Title: Dragon's Lies

Author: Knux33

Disclaimer: I don't own D. Gray-Man. If I did, there would be dragons. :)

12. Mad? Maybe.

Painkillers. Painkillers. I want painkillers. But I can't use painkillers. Howard tried to keep his cool while the staples and stitches were removed from his back.

Each removal felt like a nail going into his back instead of something else really coming out. And the girl-brat was laughing at him.

Fabulous.

"Y-you look-" Val got out between giggles, "L-like an angry cat!" Allen tried to hide his own chuckles at Val's apt description behind a hand and a cough.

Of course, Howard (the Crow agent that he was) noticed anyway and scowled.

You try getting de-stapled! He thought angrily, only allowing the thoughts to echo inside of his head instead of any other vengeful action.

Self control, people. Self control.

A few moments later, each few seconds punctuated by a small 'yank' of pain in his back, and it was done.

Not so bad, really. Link contemplated as a few last swabs of disinfectant were rubbed against the small holes now apparent in his mostly healed back. I've gone through worse. Though I can't remember any other wounds ever being this annoying.

Maybe that's just because of the bystanders laughing at me ...

His new layers of skin felt stiff and itchy with each movement, and it still hurt to lie down. So, he still had to sleep on his stomach. Strangely, this almost bothered him more than anything else. He had learned to sleep on his back, because it was easier to hear the whole room without one ear pressed against a pillow (something you have to do when sleeping on your stomach) and because it was better for his overall back health too.

Really, someone of his caliber shouldn't be boggled down in bed like this. He should be out and about doing something, anything!, productive. At least, that's what he wanted to do. Be he was stuck here, with the brats.

"Val!" The boy-brat whined nervously. "You shouldn't be tryin' to get up!"

Looking over his shoulder, Link saw that the girl-brat was trying to do just that. Idiot.

"I feel fine Mark!" She retorted, starting to stand on her bed and then proceeded to jump on it. "See? I'm fit as a fiddle!"

The boy was clearly worried, but not as much as before. "You'll get in trouble jumpin' on their beds ya' know."

The girl back-flopped back down onto her mattress and eyed her brother. "You really should work on your grammar Mark, your street-urchin is showing."

Worry turned to irritation as Mark glared at Val, and layered on the street-slur extra hard into his next few sentences. "What's i' matter? Is' not like we're anyplace fancy at the momen'."

Val sat up and glared back. "You and I both know you were taught better than that."

"What's i' matter?" He repeated with a scowl.

They looked on the edge of a Sibling War, when Allen butted in with a quick and not-thought-out-comment: "Are you guys bored?"

Val turned her glare to him. "Obviously. We've been stuck in this room for how long? A few days?"

"Abou' four." Mark commented. His sister gave him an angry look.

"You've been aloud to go in and out! We, on the other hand, have been stuck here!"

The boy scratched the back of his blond head, looking both annoyed and sad. "I do have ta make sure Speck doesn't get bored enough to try diggin' his way in here. He really misses gettin' to see ya Allen." The last comment was aimed at the exorcist, and Allen sighed.

"I would if the nurses let me out ..."

Apparently, the nursing staff hired at all the Branches (even those only recently hired, like those at the Asian Branch) were very dedicated to their jobs. But, luckily, all three of the invalid were going to be allowed to be discharged tomorrow. Maybe even sometime today.

Somehow, that just made the wait worse. Hence, the quarreling children.

"At least Smudge helps out a lot." Mark commented, speech closer to the correct form now. "Kandadoesn' seem to talk to him much, so Speck and Smudge have been keeping each other company. I think they're outside today, Smudge said somethin' about flying in the rain, and how it cleans their scales ..."

"It's raining?" Allen asked. It was really tiring being in a place with no windows sometimes.

"So that's why you're still in here with us." Val grumbled. "You'd rater not get yourself wet."

Mark looked insulted, and maybe even a bit hurt. "What the hell is wrong with you today?" He demanded. "I thought you would rather I be here with you. But of your goin' to act like a wet cat all day, I'm going." He jumped up and stomped out of the room before Val could reply.

