care. So Dark has won. A single tear escapes her eye, to fall into the whirlpool, just one in so many diamonds scattered around her, into Road Kamelot's dreams.
(:~:)
Black and red spins in a disc of blood and shadow, throbbing in sympathy with Evelyn's tortured heart. She kneels on the hard stone cobbles of a bridge, suffused with mist, so both ends are unseen. A solitary candle wavers by her head, emphasizing the depth of the shadows around her. The gentle laplap of river water can be heard, far below. Shivering, she raises her head, and stops in shock.
Tyki Mikk smiles down at her, carelessly, with that white-toothed grin she loves so much. "Hello, Evelyn," he whispers.
"This isn't you," Evelyn replies, eyes narrowing with determination.
"No, I am not the Tyki you know." He pauses, sweeping his hair back with his spotless white glove. Then he laughs, a foreign sound, harsh and uncaring. "But I am the real Tyki."
"Prove it." Evelyn's voice so low, it almost disappears in the gloom.
"Very well." Gracefully, Tyki raises his hand upwards, to the blackened mantle of the sky. From the starless veil of darkness, a shadow falls, bound and wounded, to land on the grey stones with a crunch. "This is a friend of yours, isn't he?"
The dark shape moves, and groans. "Ev…evie…"
A cold hand of fear and denial grips Evelyn's spine. "Kanda?" No. It's not possible.
From between the sheets of dark blue hair, his tortured gaze meets hers. "He did this…" A trembling, blood-soaked finger gestures at Tyki, immaculate in his tuxedo, brushing lint off his hat.
"Tyki?" Evelyn gasps.
"I am the Noah of pleasure, servant to the Earl of the Millenium, hunter of exorcists." He tilts his head at her, impervious to the fact she is shivering from pain and cold. "Did you really think I cared for you any more than this piece of exorcist dirt?" Moving with exquisite slowness, he places his shoe on Kanda's fingers, and leans forward.
Evelyn covers her ears from the sharp cracks and the agonized scream that follows, her own blood thundering through her temples.
"Let me tell you a few things I've done." Tyki raises her head, white fingers gently supporting her chin. Then his golden eyes glimmer, and he says, "And let me tell you how you will die."
(:~:)
The clash of weapons is deafening, Allen's left hand smashing into Tyki's shield, in a dance in which each participant vies for control. Tyki steps according to the rhythm of his orchestra, cresting and falling like water in tide. Allen fights with flares of power, like bursts of fire in the darkest of winters.
As he backs and advances, Tyki says conversationally, "How do you feel now? Are you happy that we have agreed to kill each other?"
"It's sad," Allen shoots back. "I met you when you had humanity, and a game of cards would be just that: a game. It would have been better if nobody died."
Tyki cocks his head in interest as the yell, "CROWN CLOWN!" rebounds toward him, and he nods in appreciation, as Allen's innocence becomes flexible armour, wrapping around him like a supple cape.
"Well, my job is to kill people." Tyki glances at Lavi as he releases a torrent of Tease, quickly cut to pieces by Allen's fingers. "Poor Eye-patch-kun. It would have been better if I had killed him than for him to become Road's opponent. His mind will fall to shreds." Looking at Evelyn, he shrugs. "I don't remember what she meant to me. She'll probably go mad." Am I trying to convince myself?
Somewhat annoyingly to Tyki, he has no choice but to evade Allen's innocence, whipping around him like white blades. Jumping up on nothing, Tyki climbs up into midair, waltzing about the Tease. "Hmm. I can choose what to touch and what not to, so long as it belongs to this world. So I can even tread on air. But that doesn't apply to Innocence, does it?"
For a moment, silence, as Tyki balances with the grace of an assassin on the thin thread of air, cigarette smoke drifting in curling currents towards the Tease above him. Opposite him, Allen twirls, cloaked in snow, a spirit from another world.
"Innocence is not of this world." Allen murmurs, half to himself, as he streaks toward Tyki like a white arrow wreathed in bleached flames.
