Quick terminology lesson:
REM (Rapid eye movement) cycle - the stage of sleep during which most brain activity and dreams occur, characterized by rapid eye movement.
NREM (non-rapid eye movement) cycle - the stage of sleep during which the least brain activity and dreams occur.
HPPD - Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder; a disorder characterized by a continual presence of visual disturbances.
WILD - wake-initiated lucid dreaming; occurs when "the sleeper enters REM sleep with unbroken self-awareness directly from the waking state".
D . Gray-man is owned by Katsura Hoshino, meaning it does not belong to me. I am in no way, shape, and/or form claiming to be the owner/creator of these concepts, though I do claim any characters not apart of the original D . Gray-man storyline (such as Gracia) mine. As such, I would appreciate fellow authors and readers to give credit where credit is due and not steal any of my characters and/or concepts. Thank you, and have a pleasant day.
"Go, Supervisor! Go to Hevlaska and get the Innocence!"
Gracia was right behind Komui and beside Kanda as they ran for the nearby lift that would take them down to Hevlaska, Komui running faster than she'd ever seen him move.
They didn't have time to wait for the lift to get into the right position, so Komui vaulted right over the railing of both the edge of the floor and the lift, falling to one knee but quickly recovering.
Gracia paused at the rail to make sure the Akuma was still captured, and during her pause two guards with the shield talismans jumped onto the lift after Komui.
Kanda slapping her upside the head as the lift started to descend snapped her out of it, and she jumped over the railing with Kanda and landed beside him, though not as gracefully.
No amount of impending doom could keep her from kneeling and hugging her stomach with one arm as her motion sickness bloomed, only worsened by the ongoing pain in her arm.
"You!" Komui shouted when he noticed they were on the lift with him, "You were ordered to evacuate!"
"Not likely." Kanda said flatly, his golem fluttering beside his head and his temporary sword slung over his shoulder.
"If Kanda's staying, so am I!" The young man with the spiky hair from before shouted, jumping onto the lift.
"Then you'll be punished, too!" Komui snapped at him, making the young man pale slightly but not back down. When Komui glanced at Gracia, she just glared at him.
"I am not leaving you."
Komui twitched, a look crossing his face.
"Hevlaska has my Mugen." Kanda grumbled, "The barrier won't hold for long. If nothing else I can act as a shield."
"Ridiculous!" Komui barked at him, "I won't let you throw your life away!" Even before he finished his sentence, Komui froze, a shocked look crossing his face, like he wanted to shove his foot into his mouth.
Kanda pressed his mouth into a thin line, his fringe hiding his eyes for a moment before he grinned at Komui grimly, "Then make sure you keep yourself safe."
Gracia glanced between them silently but kept her mouth shut, and not just because she felt like she could actually vomit at any given moment.
"Komui, hurry!" Hevlaska's voice was heard urging over Komui's headpiece, "You must take the Innocence and the Cube from within me! Lvellie is bringing Lenalee to me… He is going to have me try to implant her Innocence!"
Komui shuddered, grinding his teeth, then slammed his palm onto the reader of the control panel while he typed quickly with his other hand.
The lift plummeted at his command, dropping faster than what was clearly safe and making Gracia's stomach roil.
"On your feet, Gracia." Kanda growled, "There's no telling when that thing'll break out…"
Gracia shuddered and nodded, stumbling to her feet and pressing her left hand to her mouth.
Someone was beside her quickly, supporting her, and she glanced at the spiky haired young Asian man, nodding when he smiled weakly at her.
Gracia then turned her attention to Komui.
She'd never felt this lucid in her life… She was so aware, thinking so clearly, processing everything so differently.
And even though it initially seemed like a bad time to be thinking about how she felt about Komui… she quickly realized the timing couldn't have been better. Because as she started thinking, Sleep's temperature turned lukewarm, then a comforting cold that soothed her bruise.
This was what Sleep wanted her to think about. Yes, protecting others and defeating Akuma was important, but this was her drive. He was her drive.
Komui was starting to become her reason.
If she wanted a reason to grasp for more power, she needed to embrace him.
And judging by the crashing noise that came from above and the grim "Here it comes" announcement from Kanda, it was about damned time she started.
Gracia pulled away from the young man and stood near the center of the lift, glaring upwards at the white spot that was quickly shooting towards them.
She heard Komui shout something, but couldn't focus on it as she focused on Sleep, instead.
She needed Sleep, now more than ever.
She needed Sleep so she could protect Komui.
And she'd go to whatever lengths, draw out whatever power Sleep yearned for her to in order to do that.
