Disclaimer: I do not own D. Gray Man in any way, all credit goes to Katsura Hoshino.
Summary: Forced to leave the Order, Allen comes across a secret hidden in the depths of the Ark. Now, hunted by the Noah Clan and considered an enemy by the place he once called home, he has to search for the truth... The truth about Mana, Neah and himself. Where he came from and who he really is. Uncovering a web of illusions and doubts, Allen still moves forward as he promised to do... But what do you do in a war, when you feel like you don't belong to any side?
Note: Remember when I told you this fic was planned during Hoshino's hiatus and that there would be a point where it started to greatly diverge from the manga? This is it.
"What if everything in the world were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears?" – Soren Kierkegaard.
Act Nineteen – Dance of Past and Present
There was no possible reaction.
Everything wrapped by skin, be nerve or organ, had ceased its existence as if the organism somehow thought that by doing so, nothing bad would happen…
The silence that followed held Hell in it. Allen's flesh was stretched out and even if had met the Earl before, he found himself frozen in place.
The Earl tilted his head. His glasses reflected the sun, not allowing them to search his eyes for a hint of his mood. His face remained hidden in the mask of an eternal smile.
"You…" Raz's whisper was almost inaudible, more a brush of vocal cords than actual speech. She knew, unsure of how, who that man was. And while she couldn't move at all, there was also another emotion with an intensity she couldn't control or block.
This, more than everything, made her heart feel as if it couldn't beat.
He was the Earl…
The man slid his hand inside his coat, picking a stripped thing. Soon, it was clear he was filling a balloon. The sight had everything to be ridiculous and yet it was as if the balloon was made of human skin, revealing stitched faces as it became bigger. Allen wouldn't have been surprised if that was the case.
He backed away, slowly… He should run, he knew, run… But true thought had left his mind, leaving him with the basic workings of the body alone. He had never felt such dread before, even back on the times he had faced the Earl.
Raz's hands went for her arms in instinct, as if to stop herself. Under her shoulders, her nails made a nest in her flesh. Her legs trembled, she wouldn't be able to tell if she wanted to run away from that man… Or go to him.
And both options were frightening.
A wave of electricity caught Allen and he fell, Raz holding him before he hit the ground. The shackle still had small sparkles on it. Distracted by the shock, they only realized the Earl had moved once a shadow fell over them, before they could react.
"Oh, look!" A cheerful voice, of someone playing a game. "I. Got. You~!"
They jumped at the same time, avoiding the balloon. It hit the ground, breaking it instead of bursting. Pieces of bricks flew as bullets, scratching them. The eyes of the Earl's mask seemed to stand out and twirled in opposite directions, out of control.
His attack, however, broke the trance they had been in.
"Neeeah?" The voice called again, the sound of a broken crystal. It was enough to make Allen look back, the protest of being called by that name dying in his throat.
"Neah… Raziah…" The girl felt a wave of coldness upon hearing him calling her. It sounded so familiar, she almost stepped in his direction before realizing it. The Earl held his hand to his chest, almost as if bowing to them due to the height difference. "It's me… Why are you running?"
His mask contorted into something carved by a lunatic. His voice changed tone in the middle of the words, in a thousand emotions as a prism reflecting the light.
Allen's hand went to his left shoulder, meaning to turn it into his sword. His fingers only found feathers that slipped and twisted between his fingers, soft substance escaping his touch.
"C'mon, Crown Clown, please…"
"Don't you… Don't you recognize me?" The Earl asked as if in realization. Scars kept sounding in the man's voice. He attacked as if to grab them, a crack cutting his mask in half.
Shadows rose in his path. Allen and Raz took steps back. Panic rushed the blood, thundering in their ears.
A sound of ripping and, after hesitating with the pressure, the shadows were torn apart.
"Why would you do such a thing, Raaaz~?" Despite the ever-changing cheerful-sad sound, there was something almost genuine in the question. The girl was caught off guard and, for a moment, through the crack in the mask, the man's eyes met hers.
Oh, God…
She knew those eyes.
