A/N: Small warning that this chapter is a little darker than usual.
Harry opened his eyes to darkness.
It was like he was standing on an island of stone, lost in a sea of shadows. A gentle breeze caressed his face, carrying a faint musty smell. From somewhere came a girlish giggle.
Someone whispered his name, soft and sweet.
"Who's there?" he called. He reached for his wand only to find that it wasn't there. His holster was empty.
Someone whispered his name again. The voice came from somewhere ahead.
"Answer me!" he shouted. He took a step towards it and almost slipped on wet rock. Something about this struck him as wrong; wasn't he supposed to be somewhere? What was he doing here, in this dark place?
The third time he heard his name, it was louder, less loving. He fought a shiver and suddenly thought he didn't want to find the source after all.
"Harry," said the voice right in his ear.
He jumped violently, spinning as his heart hammered. The area was lit – and he recognized the cavern. He'd been here many times in his nightmares. There were torches along the walls, illuminating the small island in the water. But that wasn't right; it wasn't like that before.
In place of the bowl that had held the locket was Dumbledore. His head was bowed, his hands covered his face as if from shame.
"Sir?" Harry wanted to move closer, but a sense of fear kept his feet still. "Professor?"
"Harry…" Dumbledore's voice was filled with sadness, as if pleading with Harry, but he didn't understand.
"Sir? What's wrong?"
"Harry… How could you? You were… our only…"
Something was coming. Harry could feel it in his bones. Was he having another nightmare? He desperately wanted to wake up.
Dumbledore lifted his head. His hands fell away to reveal his disfigured face. His eyes were swollen shut and his ears ripped off, leaving behind nothing but bloody holes. But the worst part was his mouth – with every word he spoke, the thread that sowed his lips together tore and gushed.
"You were… the light… but now…"
Harry chanted 'wake up' to himself over and over, squeezing his eyes shut. He didn't care where he was supposed to be as long as it wasn't here.
He snapped his eyes open when water surrounded his feet.
There was something in the water. Something wrong. Something dangerous.
He threw himself backwards but his feet were stuck. It was as if the water had become sand, weighing him down, preventing him from running.
Hands emerged from the lake.
He threw himself harder, crying out. Unadulterated terror filled his head and made his only thought a frantic chant to be saved.
The water rippled. That same whisper repeated his name from somewhere inside it, and a hand reached out to grasp his calf. He tried to kick out, to claw against the rocks. When he glanced up, he found that Dumbledore was gone and that only increased his panic. Something was beginning to give, some leverage being returned to him.
"Harry…"
He had been afraid before, but he'd never experienced the terror so bone deep that he couldn't move.
He turned like time had slowed. No thought ran through his mind. Everything was silent.
Ron was the one gripping his leg. He looked like something out of a Muggle horror film; his hair falling out in clumps, his jaw disfigured and hanging limply. But he wasn't the source of the voice.
It was Ginny.
Standing on the lake in a long, ragged dress, she cried tears of blood. There was a gaping hole in her chest where her heart should be.
"We trusted in you," she whispered, yet the words found themselves to his ears. She crossed the water slowly, every step revealing someone else emerging from the water. "Even though you didn't trust us, we trusted in you."
Harry struggled to speak. Around his tight throat, the words caused him physical pain. "'s not true."
"Lies!" screeched a disfigured Hermione. "Even now, you speak nothing but lies!"
She grabbed his wand arm, grip bruising. He could feel his bones grinding together.
"Why did you fail us?" asked Neville, rising from the water to hold Harry's other arm. "Do we only bring you down, Harry? Do we get in your way? Do you hate us?"
Harry tried to close his eyes but the voices remained. Hands grabbed his shoulders, his hips. He wouldn't have been able to break free even if he hadn't been so utterly terrified.
"Not true." It came out as a whisper when he'd meant it to be a shout.
"Stop lying!" Hermione screamed. She began to chant it, "Stop lying, stop lying!"
"We won't let you go," said Ginny, suddenly right before him. She reached out, wrapping her arm around his head and burying her fingers in her hair. She pulled so hard he thought she might tear his hair out. "We'll drag you down with us. We won't let you go. We'll never let you go. You'll stay with us, won't you?"
"There's someone… waiting…" he tried to say weakly.
"Waiting for you?! Who's waiting for you, Harry?! We would have given up anything for you, but you choose them instead?! Will you leave us here to rot?!"
His memories came back to him in a rush.
The Exorcists. Road.
It had to be Road's fault.
"This… this isn't real," he murmured. Louder, he shouted, "This isn't real!"
Ginny screamed at the top of her lungs and he felt some of his hair give.
"Road!" he yelled. "I know this is all you! This isn't real! Let me out!"
