Disclaimer - I do not own DGM, never have and never will.

A/N - I would once again like to thank the amazing people who reviewed the last chapter: Genis Reigal - Element Star, Noah of Faith, Lelouch, fan girl 666, Shuuwai, Raine Haruto, usuilove21, Gothicgirl12, zenophobiaz, Jenaminya, Howlingwolf94, key46812, Peculiar Top hat, Variation on Ink, FalteredGAIT, PeanutAngel, dgm-mega fan, 14th Noah, and mysticwolf1896. Thanks so much for the support guys!

Chapter Thirty-Five - New Beginnings

Once they left the house where Mana had been raising his nephew for the past three and a half years the quartet of travelers quickly made their way toward the edge of town. Mana had already expected to have to travel fairly quickly but the leader's pace was beyond even what he had anticipated. The red headed man named Cross seemed to be in a tremendous hurry to put as much distance between them and this town as was humanly possible. Of course this wasn't exactly an easy thing for Mana considering the fact that he was carrying not only an unconscious child but also a rather large suitcase.

Not that Cross seemed to really care about that fact.

"Okay," Mana said after awhile, slightly out of breath owing to the exertion of their trek. He wasn't exactly in the best shape as it was and was having more than a little difficulty keeping up with his companion. "I know that you said we have to leave but do we really have to go this fast?"

"That all depends," Cross called out over his shoulder, not bothering to slow his pace in the slightest. He didn't seem even remotely concerned with the fact that his traveling companion was panting heavily and more than a little out of breath. The man could either keep up and remain under his protection or else he could fall behind and be left to fend for himself and the boy. It was entirely up to him. "Do you want to live or do you want to die a horrific and painful death?"

This question was posed in a matter of fact manner, as though the two of them were merely discussing the weather or some other mundane topic. And not the deaths of Mana and the child that he held most dear.

Now if anyone else had said something like this then Mana would have accused them of joking but, as it were, he wasn't convinced that Cross even had a sense of humor. Which left the man with no alternative except to believe that the words he spoke were the gospel truth, despite his mind's desperate attempts to rationalize it into something else. Something somehow less threatening. But the fact that his brother had been involved in something was a possibility that Mana himself had contemplated when the young man had shown up on his doorstep with Allen in his arms so the concept wasn't wholly unbelievable. And what had happened to Allen only served to support this fact as far as he was concerned. Keeping this thought in mind Mana quickened his steps, making every effort to ignore the burning ache in his chest that represented his lungs' protests to the pace.

"If Allen were awake he would be making fun of me right now," Mana thought to himself as he followed along a short distance behind Cross. Glancing down his eyes lingered on the still form of the child that he held in his arms before they returned to the path that lay ahead of him. "Calling me old or something along those lines." Under normal circumstances the constant teasing annoyed the man to a small degree but in this moment he would give just about anything to hear Allen's teasing voice.

If only so that he would know for certain that the little boy who meant the world to him was going to be okay. And it wasn't just the injuries that he had sustained that concerned Mana, although they were a large part of it. He was also worried about what Cross had told him, about the blood that flowed through Allen's veins.

Mana's thoughts shifted to his brother as the words spoken by the Exorcist General once again rang through his ears. The description of a war that he hadn't even realized was being waged… a war against the very essence of good and evil.

A war in which his brother had supposedly been fighting on the wrong side.

The image of a little boy, looking very much like Allen aside from his slightly curly mahogany hair, appeared in Mana's mind's eye. This ghost from the past lingered for a few moments before being replaced by the tall man with the same mahogany hair who had appeared on his doorstep nearly four years ago with a child in his arms.

"You weren't really bad… were you Nicholas?" This thought led to another, more pressing matter. "And Allen… he isn't going to change is he?"

Hating the very idea that Allen might change into something other than the sweet little boy that he had always been Mana banished the thought completely from his mind. And served to cause the man to lose all of the rational thoughts supporting the red haired man's claims. None of that even entered into his mind at this point as he shook his head fiercely. He didn't care what the man named Cross said, he wasn't going to believe any of it. While it was an indisputable fact that someone had attacked Allen what was less certain was their motives for doing so. It could very well be that it was a completely random act of violence. A horrible thought since the victim had been a helpless child but things like that did sometimes happen.

Denial is truly a horrible thing.

The Millennium Earl had returned to the tower in the Ark, leaving Road behind to continue the search for the brown haired boy. The boy that he was now even more determined to locate than before, though for slightly different reasons at this point. Gazing at a group of level two Akuma, a smile spread across the face of the Noah of Dreams as she thought about her mission. A mission that she was pleased the Earl had allowed her to continue, once again for completely different reasons than before. "Now listen up… the kid we're looking for is a cute little thing with brown hair and gray eyes. Make sure you bring him back alive… anyone else that he happens to be you can do with as you please."

"Yes Road," the Akuma said in unison, the group turning away from the Noah girl and departing.

"We're going to find you," Road sang out before going to search for the child herself. Secretly she hoped that the Akuma didn't have any luck with their search, though she would never dream of saying something like this out loud. Lord Millennium had ordered her to use the Akuma to help in the search for the boy but she wanted to be the one who found him.

He was so much fun to play with after all.

"I'm going to find you," the Noah girl sang out as she skipped down the cobblestone street, a strange smile on her face. "And when I do we're going to have so much fun."

The quartet of travelers managed to make it away from the town without incident, though Cross seemed unusually paranoid. The red haired man was constantly gazing over his shoulder, and his gaze never rested for long on the ones following behind. He would occasionally give them a passing glance but it never lingered for any great length of time, as though they couldn't hold his attention. No his interest seemed to lie elsewhere and there was a wary look in his one visible red eye.

As though he expected for something to leap out at them at any moment.