The Earl came at them once more. Raz avoided his hand at last minute, ducking as Allen jumped to the wall at his right. The man tilted his head, as if not comprehending what they were doing… Or perhaps any of this.
Allen knew they couldn't pass by him and the street was too narrow. If they could go back, be sure the Earl wouldn't follow…
The Noah Patriarch stopped for a moment.
And with a laugh or cry, he came at them. For a second, the man seemed to Allen not like an enemy moved by murderous intend, but more like someone moved by despair, trying to hug family members who he hadn't seen in far too long. Strangely enough, wasn't it more or less like it?
He jumped over the man's hand, Raz going to the other side at the last minute.
The impact shattered the bricks of the wall.
Shadows made strings around his hands and Raz tried to hold him back. At once, she felt awful. She didn't want to do this, she… It took all of her focus in ignoring the melancholic longing, the wish of going near the Earl and talk. The shadows became gentler… Even in this state, he would hear, he…
"NO!" Her mind cried as she forced herself to run by him, joining Allen.
The Earl followed close. Allen lifted his arm, a mess of white out of control, but it worked as a shield of sorts. Raz created shadows to slow the man down as they turned to run.
"It is like he's lost all reason!" Although the man frequently behaved as if all was a game, this now…
This was very different.
"ALLEN!" A known cry made him turn in the middle of a jump. A crash, and broken pieces followed, hitting his back and arms as a thousand bullets.
"JOHNNY, RUN!" The moment of distraction was fatal. A mass of warmth hit the side of his body against the wall. Pain shot through as his skull met the hard surface.
As his body slid among ruins, he slid to darkness.
"Ne…ah…" The Earl muttered, his hands moving slowly, shivering now.
Shadows grabbed his neck and pulled back. The same happened to his wrists.
The mask had opened in the center like a jigsaw piece. It was possible to see the figure of a face and a shining golden eye.
Raz stood in front of Allen as Johnny ran to the boy, trying to lift him by placing his arm on his shoulder.
A golden eye found stone-blue eyes.
He forced against the shadows' hold, managing to move his arm. Raz felt it through her nerves. Strong, too strong. He lifted a hand slowly. Why was he trembling like that?
"Raziah…"
He tried to speak gently, the effect ruined by his voice, the smile of his half-parted mask...
"Raz... It's me…" He reached his hand out to her, as though she was a little animal he didn't want to scare away. "Please… Don't be afraid…"
Her whole being was ripped apart.
Wait.
Go.
Stay.
Run.
Whips came to the Earl's arms, pulling down. The thorns that they had, however, retracted in the last instant as Raz realized she couldn't bring herself to harm him.
"What am I DOING?" She took off, helping Johnny, wishing she wasn't doing that due to being weak and not due to her feelings. As confident as she was in her decision, everything seemed so twisted, so senseless. "Don't be stupid, go!"
She looked back as she ran. It was the right thing to do, but why did it hurt? Through the scar in his mask, there was the figure of a face, features unseen but for the golden eyes. Among the gleam of madness, there was something else… Like he barely knew what he was doing…
The golden gleamed and bled…
The Earl was crying.
Shadows held the front of the mask, filling his view. Johnny and Raz avoided when the man instinctively tried to hold them despite that. They ran, Allen still unconscious, blood staining threads of his hair.
Raz felt like going back to him. She didn't want to hurt him, she…
The Earl hit a wall. Stones rained over them. Johnny felt a slice of pain in his back, under his free shoulder. Raz threw shards of shadows behind, but her concentration was unbalanced and some faded. Even the ones that remained didn't cause more than scratches.
Allen groaned.
"G-Go… Stay… Away… Me…" His tongue barely worked the words.
"NO!" Johnny replied, blood rushing more than the body could keep up, holding Allen tighter and trying to stand. "I-I can't… We'll all go together!"
Raz felt the blood on her leg, the bones protesting when she kept moving, turning her head and commanding more shadows to grab the man. They wrapped his wrists, his legs. He didn't seem to notice, his eyes stabbing the three of them.