There came another girlish giggle, and what frightened Harry was how Ginny paled and flinched away.
"Har~ry," said Road, voice echoing. "Whatever do you mean?"
She melted out of the water, looking just the same as he'd seen her last. Ginny screeched and dove under the water as if to flee. All the others hands, all the other disfigured creatures, followed her lead.
"You scared them away." Road pouted, but it faded as she approached. "You remembered so quickly! But what makes you think this isn't real?"
"Don't try to fool me," Harry said. The water released him; he quickly stepped out. "You made them. You made all this to scare me, right? Well, congratulations, you scared me! Happy? But I know this is all in my head. It's not real."
"Wrong on both counts!" she said. "This isn't your head, it's your heart. And I promise, it's very real. This was all here before I came."
"I don't believe you! There's no way this is my heart! I know myself better than that!"
"Do you really?" She bent forward at the waist with a sly smile. "I was certainly surprised! I don't think you know yourself as well as you think you do."
"Like I would believe you, the Noah," he spat. "If you want to kill me, then kill me."
"I never said I wanted to do that," she said. "I thought I'd have a little fun with Tom's favorite toy, but I found something very interesting. There's someone else here who wants to meet you, Harry."
All the nightmare versions of his friends had fled, but when the water rippled again, he knew it wasn't them. A dark shape slowly rose out of the water.
At first he thought their hair was black. They moved languidly, as if they weren't used to it. And when they lifted their head, he realized it was a mirror image of himself. The same mouth, the same nose… except his eyes shone Voldemort red.
Every step jingled the large chains attached to his arms and legs. The cuffs and links were rusted but strong.
"Imagine how I felt, Harry," Road said. "When I found another one of you in here?"
#
"Shit!" Lavi cursed. "Any changes?"
"Not that I can tell," Allen said, pressing his fingers to Harry's neck. "He still won't wake up!"
"Of course he won't, silly," Road said. "I would have thought you'd recognize the symptoms right away, Lavi."
Allen looked to Lavi sharply, who stood with a slightly parted mouth and wide eyes.
"That's right!" Road chuckled, covering her mouth. "You can't save him. He's all on his own. And what a heart he has!"
Allen gasped. Lavi had never told him what happened on the Ark, but he understood enough to know that was because it was personal. Lavi had changed afterwards – subtly, but Allen had noticed.
If Lavi had barely scraped out alive, how would Harry manage?
"He's got nothing to do with you!" Lavi shouted, hands tightening on his hammer. "What're you guys doing with the wizards anyway?!"
"What are you doing with the wizards?" she shot back. "We're really not so different, you know?"
"I don't trap people inside themselves for my own amusement!"
"No, just yourself, isn't that right?"
"Shut up!" Lavi brought his hammer down, cratering the area, but Road danced out of the way.
"For an Exorcist, it's not strange to have a little darkness, but isn't he supposed to be a savior?" she said. "I'd say he's even darker than you, Lavi."
He cursed and tried again, but every swing missed. Road laughed. "I wonder how many townspeople will die because you're too busy protecting little Harry here? He's rather getting in your way, isn't he?"
"We'll protect everyone," Allen said, standing. "What did you come here for, Road? For Harry? You can't have him."
"I'm only playing with him," she said. "Tom thinks he has to be the one to kill Harry, and the longer he's chasing him, the more fun it will be."
"What do you get out of helping that guy?!" Allen exclaimed. "I didn't think you'd be so low as to ally with someone like that!"
"It's the war," Lavi said grimly. "You've done it before; I know you have. You step in to say just the wrong thing, kill the right person, so they go to war. With all that death, you have no shortage of souls."
"And the more akuma we can make," she said. "That's right; there's the bookman in training!"
Allen grimaced. If the Noah were involved for the sole purpose of making more akuma, it was even more important they crush Voldemort and end the war.
"He won't win," he said. "I've told you and Tyki before – you should fear the humans that oppose you instead of looking down on them."
"This time, it's not us looking down on them, Allen. You could tell Tom, I guess, but I think he'll care as much as we did. Now, I think it's time for some chaos, don't you?"
She lifted her hand in the air. When she brought it back down, the akuma let loose their rain of bullets. Lavi enlarged his hammer to block and Allen was forced to step over Harry's prone body. Crown Clown took the hits, but at least Harry was safe.
"Walker!"
He glanced over to see Link running their way at full speed. His cursed eye whirring, Allen scooped Harry up, jumped out of the fray, and skidded to a stop beside his keeper.
"It's done," Link said. "I've warned the townsfolk of the impending danger. Has Kanda returned?"
"No, and neither has the Earl," Allen said. He shoved Harry into Link's arms. "Watch him and stay out of the battle. Thanks!"
He leapt away before Link could fully let loose his barrage of insults.