Last piece

When he was young, John Hearst loved the stories his grandmother told him about the apparently hopeless war between Humanity and the Demon's. She never told him the end though. As he grew older, he naturally started to think it was only a story.

When his grandmother died, her belongings were given to her relatives and he, himself, received records from bookman and golems. However, those were not the things that convinced him that the war really happened. Some photographs, yellowed by age, were what had convinced him and his best friend, whose grandparents also knew of the hidden history, about the truth of the tower.

Ever since then, both of them had been studying the clues from the random documents the older people from the village had, trying to understand how it ended and why four names were repeated, almost faded from view, as 'trapped'. The pieces had eventually clicked together when they formed the connection with the strange happenings in the tower and what an old man told them "They are waiting, they are. However, trapped he is by the dream demon. How much longer 'till it ends?" (it took a while, as the man wasn't considered the most sane, for them to understand the connection)

So now, a few hours after the two SPR members went to meet their friends, he isn't sure of their decision. He was scared that he had just sent people who would get hurt permanently for nothing and he regretted not telling them everything he knew. Somehow, he naively thought they would manage to end this without a hitch.

He stared blankly at the unmoving golem until the bell rang.

Curious, he got up and opened the door, only to be hugged. He looked down at the one who hugged him, as if it was a normal occurrence "Evangeline? Shouldn't you be working?"

"Nevermind that! How is the SPR group?" she let him go and plopped down on the closest chair.

Hearst sighed "Bad, I think we made a mistake Evangeline."

Evangeline looked at him, concerned "What happened?"

Hearst sat down and told the woman what she missed.

"That sounds bad…" The woman said, worry strongly laced on her voice. It changed suddenly when she remembered something "I have good news though!"

He observed as she grabbed a box from her bag. It had a lock and a key was in it.

"And what is that?"

She gave him a smirk "The last piece of the game."

-Tower-

"So, what we have is that we have to find an entrance to release your friend. But to do that, we first need to enter Road's realm… How do we do that?" Yasuhara asked, having already finished the meal.

"… Ask her?" Bou-san said in face of the silence that followed the question.

"Sure, I'm sure she would be more than happy to give us free entrance to her realm." The miko sarcastically replied. The blond monk glared at her "Do you have a better idea?" he shot back.

".. Maybe it's not that stupid of an idea." Mai interrupted the bickering the pair was, most certainly, going to start. When everyone's attention was on her, she clarified "Of course it's not exactly asking her but maybe challenging her? I mean, she likes games right?..." she trailed off absently fingering her bandage. Truthfully, the last thing she wanted to do was meeting face to face with Road.

"That's a very high cost bet isn't it?" Lavi commented. He was surprised the girl had suggested that. Having experienced firsthand one of Road's games he knew the brunette must not want to meet the sadistic child-looking Noah.

"Maybe if one of you challenged her…" Lenalee couldn't help but glance at the sixteen year old "It isn't impossible…"

Naru narrowed his eyes at the glance, but said nothing about it, choosing to continue with the 'planning' "And when we get in? You said so yourselves. The few times you went there, you didn't find anything."

"That's the more difficult part… we" Lenalee pointed at the exorcist trio "can try to distract her as you try to find a door." She shrugged nervously when she felt their incredulous gazes.

"So we just need to look for a door around her realm? How hard can that be?" Houshou said.

"If you don't know the way, you might get lost monk." a childish voice replied from behind the monk. He turned but saw only air. "what the…"

Ayako gasped and his attention slid to her until he saw a girl in the air, an umbrella beneath her feet.

"Road…" Lenalee and Mai whispered.

"Why hello there exorcists!" the Noah greeted happily, golden eyes glinting with pleasure when they saw them tensing and ready to defend or attack.

"What are you doing here Road?" Lavi narrowed his eye and gripped his hammer tighter.

"I couldn't help overhearing your plans you see." Road smiled sweetly "And they seem fun!" the smile turned into a smirk, the façade dropping "Of course there would be some rules you needed to abide to~"

"And what are those?" our beloved narcissist boss asked, the Noah's attention turning on him.

"Hmm… my doll needs to come." Mai shivered despite herself " Actually everyone needs to be there. You also have to play the hunting game."

The rest gave her confused looks. "What hunting game?" Masako questioned, bringing those inhuman golden eyes to her.

"Don't worry, you just need to… run." The Noah started to laugh, as her candles began to appear. "Two for each human… three for the exorcists~" the candles rushed to their targets.

Everyone dodged. It took a while but, with the help of the exorcists innocence, they managed to smash or cut into little pieces (depending on whose innocence) the candles. No one had gotten seriously injured, the max were some small cuts.

"Those candles are fast!" Yasuhara exclaimed when he noticed that Road had disappeared. "Now how can we go to that… Noah's realm?"

"We wait." Naru said, looking at a wall.

"Say what? We wait for what?" Bou-san asked, helping Mai get on her feet. The girl was pale and he wondered if her wounds before had come from the candles. She had only said sharp things, not candles.

"For her to call us…" Lin answered, seeing what his boss was so interested in.