Throat closing, Johnny looked back. He wanted to beg, even if he knew it would be useless. He wanted to show how Allen was hurt, show the Noah Patriarch what he was doing and make him stop… To appeal to any mercy he might feel…
Useless, Johnny knew.
However, seeing Johnny carrying Allen, Raz at his side, a memory tore apart the Millennium Earl's mind…
"I'm sorry, forgive me, Neah…" Oh, yes, he remembered. That person had begged forgiveness when it was too late, the same way he had done when he had found Neah. But what use was there to apologize? Neah was dead… Dead like all others… Because of… Because…
That human of now was trying to take Neah (Neah? Allen?) away.
Take (Neah? Allen?) and Raz away
Take them away, away from him…
"Who… Are you?" The question escaped his throat. The human either didn't listen or ignored him, one of the arms of the white-haired child over his shoulder, trying to go on even with the weight, helped by Raz…
He was coming between them, between him and his family, just like…
"E-Earl…" The human turned his face, but it was someone else the Earl saw. "Please… Please, stop…" It was the man who said it or the memory that took over his mind and the place of the present?
Raz… Dear Raz… The shadows in his arms held him even if he was still at the moment. Though she would have been able to use them to pierce him, Raz seemed unable to force herself to do so… Among memories that overlapped, he recalled her. Raz soaked in blood, eyes empty. Raz sitting near Neah as he played, that other person there as well…
That person.
That person, that man begging as he held Neah.
Memory and reality became one.
"WHO ARE YOOUUU?" He roared, hitting and sending the human away from Neah. The hand of his armor/costume pushed the shadows and he felt thorns before forcing the shield to break, the impact sending everything away, including the girl.
The street was in ruins.
Allen, coming back to the world, stood with his arm in defense at Raz's side, who started to stand, dizzy, the blood of her wounds smeared against the skin. She whimpered with a pain that kept increasing as her mind cleared.
Lightning that only existed in the mind cut Allen Walker and the Millennium Earl, Adam, from inside out their skulls. Suddenly, all around disappeared in the intensity of a memory that didn't belong to one and the other would give all to forget.
A girl of spiky hair held a man of long hair… Road… Road, staring furiously as she held Mana's head in a gesture that one couldn't tell if of protection or hate… In front of her, a figure of messy hair evaluated the scene with a cold expression… Neah…
Then a field bloomed in the eyes of the Innocence Accommodator and the Noah Patriarch… A beautiful place, plants (wheat? Flowers? He couldn't see for sure) reaching the waist of a tall man in a long coat… The same man Road had been holding… His eyes had just sadness as if he hadn't known anything else…
"M… Mother?" He asked or the wind whispered?
A twisted tree that seemed to reach out to the skies. A large known figure in a coat. As the other man approached, he managed to see a woman with a trail of blood coming from her mouth…
She wore an old times-looking dress of many folds, the dark and long hair still shivering in the wind with the illusion of life. Her eyes were glassy, with no conscience or gleam. If the blood, of a painful red, wasn't enough then the eyes would be enough…
She was dead.
The realization caused unbearable pain and all color of the world came down to that blood…
The large man half-turned, his face a mask whose smile could be of happiness, insanity or hate. The first man, Mana, had tears escaping his eyes and he didn't seem to realize he was crying.
"Now, everything is back to how it was before…" The Earl muttered in a tone none could decipher. "Mana D. Campbell…"
Among the vision, where the separated minds still had freedom of thought, both felt confused about this name. That face was known by a different name to one and the other hadn't dedicated thought to it, too caught up in other matters, hadn't realized it...
"This is all your fault."
The Earl's voice was a whisper. It would have been better if he yelled…
"You caused this tragedy…"
Reality cut the memory, slipping in a crack and spreading.
"MANA!" Allen cried out, lifting his head. He hadn't even realized he had fallen and Raz was at his side, pulling him up and back to where Johnny was, but Allen's catatonic state had turned his body into stone. He struggled free of her and turned, seeing the Earl rubbing his face, also surprised by the vision.