There was silence for a few moments. Val slowly looked from the door her brother walked out of, to the floor, to the wall, and eventually to her now-fidgeting hands. "I ... I'm not acting like a wet cat." She mumbled.

And audible snort was heard from Howard's bed, and her temper flared again. "Like you've never acted like an irritable pain in the--"

"Finishthat sentence, young lady, and I may have to wash your mouthout withsoap." Doctor Alter said, walking in with a clipboard. He looked as tired as Reever sometimes did when he was overworked. "You're really getting stir-crazy aren't you? And driving your brother to go out into the lonely halls ..." The doctor 'tsk-ed.'

With an exasperated 'huff,' Val threw herself down onto her pillow. "Can I go? Please? I'm well for goodness sake!"

"Ah, ah, ah." The doctor childed her. "Not according to my chart."

Val's look told everyone in the room just what she felt about 'his chart.'

Alter sighed. "At least my recovery routine doesn't involve life-and-death circumstances.(1)"

"...?" A question mark hung around the room as if it were a neon sign.

The doctor blinked. "Oh, just ignore my rambling. Okay Mr. Walker, let's take a good look at your shoulder ..."

Unwrapping the bandages, Alter revealed the pink, healthy skin growing in where there had once been a gash and life-threatening wound. Nodding in satisfaction, Doctor Alter left the now-mostly-healed wound unwrapped and in the open.

"It's healed nicely, and I think you could even go out and about today if you wanted too."

At the young girls look of pure envy, Allen decided he would stay in the infirmary a bit longer. The doctor shrugged. "Suit yourself. It is raining outside anyway. And everyone always gets a bit cranky on days like this too, windows or no."

Alter glanced over at Howard. "Mr. Link, you're free to go as well. Your back will undoubtedly bother you for a few more days yet, but you're perfectly fine otherwise."

Val looked like she was ready to start throwing things. "And why can't I leave!?"

A doctor-knows-best glare was sent her way, but Val was not easily cowed, so Doctor Alter explained: "I still don't know just how starved your body is right now, and what kind of diet would be best for you. Until then, and when we get the full blood testing back," He growled the last bit, before controlling himself. "We're just going to have to make sure you don't do anything too stressful."

"No fair." She whined, giving testimony to her age of twelve or younger.

Allen sighed. Link rolled his eyes. Dr. Alter wished Bak wasn't the self-designated god of blood and chemical testing.

Maybe he would find some excuse to go outside. Mark had been right, no one likes bad company.

//DRDRDR//

It felt like being stroked all over, Smudge eventually decided. The rain falling gently on him at uneven intervals and running down to the ground in rivulets felt like a hundred little hands poking at him. And if he hackledand lifted his scales, then the rain got under them quite quickly and both cooled and washed him down.

It was a very nice sensation.

Smudge basked in it, letting his front claws dangle a bit off of the cliff edge as the rain fell down to the river far below.

Speck seemed to be enjoying himself as well, and was flapping about above the canyon rift trying to catch as much rain as he could with his wide-open mouth. The little gray (though Gremlin was much smaller than he was, Speck was still 'runt-ish' compared to the 'properly sized' dragons) was a comical sight, scales wet and glinting and his pink tongue licking at the wind like he was eating the air. He seemed to be having quite a time by himself, and Smudge was content to stay on the ground and make sure he didn't wander to far away.

Sunny flew up out of the canyon mouth, surprising him when she landed by him and shook herself of in a half-hearted manner.

"Good afternoon." Smudge greeted.

Sunny nodded absently, gazing off at the forest as the branches shook under thwind and rain, before looking at the gray sky withthe gray dragon above. She smiled and laid down next to him, enjoying the special scenery that was only present with the rain. "It's a very beautiful day." She commented.

"In it's own way," Smudge agreed, before Speck hovered down to land on his other side. The speckled gray shookhimself off with a gusto, splattering Smudge's already wet scales further.

"Sky like Speck!" The small dragon exclaimed like an excited child. "Gray-gray!"

Smudge nodded with a patient smile and Sunny tried not to laugh. "Yes, you're right. It is the same color." Smudge told him.

"Allen see sky-gray?" As Smudge had learned (and understood on some level) Speck couldn't go for very long without questioning about Allen at least once per hour.

