As they sat down at the table and ate, Mel felt a sensation come over her. It felt kind of normal, like she felt a little more comfortable with this man. She patted it out of her mind for now- it was better to save questions.

Tyki sighed. "Your pretty boy destroyed one of our family members, Skinn. It was most unnerving- it seems that he'll come back though. Maybe this time it won't be as easy for you to kill him."

Melanie sighed. "I guess this world has become too brutal."

"You're telling me," Tyki said with a smile. "Who are the 'bad guys', really?"

"Exactly," Lavi said, examining their conversation. "To me, this all seems like a war over a simple miscommunication."

"Why should we be responsible for our ancestor's follies?" Mel asked.

Tyki bit down a little more on the meat he was chewing. "Because we have no choice- if either side surrenders, the other won't see it as understanding. Rather, they'll blame the other for being cowards. That's why we must fight I guess- for the pride of knowing we are right in some way."

"Doesn't it seem drastic, taking lives of innocent people for some selfish cause?" Mel replied.

"Need I remind you of what had happened nine years ago, Miss Exorcist?" Tyki brushed his pinky under her chin. "The Black Order is just as solid about destroying human rights as we are."

Mel pushed the finger away and broke her gaze from him. "What would you know?"

"I lost a member of my biological family to the Second Exorcist Program."

Lavi looked up, eyes narrowing, and remembered every word.

Mel stood up, about to object, about to say what she was forced to do, when suddenly… she felt a strange tingling in her body. A sudden surge of emotion flooded through her, and she began to feel incredibly dizzy. She felt a tightening around her body.

Tyki watched as the young girl reverted back to what seemed to be her normal state, her clothes tearing away from her body and her entire being falling directly onto him. He gasped, nearly choking on air itself and blushing profusely, and sat her down in a chair. Putting his jacket over her, he sighed. "I'll go get some clothes for you. Just stay here."

Lavi ran across the table and tried to get her attention. "MEL! WAKE UP! YOU PASSED OUT, WAKE UP!"

Mel slowly tilted her head and cautiously opened an eye. "Huh? Wha- Where am I?"

"The Noah Family's Dining Room… a-are you okay? That was really sudden." Lavi watched as she looked around, unable to identify the voice for a couple moments.

"L-Lavi? Where are you? I can't hear you well..."

"I'm down here…"

Mel tilted her head forwards and stared at him. "Eh? Y-You're… small again? But how?"

Lavi gave himself a quick facepalm and explained. "You looked like you were going to be sick and then you just changed back, somehow. But… your clothes… yeah, about that…"

Mel looked down at what she was wearing and screamed.

Tyki walked back in the room and dropped the clothes, plugging his ears and yelling. "God, do you HAVE to be so freaking loud all the time?" he hollered.

She stopped and stared at him. For a minute, she thought she was going to cry for all of the yelling Tyki was doing, but then she noticed the clothes on the ground and sighed. "Thank you. You're too kind to me."

"Anything to be able to fight with you guys sometime."

After putting clothes on- which consisted of a corseted dress and a coat to cover her arms- she whispered something into Tyki's ear. Tyki nodded and turned to Lavi. "Sorry, she kind of wants me to do this."

He picked Lavi up, allowing him enough time to get ready before he heard some annoying ranting, and brought him into the kitchen. Setting him on the cutting board, he went into a nearby cupboard and pulled out a small mason jar.

Lavi realized what was going on and ran just as Tyki took a knife to the jar's metal lid. However, Tyki looked at Lavi and sighed, reaching towards him. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you…" he said, grabbing Lavi around the waist with his thumb and forefinger. "I don't know about your girlfriend, though…"

Lavi began trying to dig his nails into the webbing between Tyki's fingers, which was surprisingly painful to the Noah of Pleasure. "SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" he yelled. "LET ME THE HELL GO!"

Tyki dropped him into the jar and gently screwed the lid shut. "I'll be gentle with you, calm down."

"You idiot, let me out!" he yelled, futilely banging on the glass to get out.