"Should I be concerned about something?" Mana finally inquired after Cross gazed back over his shoulder for what had to be the hundredth time at the very least. Not that Mana had been keeping count but he knew that it had been a lot, though the exact number eluded him. He arched a brow as he took note of the scowl that decorated the man's face; a look that he seemed to have mastered although it looked somehow different than it had before.

"You should be concerned about a lot of things," Cross deadpanned as he continued to gaze around. He had made an attempt to impress upon the man the seriousness of the situation but it didn't appear as though he had completely grasped it. Either that or he was choosing not to heed Cross' warnings, in which case he was a fool. Of course that wasn't wholly unexpected considering the fact that he and that brat the Musician were related by blood. The man would have been beyond surprised to find that his brother was different than the arrogant brat that he had joined forces with in his battle against the Earl. Not that such things weren't possible… just not probable.

Taking note of the tone of the man's voice Mana couldn't keep himself from gazing around, his searching gaze meeting with nothing but the trees that lined the road on either side. They had left the town and entered into the forest that bordered it, the sound of birds the only interruption in the silence. And yet the man couldn't deny the fact that something, some unknown feeling, was causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up. It felt almost as though someone were watching him, despite the fact that there was no one in view.

And, as though he too could sense the unseen disturbance, Allen moaned in a soft voice.

Glancing down at the child that he held in his arms Mana saw that Allen's face was scrunched up as though he were in pain. "Shh," he whispered in a soothing tone of voice, tightening the grip that he had on the child in an effort to offer him the small amount of comfort that he was able to in their current situation. "I'm sorry Allen, I really am. But we just have to keep walking."

"Stop," Cross snarled suddenly.

Mana was slightly irritated by this order, as well as the harsh tone in which it was delivered, and he scowled. He knew that the man was helping him but that really was no excuse for blatant rudeness. "I was just talking to him and…"

"I meant stop walking," Cross said, throwing out an arm in an effort to halt Mana's forward progress.

The brown haired man had been so focused on his child that he hadn't even noticed that Cross had came to an abrupt halt. He would have walked into the larger man if he hadn't suddenly looked up, coming to a stop mere inches from the hand that Cross was holding out. "What is it?" he asked, his voice low and concerned.

He didn't like the look that Cross held in his eye and it served to put him on edge. Or, to be more precise, more on edge than he already had been.

And Mana's fear was only increased by the sight of Cross flipping his coat aside to reveal a large firearm that he wore in a holster at his side. The red haired man gripped the butt of the gun, drawing it from the holster and holding it up in front of him. "I know you're there," he snarled, his tone feral and intense. "So stop hiding like a bunch of cowards and come out."

Gazing around Mana didn't see anyone and for a moment he thought that perhaps his traveling companion had lost his mind. However this thought was banished as a group of people emerged from the trees, offering them apologetic smiles. It appeared to be a family, comprised of an elderly man, a man and woman, as well as a small child.

And yet Cross continued to point his gun at them as though they were a threat.

A low and menacing growl could be heard as Star moved forward, head low and teeth bared. The dog had always been friendly so it was surprising that he seemed to bear such animosity toward this group of strangers but that was less concerning to Mana than the fact that Cross was pointing a gun at them.

"What are you doing?" Mana demanded as he moved to stand between Cross and the group of unlucky people who'd had the misfortune of crossing their path.

"Get the fuck out of the way," Cross growled, his voice not seeming to contain an ounce of patience. "Unless you and the brat both want to die."

For the briefest of moments Mana thought that this was a threat coming from the red haired man himself but that thought abruptly disappeared as he heard an unearthly noise behind him. Glancing over his shoulder Mana grimaced and then stepped back as he witnessed the seemingly ordinary humans undergo some strange transformation.

"Hand over the boy Exorcist," one of them snarled, stepping forward. "If you do that then I promise we'll have mercy and kill you quickly."

Cross arched a brow as he leveled the gun out, the barrel pointed toward the creature that stood before him. "Does shit like that ever work, honestly? I would have expected a level two to have at least a little more brains than that but I guess it was just too much to ask for."

"Judgment!"

Pulling the trigger of the large pistol in rapid succession Cross managed to make short work of the Akuma. It was true that there were four of them but they weren't very skilled… and his bullets never missed their intended target. The explosions caused by the defeat of the creatures shook the ground as Cross sheathed his weapon and turned his attention back toward a rather stunned looking Mana. "Pick your jaw up off the ground and move your ass," he ordered as he once again continued down the road. "Someone's going to notice the fireworks and I don't know about you but I want to be far from here when that happens." Normally the Exorcist General would be all for a fight, since it was a good way to relieve stress and he had more than his share of that at the moment, but keeping the Noah brat's family out of harm's way was an annoyance that he would just as soon be rid of.

As soon as possible.

For once Mana didn't have to be asked twice, quickly falling into step behind Cross. "What were those things?" he asked as he struggled to keep pace with the red haired Exorcist.

"Akuma," Cross replied, gazing around as though he expected more of the creatures to appear at any moment. "Living weapons created by the Millennium Earl to combat the threat of the Exorcists. They're dangerous and I can guarantee that this won't be the last time that you see them."

"Why is that?" Mana questioned, despite the fact that he wasn't really sure if he wanted the answer as it was likely to be something unpleasant.

"Because of the Innocence embedded in the boy's hand," Cross replied. "The Earl is out to destroy the pieces of Innocence and the Akuma seek it relentlessly."

A haunted light appeared in Mana's eyes as he gazed down at the child that he held cradled to his chest. It seemed that fate truly had played a cruel joke on the boy and that the path he walked would ever be a difficult one.

A/N - End of another chapter, hope that you enjoyed. Please leave a review and share your thoughts. And thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed thus far.