"Maybe. You know I don't know if he's allowed out today or not." Smudge reminded him yet again.

"Oh." Speck deflated a bit, before cheering himself up again. "I go fly now." And so he did, with a splitter and a splat as he pulled himself out of the small amount of mud coating the ground, getting both Sunny and Smudge dirty in the process.

"Hey!" Sunny objected, bright-yellow scales now tarnished.

"It will wash off." Smudge reassured her, looking at the glops of soil now on hisback. "Where is Ammy? You both have been spending a lot of time together recently."

"Oh, she does not want to get wet today." Sunny said off-handedly. "She mentioned something about how the rain does not feel as good as salt water does."

Smudge sighed, and rolled his eyes. "That is preposterous. Water is water."

"Well, Ammy doesn't seem to like it unless she chooses to get wet." Sunny pointed out.

"True." Smudge contemplated for a moment. "How is Miranda?"

It was Sunny's turn to sigh. "When she is not accidentally doing something bad, or thinkingshe is accidentally doing something bad, she is hiding somewhere or professing her apologies to all in her presence. And Kanda?"

"He is either practicing, moodily glaring at some other human, grumbling about someone else's incompetence, or growling at someone else to get out of his way."

"Hmm."

They sat in a comfortable silence.

A flash lit up the world for an instant.

"Did you see that!" Sunny exclaimed, leaping to her feet in excitement.

"I think I did." Smudge said, trying to blink the after-image of lightning out from behind his eyelids where it had burned itself.

Another flash, followed by another excited voice and calm response.

Speck laughed as the lightning flashed far away, and yelped when the next bolt zapped by not-too-far from where he was flying. He decided to quickly land again, and huddled next to Smudge, scales on end.

Sunny was overjoyed at the beautiful flashes of what seemed like cracks in the universe, and Smudge was in awe, flicking his ears at the noise they made. Speck watched the flashes with suspicion, still not very happy about almost being hit by one, and didn't like the way the things roared oh-so-loudly.

"What they?" Speck asked, eyes wide.

"I do not know." Smudge answered.

"Me neither." Sunny quickly supplied, eyes glued to the sky, trying to guess the most likely spot at which the next flash would appear. "But they're beautiful."

"Be-u-tee-full." Speck tried the word.

Smudge smiled at him. "Beautiful, but loud."

"Loud." Speck agreed, flinching at a particularly close crash of thunder and lightning.

They watched the rain and lightning is silence for a bit.

"Why do they have something beautiful like this here, but not where we come from?" Sunny asked. "It's not like our world was lacking for water. But it did not have rain either, or storms like this."

"We could ask the Golden Dragon(2) when this war is over and done with I suppose. If we win anyway." Smudge answered, gazing at the sky.

"Gold sparkle-y." Speck chirped.

Lightning cut the sky open, then the wound closed itself again.

"Well ... what about the others?" Sunny asked. "The old coots? Surely those old bags of scale know something about this world, and its connection to ours? They have probably been looking for connections for some time now."

"The Golden Dragon is the oldest out of all of our species." Smudge ruffled his wings, before settling them down again, rain dripping off in small waterfalls. "And by far the most sane out of all the 'old coots.' And the only one that has crossed the barrier between the worlds once on this side."

"Old scales smelly." Speck commented again, but still not a leading part of the conversation.

"He claims to know the secrets of both worlds." Sunny pointed out. "And he even brought a human across. It would be good to talk to him ... if we could."

"Can't." Speck informed her. "We here, he there. No talking. Stuck."

"Well, if he found a way across," Sunny said, eyes glancing towards the sky once more. "I'm sure we could if we tried."

"Maybe." Smudge agreed. "But, there really is no reason for it. We'll look for a way if we need one."

"Maybe need." Speck said.

Rain fell, lightning crashed, and the dragons were silent.

//DRDRDR//

Arystar Krory the third, exorcist and gentleman, had somehow managed to get lost somewhere between the Asian Branch's lunchroom and infirmary. Now, Krory was not the type to wallow in self pity over this fact. He simply did the more logical thing: he tried to follow his nose to where the smell of food was most dominant.