"What the shit was that?" Allen whispered to himself. In the broken floor and dust, he saw a small thing shining… One of the buttons of the Earl's coat, probably ripped off in the fight… Not thinking about what he was doing, instinct moving him, Allen picked the circle with lines. A golden button. He clenched it in his hand.
It felt familiar.
All he could think was what he had seen.
Mana. That woman, that beautiful woman, with blood coming down her chin.
"Mother… Mana…"
"Allen, let's go!" Raz tried to call him as she fought the nerve-freezing dread herself. He shook his head, unable to think, trying to clear the mind. Johnny groaned, starting to come back to his senses.
"Now… That was like a memory…" Allen muttered, straightening himself. No, it had been a memory. How and why, he didn't know or care. Feeling the blood in his legs again, he started to back away, but the Earl was up once more too.
"You are… Yes, I understand now… You are Mana's." He muttered to himself. The way he said the name called Allen's attention. He had never heard the Earl speaking in that tone. "Ma… Mana… I remember, oh, yes I do…"
His voice whipped the air.
"MANA IS THE CAUSE OF ALL THIS!"
Allen forgot all around him, unable to look away.
"Mana is the one to blame for this tragedy… He ruined everything, everything! Mana Walker." The Earl spit the word with a chuckle and his voice tied Allen in place. There were different emotions in the Earl's voice, who chuckled again. "Mana Walker? No, oh, no, no, right? No… Mana D. Campbell!"
Something sliced Raz inside.
D…
D. Campbell…
Mana D. Campbell…
But… She had known Mana to be Allen's father, Neah's brother, so why… But it was there, coming from the depths of past and a part of her asked how couldn't she have realized… Yes, Mana and Neah D. Campbell, Mana had long hair and Neah's was shorter… There had been this time they had talking, but the words no longer existed in her mind…
"How can you say that?!" Allen growled to the Earl, who looked at him as if only now he recalled where they were. His golden eyes ran from Allen to Raz, his mask almost giving in… Allen could see the figure of a face…
Then the mask closed, with the perfection of a jigsaw. Eyes that before twisted out of the sockets returned to normal and the Earl straightened his glasses. Still, the voice kept shivering in cadence.
Allen's arm was back to normal as well, the feathers melting in the skin and calming down, but he didn't seem to realize it.
"How? You ask me how~?" Allen noticed something. Between the oscillation, he caught something beyond fury or insanity or hate in his words. "Oh, because it is the truth, Neah… No… Allen Walker. Mana caused all this! You can thank him for us being here now, little one!"
Allen and Raz alike knew they should take the effect of whatever the Earl was going all about to run away, but neither could move from the temptation of answers of a past one didn't know and the other didn't remember.
"Mana? The one who caused all this was Neah!" Allen wanted to cry in reply. Neah had been the one who killed the Clan (no matter the reasons), if that was what the Earl was talking about. And who made the akumas was the Earl.
The true responsible one for all of that… For all that pain… Was standing right in front of Allen.
Raz felt her own mind, fishes in a lake and that dived too deep when she tried to hold them.
Still, she could see Neah and Mana's faces now and how could she have been so stupid and not comprehended that she had known Allen's adoptive father…
"Walker… Of course he would use this name…" She thought, unsure of why (it had the sensation of a private thing, only understood by the involved as a secret), when she felt someone holding her wrist and breaking thought. Johnny Gil fought to stand, looking at her with a mix of worry and dread, eyes going from her to Allen and the Earl.
"Come on" He whispered, indicating Allen with his eyes. "The Innocence is back to normal. Now. While we can."
It was as if Raz realized it only after he spoke.
There was no victory to be won here.
There was only the loss of the freedom they had kept until now.
Answers weren't worth that.
Her hand grabbed Johnny's firmly. Slowly, she approached Allen, watching for the Earl as she held his wrist, pretending she was trying to hide behind her friend. After so much training, they knew how to use their abilities together with no harm coming to either of them.
The Earl, staring at Allen, didn't seem to notice it.
"Mana D. Campbell was Mana Walker, of course…" He could be speaking to himself and stepped closer to them. The insanity once released was hidden once more.