Tyki simply opens his arms. A wing emerges, and laughing along to the sinister chords of the Noah, Tyki allows a monster to emerge. Tease, striped purple, enormous, skulled, clacking their teeth.
A sharp clang resounds as a silver-filigreed mask drops over allen's eyes, turning him into an unrecognizable creature, masked, clothed in light. A half-second later, his cloak flutters, and transforms into spears of looping energy that impale the tease effortlessly, throwing their ragged bodies up into the air like falling leaves.
Through the rain of Tease, Tyki darts, skating on wind, white stigmata-shaped shields slamming forward into a strike. Allen dances back without effort, sending a gust of wind outwards in a circle as he lands, just before the edge of the tower.
"Don't fall down, boy– huh?" Tyki recoils as white tendrils wrap around his wrist. Then he pulls back on Allen's Innocence, sending him rocketing toward Tyki. Tyki effortlessly evades the punch, reversing away to land soundlessly on the floor below, smiling at the thousand Tease he has left to circle Allen in a sphere. A moment later, all that remains are pieces of wing, falling around spikes of white.
"That looks like full-body armour. I'm impressed," Tyki drawls. "But I'll break and pluck your left hand again, white devil." Amethyst spheres of dark matter coalesce around his hands, and he laughs. I'm back. I see purple EVIL, indeed.
Tyki rockets toward Allen, a black sphere of dark power surrounding him. Allen responds, wrapped in white circles. The point at where they meet crackles with energy, black and white lightning streaking around each other. Then Tyki's orchestra sweeps into a new variation, and with a soft umph, Allen is knocked back on a pressure wave into the clear walls of Lenalee and Chaoji's prison.
"Don't worry, Allen Walker. The next one will do the job." Tyki strides purposefully forward, eyes locked on Allen's cracked arm.
"TYKIIIII! Don't go too far!" Road wails from somewhere to their left.
"Stay out of this, Road." Tyki rolls his eyes.
"Tyki Mikk." Allen staggers a half-step toward him, blood escaping the corner of his mouth. "You're mistaking something. You think that when you remove an exorcist's Innocence, they just become normal humans. But my heart is tied to the Innocence, just like very other exorcist's." His hand begins to glow gently green, building in luminence.
A burst of blinding light.
Tyki stumbles. Looking down, he seems unhurt. But the Noah inside him is shrieking with pain, the dark chords wrapped around his music fading. What was that? I felt like I was…dying. The Innocence…pressed down on me? For a moment, he remembers something important, something to do with violet and poker chips…
The Noah resurfaces, digging its claws into his heart, and he loses grasp on his thoughts. Instead, he raises a hand blankly, and draws symbols in the air. "Very well then. I'll kill you first. Here's my power as a present." REJECT, REJECT, REJECT! His orchestra builds, wary.
To Tyki's macabre laugh, a giant dome of nothing forms around Allen, obscuring him from view. Can you breathe when I've chosen to reject the atmosphere around you? Smoothing back his mussed up black hair, Tyki cocks his head. "Boy, your love for life is making me sick. Let me kill you at my own pace."
Walking through the swirling and twisting darkness, Tyki asks the curled shape of Allen, "Are you all right now? You can't breathe, naturally." Wow, he's still conscious. What does it take to kill this guy? "Give up already." Reaching forward lazily, he plunges a hand through Allen, preparing to rip out his heart…
…And Tyki screams, blown back on a tongue of white flame, watching in disbelief as Allen reaches up and draws a sword out of his arm. "What?" Tyki breathes. "No," he whispers, as with a single sword stroke, Allen blasts him backwards, wripping the vacuum to shreds.
His orchestra halts.
"I'm too surprised to laugh at all," Tyki mutters, digging his feet into the ground.
A silky voice says, "Laugh away, moron."
What?
(:~:)
Evelyn allows the tears to seep out as she stares into the dreamworld. Tyki had explained everything, from his power to the deeds he had done. She knows he killed at least four of her fellow exorcists, and her heart rends for it.