Tyki came back to Mel and handed her his handkerchief. "Put that over the jar for a second, I have a surprise for you for not trying to kill me."

"Huh?" she said, obediently putting the white cloth over the jar, thus blindfolding poor Lavi, who was still going berserk.

Tyki reachedin and held his hand under her neck. "We don't speak about this to our families, okay?" he said, leaning in a kissing her.

Mel blushed for a moment, but then the feeling of pleasure was sucked away somehow, not by the man himself, but rather, something inside her stirred. For the slightest moment, she felt a little angry at him for doing that. The anger grew more and more with each passing second.

Tyki looked at Mel during the kiss and suddenly blanked, tears beginning to run down his eyes. What was going on? Out of the corner of his eye he caught a momentary tint of gray upon her skin and what he thought were stigmata.

He pulled away and stared at her. "My eyes must be playing around with me…" he thought aloud.

"The Hell they are!" Mel yelled,k thoroughly pissed, with a hand in the air. She went to smack him, but missed, passing out cold again.

Mel felt the same sounds repeat over and over again- the sound of thunder, the feeling of darkness around her, and a voice saying to her "Never Forgive…" "Never Forgive…"

She woke suddenly in a cold sweat and looked around her settings- she was back in the Black Order in her bed, with Lavi, Kanda and Allen staring at her from across the room.

"Uh, guys…" she began.

Allen turned. "Hey, she finally awake! Welcome Home!" he greeted, walking towards her

Kanda huffed a little and walked to her as well.

Lavi smiled and looked over. "Glad you woke up… you passed out again."

"What happened?" Mel questioned.

"Well, you two disappeared and we couldn't find you for hours. Then some well-dressed and familiar guy delivered you two here. Lavi looked especially adorable in that jar."

"Sh-Shut up!" Lavi yelled, throwing something at Allen, who quickly dodged.

"Bookman nearly flipped a lid when he saw me," Lavi said, "but luckily, Komui had found a cure, and I was back to my old self quite quickly."

"You wouldn't stop mumbling some annoying shit that I couldn't understand," Kanda said, back to his usual habit of cussing at least once per sentence.

"And everything else?" she asked.

"Back to normal too- Johnny is making a new uniform for you." He walked over and whispered in her ear. "And it's a little more appropriate this time."

Mel blushed. "You didn't like it? I designed it for that purpose- to lure an enemy inward so I could attack head-on."

Lavi was shocked. "You mean… seducing… is NORMAL for you?"

"Well, yes… that's why I was known as the Kisser CROW when I worked with Howard and Issac."

Allen shuddered. "That guy won't stop bothering me…" he said, remembering Link and his annoying little brother, who was a little bit older than Kanda.

Mel sighed. Perhaps she needed probation… she was feeling awfully strange lately. And her Innocence had kept trying to kill her. What HAD been going on?

She had remembered the talk that Allen had with Marian Cross before he had died. He had said something about Allen's "becoming the 14th" and all that business. Allen too had been struggling with his Innocence, and heck, his body was dysfunctional.

Maybe… it was because…

"Hey, Kanda," Mel asked. "I keep hearing this voice in my head… it keeps telling me to… to never forgive. Do you possibly-"

She was interrupted as Kanda grabbed her arm and pinned her against the wall. She stared at Kanda. "Yuu, what are you do-"

"Shut it!" he yelled. "I thought I killed you!"

Lavi looked at Kanda. "Aren't you being a little harsh on-"

"Idiot! Weren't you listening to what she said?" Kanda yelled again. He turned to Mel, who had already begun to cry. "What's wrong with you, coming back and taking her? Her, of all people?"

Mel looked at him, her eyes shifting to a golden color and going cat's-eye. Her skin darkened quickly, and across her forehead, a line of stigmata appeared on her forehead.

"I thought you killed me, too. Kanda… I remember now… "

Her own Innocence began going completely crazy, and her arm broke from Kanda's grip a smacked him upside the face.

Lavi pinned her to the floor. "What is wrong with you? Why are you like this?"

"I'm an embodiment of Wrath, Bookman Jr. – a Child of Noah."