Gracia aimed her hand upward as the Akuma aimed its hand down at her, grasping at this new feeling welling up inside of her chest, surrounding her body, growing to surround their group, the lift, enveloping them in a bright light as Sleep flashed and turned from silver to white.
The Akuma fired a dark purple ray down at them.
Gracia focused on drawing out what already felt fit to bust out of her chest.
"JUDGE-SAL! !"
There was clanking, clanking…
The sound of armor.
"KOMUI! !" Lenalee screamed at the top of her lungs, wanting to throw herself over the railing to get to him as the lift exploded and fell.
Even before the Level 4's beam had hit it, though, a bright white light had surrounded it, and the edge had seemed to… flutter…
…A cape? Allen and his Crown Clown?
No…
As the lift had fallen to the ground and exploded, an ethereal form… a massive ethereal form had surrounded those who were on it, carrying them a short way from the explosion. Just a short one, but still far away enough to protect them.
The form then stood in front of them protectively, slowly standing upright and revealing itself for what it was; a great, silvery-blue, transparent suit of armor, a cape billowing out behind it and a great, highly decorated armored helm.
A heavily armored knight with no visible body in the few places it had small gaps in its armor.
Lenalee stared at it in stunned silence as it reached for one of the two swords at its waist, the ghostly, enormous knight, nowhere near as large as Hevlaska but definitely larger than any human, drawing the blade strapped to its right hip.
The sword, just as ethereal as the giant that wielded it, was easily two-thirds as tall as the knight, but it wielded it easily with one hand, the other resting threateningly near the sword on its left hip.
Who had been on that lift with Komui…? This… This certainly wasn't any the product of any Innocence Lenalee knew of…
Nearby, Hevlaska was clutching at her stomach as it swelled, her entire body glowing.
"Aaah… someone… as just surpassed… The Limit!"
Behind Lenalee, Lvellie tensed, "What? ! Who? !"
"Cannot… tell…" Hevlaska groaned.
Lenalee shuddered. As long as it was Innocence, it did not really matter at the moment. What did matter was— "Komui!" She threw herself forward, clutching at the railing and looking over at where the giant knight had dropped off those who had been on the lift, "Komui!"
"I'll go check!" Lavi shouted, running past her and vaulting over the railing to land on a ledge on below, "There may still be time!"
Lvellie brushed off the new Innocence, as well, and grabbed Lenalee, pulling her over to Hevlaska, "The lift is broken! He will not be able to reach the Innocence! Hevlaska put the Innocence into Lenalee! NOW! !"
Lenalee could do nothing to fight.
This… was why she was an Exorcist…
"Supervisor… Supervisor!"
Komui groaned and woke up slowly, pushing himself up with his hands. His vision was blurry… where were his glasses…? Something crinkled under his hand, and he mentally sighed. Ah, there they were… Broken.
He looked around dazedly, trying to remember what he had been doing…
The lift? Where was the lift?
…Ah… there… on fire… Would it work? No… no, not in that condition… Damn… He then noticed that bodies surrounded him, all likely shielding him. And when he saw the one to his left, the one guarding him from the outside, he tensed. His vision was blurry, but they were close enough that he could see them.
"Kanda? !" Komui struggled to get upright, doing his best to focus on Kanda's injuries and balking as he did, "You shielded me? !"
"Shut up." Kanda growled, the torn skin on his arm and the side of his face already healing, "It was nothing." He cracked his neck, then clutched at his chest where it was, hissing.
Seeing Kanda already healing (though Komui didn't like what it implied), Komui turned his attention to the two human Finders who had also been guarding him.
"Are you okay, Supervisor?"
"Yes…" Komui rubbed the back of his neck, slightly pained, "Thank you… Are you two alright?"
The two men paused, then smiled, "We're—"
Before the one could finish, both of them turned black and shattered like glass, their bodies breaking apart inside of their own clothes even as they fell.
Komui could only watch in horrified shock, and Kanda had already turned away and was standing, picking up his sword.
"Komui!" A familiar voice called out, drawing closer, "Yu!"
The act reflexive by that point, Kanda turned a harsh glare over at the one who had used his name, while Komui breathed a sigh of relief.
"Lavi!"
"Oh, good, you're alive!" Lavi ran over to them, wielding a pole instead of his usual hammer.
It then hit Komui; if Lavi was there, then— He looked up, and indeed, there was Lvellie, dragging Lenalee by her wrist over to Hevlaska, the Inspector shouting up at the large Exorcist.
"Lenalee!" Komui called out to his sister, but he was interrupted by a familiar, high-pitched voice full of insanely inappropriate, childlike inquisitiveness.