"Evie," Tyki admonishes gently. "Are you willing to accept this?"
A crystalline laugh explodes from Evelyn. "Oh, Road. What a mistake you've made." She raises her eyes to meet Tyki's golden ones. "Tyki never called me Evie. Always Evelyn." Don't play with my grief, Road Kamelot.
Reaching forward, she extends a hand to Tyki, only to feel her wrist pulled back in an iron grasp. Ignoring this, she stretches out her hand, feels in his pocket, and pulls out the poker chip.
"Do you see what this is?" Evelyn sighs. Tyki looks at it with a curiously blank expression. "You are not Tyki Mikk."
Evelyn lunges forward and plunges a dagger in his heart. Tyki looks down at it, blank face empty. "I had that in my boot all the time, Road. Innocence doesn't work in here, but weapons do."
The black dissolves around Evelyn, leaving her holding her dagger, blinking tears out of her eyes. It takes a moment to comprehend what she sees. Allen holds a sword where his left arm should be, and looks toward Tyki, who is kneeling on the ground, motionless. He mutters something about being too surprised to laugh.
"Laugh away, moron," she calls. Tyki raises surprise-filled eyes to look at her uncomprehendingly. A half-moment later, Evelyn darts forward. Perhaps pain will bring Tyki to his senses. Nevertheless, I must fight. Evelyn's amethyst light crashing into the darker purple of Tyki's lightning, she flows in whiplash wind, her cards spinning as a thousand daggers, dancing around her in circles, her steps matching Tyki's.
As Evelyn fans out her cards, the ace of spades leading, to wrap around Tyki's wrist, she realizes he isn't attacking her. Not directly. In desperation, she speaks. "The first time I saw you, I finally found my equal in cards. You withheld your royal straight flush for the last hand. I thought you had a sense of humour, and a sparkling wit. But this isn't you. If the Tyki I knew is truly gone, then why are you not attacking me?"
The slightest trace of hesitation flickers in Tyki's amber eyes, like a smoldering ember of flame, as he effortlessly swipes her cards to one side. Evelyn smiles bitterly. Ah. So I must re-ignite it. But how?
Her words are answered by Allen swinging his sword, and passing it through Tyki.
"Tyki!" Evelyn cries, in fear and shock. She takes a step forward, but stops, furrowing her brow.
Tyki sways, and collapses. I'm sure I felt pain…but I'm not injured? "What did you do, boy?" he asks through gritted teeth.
"I killed the Noah inside you," Allen answers simply.
Road leaps toward them, but Tyki motions for her to stop. Allen whispers, "Retreat, Tyki Mikk," and runs him through again.
Evelyn runs forward and falls to her knees by Tyki's side as he curls onto his side, lines of white crosses adorning his chest. To her surprise, the line of stigmata across his forehead is gone, and he opens his eyes, clear and golden, smiling painfully when he sees her. "Evelyn. Sorry about my mood swing." He speaks quietly, and Evelyn's curtain of dark hair hides his movement from the others as he grasps her hand. "I'm sorry, the Earl threatened to hurt you."
Evelyn chokes out a laugh, almost sobbing with relief. "Moron, don't make me worried about you." Tyki smiles up at her, blood seeping from his mouth. His music is free and clean of the Noah, and for the first time in his life, he hears its true intricacies. But he frowns suddenly.
Road's voice drops an octave. "Don't move." To Evelyn's shock, sharpened candles surround her and the other exorcists. "Move and you will die." She walks over to Tyki, who hurriedly closes his eyes. "I love my family more than anything." Road raises her eyes to Evelyn's gaze, and says, "Don't move. Do you want to be stabbed? I'll repay all of you."
Road looks at Lavi, kneeling in a corner. "How about red-haired bookman junior? I'll break his mind. It is mine after all."
Tyki screams his silent denial from behind closed eyelids, knowing Road will kill everyone in the room should she find out about his changed condition.
Well. Cliffie about Tyki. I'll elaborate a lot about this, don't worry, and it'll be FUN.