This would have gotten him back in the right place in no time flat normally. But, as he was about to find out, not all roads lead to Rome ... or, not all food smells lead to cafeterias.

In fact, his nose lead straight to a lab room, where three teens were hard at work. Well, one of them was working hard anyway.

The other two were baking. Baking cookies.

Krory, having gotten lost because he was hungry in the first place, slowly and cautiously approached, hoping he wasn't interrupting anything. Li-Kei was the first to notice the hesitant exorcist.

"Oh, hello!" The tall teen greeted with great enthusiasm, almost making Lo-Fwa drop the hot pan of cookies she was pulling out of the oven. "Are you lost?"

"As a matter of fact, I am--" Krory began, only to be cut off when Lo-Fwa chattered at Li-Kei for almost making her have to start over again.

In his little corner, surrounded by papers and sporting some dark bags under his eyes, Shifu sighed.

Krory slowly walked into the room, stomach grumbling demandingly. The three noticed the sound, and all eyes turned toward the vampire-like exorcist, making Arystar blush in embarrassment. "If you could kindly tell me where the cafeteria is located please?"

Shifubegan with: "The food consumption area is located five hallways down--"

Lo-Fwa said in her own attempt to help (while trying not to burn the parts of her hands not protected by her cute pair of pink oven mitts): "If you just take a left after the first three rights--"

Li-Kei, after pondering over the babble spewed by his two friends, suggested in a loud voice: "Want a cookie?"

Krory looked happy enough to try one, though the girl that baked them wasn't as forthcoming. "But these are for Allen!" She placed them on a nearby table and placed herself between them and the growling stomach.

Arystar really would have been ok going to look for the cafeteria ...

-grrrroooouuuurrrrr-

His belly growled again, demanding subsistence. Okay, maybe it would be a good idea if he had a small snack before leaving ...

//DRDRDR//

Mark wandered aimlessly about. He really didn't have anything to do, and would of really liked to hang out with Allen (one of the only people he really knew here)but was too stubborn to go back to the infirmary where his sister was.

He mentally kicked himself. Val was his sister, he should be used to her more annoying quirks by now.

Well, apparently large injections of worry and being thrown into a strange place had caused a malfunction in his anti-annoyance-shielding. Hopefully the time he spent wandering around now would help him calm down so he could properly ignore her badgering.

Mark narrowed his eyes at nothing in particular, ambling along with his hands behind his head in a lazy stretch.

I shouldn't of been so stiff. Val really has been couped up for too long, and it isn't really fair that I get the lay of the place and she don't. He decided, ignoring a few passersby as they looked curiously at him. As far as he knew, he and Val were the only kids in residence at the Asian Branch at the moment.

Apparently, kids weren't normally allowed to live at the Order at some reason, and Mark had lost count of the people that had walked up to him with fragmented tales about their own kids. Fragmented, because they didn't see their family's that often from what Mark could guess.

Man. These people need to lighten up. His thoughts were brought off track by a hint of something sweet in the air. Cookies?

Mark began to salivate just thinking about sweets. His feet turned down the corridor that the smell came from, and he let himself be lead by his nose. The room wasn't very hard to find; the door was wide open and looked far too inviting.

Cookies ... Refraining just barely from licking his lips at the warm smell alone, Mark poked his head into the room, just in time to see that they really did have cookies inside, and they were already handing them out! One lucky pale man had gotten to the cookies first, and was taking the first bite out of one.

Mark felt green withenvy, and was going to beg for one for himself when the pale exorcist (Mark recognized the man's coat and remembered seeing him at the infirmary, though he hadn't talked to the adult himself) turned paler, brought a hand to his mouth, then madeseveral distressed noises before running to a nearby trashcan to spit the cookie out of his mouth.

The scientists in the room looked quite surprised. Well, the two standing up were. The short girl looked surprised and gazed curiously at the cookies she was holding while the tall bot looked sorry, and said so to the exorcists washing his mouth out at the sink. The other scientist was scribbling away feverishly at the paper on his desk, looking overworked.