"Is our game over, 'Supervisor'?"
Komui looked over just as Lavi and Kanda put themselves between Komui and the Level 4, but before either of them could do anything the giant, armored knight appeared, swinging its massive sword at the Akuma.
The Akuma dodged, but couldn't dodge the fisted free hand the knight swung at it next, the punch so massive it nailed the Akuma's full body and sent it flying.
"The hell…?" Lavi muttered.
Kanda tensed, then started looking up and down the ledge they were standing it.
Komui blinked, wondering what he was looking for—
Gracia.
Komui started looking, as well, and found her; she was behind him, Chaozii Han hovering over her unconscious body protectively on his hands and knees as Sleep glowed white on her wrist and finger.
Her eyes were flickering back and forth under her lids rapidly; a telltale sign of REM sleep. At her sides, her hands were twitching, and Komui quickly noticed; when her left hand twitched, the knight swung its sword. When the right twitched, it swung its fist.
Gracia was… dreaming the movements of the armored knight… No… Judge-Sal, he remembered she had called it.
Meaning…
Komui looked at Hevlaska, next, twitching slightly when he noticed how she struggled to lift Lenalee into the air, her stomach swelled and glowing brightly.
Gracia had exceeded the one hundred percent limit.
"You troublesome little BITCH!" The Akuma suddenly flashed past the armored judge and dove for Gracia and Chaozii.
Kanda twitched and immediately dove for her, Lavi staying behind to guard Komui.
The Akuma glared at Kanda and fired its purple beam of concentrated Dark Matter at him, hitting him directly.
That was enough to almost make Lavi leave Komui's side, but the wooden pole that was his only defense was blasted away without the Level 4 even needing to look at him. The Level 4 then picked up Kanda by his collar and backhanded him before it quickly dodged another blow from Judge-Sal, firing Dark Matter and nailing Hevlaska in the side.
Komui watched as best his blurry eyes could in shock as Hevlaska cried out and fell, dropping Lenalee and her Innocence.
"What are you people doing over there…?" The Level 4 asked tauntingly before it went back to diving at Gracia, dropping Kanda in favor of picking her up after easily batting Chaozii aside.
The Jude-Sal, which was still extremely slow and clumsy because of its newness, didn't have time to try to swing again before the Level 4 grabbed the chain that joined Sleep's bracelet to its ring and jerked.
Gracia's finger middle finger bent the wrong way and snapped as the chain broke, making her open her eyes in the middle of her REM cycle and scream out in pain and shock.
The Judge-Sal wavered at the edges, like static, and fell to one knee, its sword dropping from its hand.
"…How boring." The Level 4 sighed, glaring down at Gracia for apparently not providing enough entertainment before it tossed her back to the narrow lip on the wall.
Gracia, still unconscious, fell limply, cracking her head against the solid stone wall loudly before collapsing in a heap.
Komui, his body trembling, stood and stumbled over to her, falling to his knees when he reached her side and gently nudging her. Not enough to move her; no, you don't move people after injuries like that… Just enough to see her face…
When he was sure she was breathing (not really able to discern much else without his glasses), he looked back, his eyes widening and his heart gripping in panic when he saw the Level 4 heading to where Lenalee was.
Komui looked to Judge-Sal desperately, but the armored ghost was still on one knee, debilitated as Gracia was and breathing in time with her, even though it had absolutely no need to breathe.
…It was during times like this that Komui passively hated God for not making him an Exorcist.
Her vision… her perception… was… disjointed…
…The Judge was still out… Why was she aware?
Yes, she didn't know exactly what the Judge was, but being aware when he was out… didn't… feel… right…
Hurt… Her head hurt…
Hard to tell one from the other… Body felt warm… back of her head wet… arm on fire… finger boiling hot… throbbing…
Same time… cold armor… pressing down on her back… breath echoing in her ears from a helmet… fingers… separated by cold mail and plating… hilt of a sword… pressed against her palm… pressed against the ground as she knelt… to stay upright…
So confusing… two places at once… can't… control actions…
"Don't know… what to do…"
…Knew that voice…
She turned towards it slowly… only it wasn't her… Judge did…
Looked up at him…
He looked down at her (the Judge) as she moved…
Looked… so confused…
But why… was he just sitting there…?
She… was near… sister… Lenalee…
Why… was he just…?
…Now annoyed with him… again… as always…
She slowly lifted her armored hand (not hers, but the Judge's, because she couldn't really feel her body anymore)… and pointed…
"Now, dumbass."
…Really was… such a nerd… sometimes…
…Good luck… Lenalee…