"How do you know that?" the priest, in turn, was helping Masako and Ayako getting up.

"Che" Kanda glared at the wall "This message is not exactly subtle."

That got the attention of the rest of the Psychic Research group and they looked at the wall, only to gape at the very red writing on it.

'I'll call you when the play date starts~'

"I'm not looking forward to this…"

"Yeah… But now there's no turning back Houshou-san." Lenalee informed.

- Hearst & Evangeline-

Hearst eyes widened when he understood the implications of that sentence "You mean…"

"In an antique shop, in Shibuya. It was just luck but I saw it. I'm certain it is it."

"But… it might be too late…"

She glared at him "We don't know that! The least we can do is this…" she turned the key and opened the box. "John… I need you to help me. Your expertise is being called now."

Hearst closed his eyes and took a big breath. "Let's do this then."

- Road's realm-

The Noah of dreams smirked when she saw the caged teen. As she got closer, the wounds on his body became more visible. When she reached the translucent prison she observed her handiwork. The teen had deep wounds, blood covering his torn clothes but, even through all that, he glared at her, blue eyes narrowed and challenging. A small box, kind of like a television, was inside and it showed a certain living group inside the tower.

"Did you like the show?" she questioned in her deceitful voice.

"Why are you letting them enter this realm? Aren't you afraid they'll win the game?"

Road looked amused by the questions "And how will they find the door? They would get lost and besides, how fun would this be, if I couldn't crush their hopes?" she giggling and Gene shivered. 'This girl only thinks of this as fun…'

"While we wait…" she continued, when the giggling subsided "let's play a little more?" Gene glared in response.

- Allen's POV -

The shadows seem stronger. I can feel them wanting to ensnare me and they try to trip me. My innocence sends a green glow, weaker than before but enough to repel the shadows for awhile.

I wonder how long has it been since I was captured. A couple years, a dozen, a hundred? It's difficult to know even though I'm certain it has been longer than any of those.

My hands stop feeling the walls and I know I need to choose whether to go left or right. Again.

I can't believe I'm in a freaking labyrinth! Me, the person who has er.. had the worse sense of direction possible!

For the nth time, I feel into giving to those enticing whispers of giving up. I noticed that I started to give into them a little before continuing.

I shake my head and whisper Mana's words again, inwardly praying for a sign to show me the right way. But of course it doesn't appear.

I sigh and go with my gut again. Heh, here I am, betting. Only this time, if I'm wrong, it's my soul I'm going to lose. And here I thought gambling days were over.

I start walking again, humming a song to myself, thinking of the last time I saw Kanda, Lenalee and Lavi.

When we promised to meet again, Lenalee had given me a hug, Lavi a 'we will have a big meal waiting for you' and Kanda a glare. Ah good days.

Now I wonder, will I break this promise?

-SPR group-

Lavi was observing Mai's key with interest before giving back to her. The brunette looked confused but he just waved her questioning gaze away.

All of a sudden, everyone hears Kanda's less than pleased curses and turn to him.

"Kanda-kun?" Lenalee asked. The samurai wannabe was trying to catch something yellow on his head, making the rest fight against the laugh that threatened to escape them. Kanda finally grabbed the offending object and glared at him.

Lavi, the only one who did not try to hide his amusement, gaped when he recognized the yellow object. "Wait! Isn't that-"

He was interrupted by Lenalee's gasp of surprise "Timcampy?"

Kanda blinked and looked again "Moyashi's golem?"

Timcampy managed to get free and stayed on the air for some seconds until he flew to Lin and plopped down of his head.

The SPR group stared, not knowing what to say.

"You know it?" Ayako inquired the exorcists after some minutes of silence.

"Yes that's Timcampy, our friend's golem… how did he get here though?"

"Ne Lena-lady? Isn't Tim smaller?" Lavi approached the frozen Lin and nestled Timcampy. "Don't worry Lin. He doesn't bite… frequently."

"Actually yeah, He is smaller." She replied.

"Frequently?" Naru asked. Tim seemed to grin in reply and showed his amazingly sharp and big teeth to everyone (except Lin).


Disclaimer: I own nothing except the idea of the plot!

Wow, This was fast 0.0

Well, I guess having nothing to do (except Math exercises but well, who cares about Math xD) made me write this... that and having received 8 -man volumes at my birthday. Yay! I don't have to read them online anymore!

Anyway, now that I've rambled about unnecessary things... I'll continue xD

I'm sorry about the whole OC's story but somehow, it just didn't seem right to just put the whole Evangeline and Hearst thing without it. By the way, this wasn't supposed to have appeared but somehow, I discovered I needed Evangeline to bring Timcampy. It was supposed to be already in the tower but... I said it last chapter, they had years to find Timcampy! Hope it didn't suck much.

I also tried my hand in Allen's POV because I felt like it and it seemed better that way. Hope it didn't suck much -.-

And so Finally!

Thank you for reviewing, alerting and/or favoriting or just reading! I'm going to give a special thank you to Shadow Priesstes, who gave me really good advice! It really helped! Thank you~

And like always, I'll request reviews~