Hmm ... bad cookies? Mark wondered, having trouble comprehending such a notion. Who in the world would have the gal to create cookies that smelled so good, but obviously tasted oh-so bad? Only someone with a horrible sense of taste, or someone who had no ability to cook whatsoever.

When the female scientist with big glasses and scraggly looking pigtails took a curious bite and gagged, Mark guessed the case to be the latter.

"Um ..." The one black-haired teen inquired from his spot at his desk, not even turning around. "So ... the cookies were not a success I gather?"

"Be quiet Shifu!" Lo-Fwasaid, going through all of the cooking steps she had done, trying to figure out where she went wrong, grumbling as she gazed at the cookbook.

"I think the step which you ultimately ruined the consumables was when you added salt instead of sugar ..." He mumbled absentmindedly before trailing off, apparently lost on another train of thought.

Both of the other scientists stared at him.

"When were you paying attention to what we were doing!?" Lo-Fwa looked a little creeped out.

"You didn't turn around once!" Li-Kei asserted, looking just as shocked. "I swear you didn't!"

Shifu sighed at his paperwork. Krory seemed to feel ignored, and decided to just retreat.

The older man almost ran into Mark, but looked relieved when he saw the kid. "Can you please show me to where the cafeteria is?"

Mark shrugged. "It would be me pleasure. I don't got anythin' better ta do anyway ..."

So, the duo strolled off, leaving the trio of scientists to work out their problems and weird moments amongst themselves.

"How!?" The two chorused, and Shifu blinked at them like a night-owl prodded awake at noon.

Slowly, the middle-sized teen pointed at a the reflective metal plates on the walls (to protect against fire damage). The two squeakers gazed at themselves in the almost mirror-like reflections.

Well ... oh. Duh.

Both felt similarly humiliated, but Shifu didn't notice.

He just got back to working on an equation a higher-up had given him to work out. Something about merging two very unstable substances ...

//DRDRDR//

Howard Link was very much relieved.

The infirmary was finally quiet. One genius of a nurse had given the girl-brat a book to read, and she had finally gone silent, caught up in reading.

The she-brat was reading ... Howard twisted his head about to get a better look, and narrowed his eyes, trying to look at the small text imprinted on the book's spine. The book was ... The Island of Dr. Moreu?

Howard highly doubted the book was suitable for children, but kept silent about it because it was probably one of the only books the child could read here, as he suspected most of the literature was probably more ... 'work' related.

And Walker was currently feeding upon a mound of Italian specialties, courtesy of the Italian chef that seemed to be personally taking care of the infirmary's food needs, as Howard himself was just being served some spaghetti.

Link slowly moved himself until he was sitting upright. As long as he was able too, he would feed himself. It felt horribly degrading to had to be hand fed like some ... invalid.

Howard was determined to take care of himself, and at this point in the healing process, he was also able to. Just as he fully righted himself, a small slip of paper slipped out of the book the girl-brat was reading, and drifted to the floor.

The child looked at it curiously, and put the book down, wiggling out from under her bedsheets and out of the bed. Allen only then noticed and swallowed down a mass no human should be able to without choking. Link looked on the scene with interest, but nevertheless began his meal anyway, wishing it were something sweeter.

Val picked up the paper, which turned out to be a picture of someone familiar. "Hey, Allen!" The girl began, still looking over the photo curiously, turning it over to see if anything was written on it. "Isn't this person one of the exorcists that visited you?"

She handed it to him after determining that there was no writing on it, and Allen nodded after glancing at it.

"Yeah, that's Lenalee. But how did that get th--"

"Gaaaah!" Faster than a speeding bullet, Bak leaped into the room and snatched the photo(3) away.

Everyone stared, as the Asian Branch Head clutched the picture to his chest, bug-eyed. "I do notstalk Lenalee Lee!" He squeaked.

Allen wondered how a man classified 'genius' could be so ... idiotic. Crazy. Wait ... maybe all genius are like that ...

"We weren't accusing you of it." Link deadpanned. "Although, because of you're reaction--"

"You really shouldn't stalk girls you like." Val asserted, returning to her bed and book. "It may send off the wrong vibes."

"I am not--"

"And!" Val interrupted with her own siren of a voice, "You shouldn't leave stuff in books if you don't want people to find it!"

... Silence. Val gave a final 'humph!,' and returned to reading her novel, which she had somehow devoured to the point of near-completion. No wonder she had been slightly peeved at being interrupted.

"But ..." Bak looked generally bewildered. "I keep all of my photos in my folders or locked away where Komui will never find them ..."

Link looked doubtful. "I don't think a man of Komui Lees' position has time to go about looking for pictures of his sister in other Branches Mr. Chan."

The short blond man's eyebrow twitched. "Oh really?"

Allen gulped. He didn't think this was going to be pretty.

It wasn't.

Bak called for Wong and had the older man distract the nursing staff while he lead the two non-believers (plus Allen) to the main computer room. Val was simply ecstatic over finally being let out of the infirmary, while Howard looked scandalized as Bak showed what could only be Komuiterrorizing innocent civilians with a giant robot.

A giant robot, and a bazooka, along with several explosives. AND a bigger robot. All because his sister was ... what? Going shopping?

(I'm just describing episode 18, because I can't imagine anything else even remotelymore ridiculous for Komui to do ... lol, octopus ...)

So ...

This is ridiculous. That was the first thought that came the Link's mind. The second was, How exactly did this man come to be Head of the main Headquarters of the Black Order with this kind of insanity?! Surly this level of ...idiocy would be noticed before things got out of control?

Nope. Sorry Link. Komui is quite sane. When he has to be. Otherwise--

Half of a shop was destroyed on screen.

-- ... let the madness begin ...

//DRDRDR//

Komui sneezed, some papers blowing off of this new office desk to land on the spotless new tile flooring in his new 'office.'

Gremlin looked curiously down from the bookshelf he was currently perched on, adoring the top like a green gargoyle.

"Bless Brother."

"Thank-you." Komui answered absentmindedly. The man was currently wondering how his sister was fairing at the Asian Branch, alone with the devious Bak Chan. He re-adjusted his glasses and frowned. If that octopus did anything to his precious sister, if anyone did anything inappropriate to his precious sister ... well ...

Komui abandoned the small stack of paperwork that had already started to grow, in favor of a funner project. Like finding where Reever had hidden all of his 'dangerous' lab experiments ...

END 12.

Overall Notes:

(1)The doctor is referring to Allen's last stay at the Asian Branch, when he trained in combat with Fo everyday in a desperate attempt to re-connect with his innocence faster. In fact, it was Allen's 'moments' at the Asian Branch that inspired me to hire on some new medical staff. Doctor Alter is a fun minor OC to write every once and while, and inspired by my grandfather, who was a doctor most of his working life ...

(2)The Golden Dragon, isn't really an important element in the story yet, so you don't really have to think about this meaningless rambling until we go farther. But, just in case a few things weren't clear, here are the main details in a clench: -The Golden Dragon is the 'oldest' dragon. -There ARE other dragons known, just not in this world. -There is another world connected to this one. And it's got dragons.

(3)A-Yes. Random Bak. B-Remember this picture? Li-Kei was seen with it way back in Chapter 7. Need a quote to help the old memory banks? Me too. Sooo:

"Shifu shuffled away, and was then speeding down the wide hallway back to his room that he shared with Li-Kei. Bursting inside, he found his spiky haired friend looking at a picture in a book.

The picture did not belong in that book. Shifu knew for a fact that Li-Kei hated science-fiction, would never willingly read H.G. Wells' book, 'The Island of Dr. Moreu', and that he kept a photo of Lenalee on page 70. Though Shifu didn't know where the heck he had got it from." Dragon Lies, Ch.7

Author's Notes/Random Comments:

Ah ... yeah. Hmm. That was ... a lot of notes. And ... little plot line. Gah ...

New Year's resolution: Get back to the Da--(cough) ... darn plot line. Grrr ... what to do when frustrated with one's self and stuck in a land with a slow computer you can't type (OR properly spell check) on?

BUY SOME PAPER AND WRITE ON THAT. (Which I did :) )

Happy New-Year ya'll! (And my this chapter be less ... gah ... then the last one, though it's probably not better by much ...)

Next chapter time: unknown ... :(