Someone was approaching. Allen and Raz heard a voice they had heard before in their minds.
"Oh, would you take a look at this mess?"
"Roof." Raz whispered to Allen's ear, covered by the mutterings of the Noah Patriarch. Waking up, Allen looked from her to Johnny, feeling shadows under his feet waving and held her. Johnny had a moment to hold closer to Raz in instinct. The Innocence wrapped them. A hurricane of white and black threw them on the air as straps held on a firm place on a roof. Shadows came from the floor as demons, pushing them up for impulse.
As they went up, two figures stood near the Earl.
"Don't you two ever think about stopping and talking?" A man of gray skin and white hair raised his voice as he saw them escaping.
"Talking, perhaps playing cards, recall the past?" Tyki's voice followed them like a snake and after a second, there was a laugh from Wisely.
"Or who knows, speak about your friend? Redheaded, green eye, now what was his name again? The brat Book-boy and the old geezer…" His voice pierced the minds of Allen and Raz once more. The boy seemed about to turn back, being held by Johnny who forced him to start running.
"No."
"But…"
Johnny hadn't heard the Noah's voice, but he knew better and Allen understood there was no choice. Yet, it couldn't be… Lavi? Captured? Johnny had told him about it, but there hadn't been confirmations and he hadn't expected to hear the Noah saying so.
He bit the flesh in his mouth. It was the deal with the Third all over again, when the Earl had promised to stop the transformation of Tokusa and the others if he joined them… And Fo's words came back as well. Saving someone wasn't simple.
"They are still alive…" The Noah went on in conversational tone, though feeling the boy's mind. "Bookman knows some details of the Fourteenth. See how he never told any of you, even if they kept acting as your comr…"
"ENOUGH! DO NOT TOUCH OUR MINDS AGAIN OR I SWEAR TO GOD I'LL BREAK YOU APART FROM INSIDE OUT!" Raz's voice echoed in Allen's mind as well, giving birth to dread in each nerve. Never had he heard her sounding like this. It sounded more as if the worst blizzard, constant and implacable, suddenly had gained a voice of its own after silencing so many others. Her skin had become gray skin and her eyes golden, but Allen doubted she had noticed her own change.
There was a second of silence. Wisely sighed.
"I'm just informing Walker of it, Raz, that's all." They felt a kind of smile coming from the Noah, with warmth and care, which was more disturbing than comforting. "You reacted more or less like this the first time I used telepathy with you… Actually, you were even more bothered than this, but then again…"
There was a curious sensation then, almost of something that could be an attempt of comfort, not unlike someone pulling a friend to his arms and petting his back or head. Then the connection that Wisely had created closed, to the relief of both. Johnny had noticed their silence but was too caught up in not fall as they ran over the roofs, aware he could make questions later.
Back in the ruined street, Wisely turned to the Earl.
"Is that really alright? To just let them leave?" It wasn't something they would do normally. What was going on?
The Earl looked at the direction the three had left and started to clean his coat of the dust. To feel Neah like that had pierced old mental corners he had thought he had under control. Raz's presence, someone who he had believed to be dead for years, and Apocryphos being nearby… It all had made a force that pressed a critical point and shattered his control.
He had meant to just get them and open a portal of the Ark, to take them home and that would be it…
But when he had seen them, he… He hadn't been able to think anymore, his own instincts taking control.
The vision of now, that memory, hadn't been of any help.
He had waited so long to see those two again and now, this had ruined everything…
Mana D. Campbell…
However, now that the was thinking about it, he had been silly to not reflect more on the subject, to not realize in a more conscious level that Mana D. Campbell and Mana Walker were the same person and the implications of such fact. He had always believed that Mana changed his entire name while on the run (in one of the few occasions he had found him, he was under the name Alex Willow) and Mana wasn't a rare first name…
Honestly, by the time he had met Allen, he believed Mana D. Campbell to be already dead…
Allen Walker, son of Mana D. Campbell… Curious how certain things happened. Had Mana known the boy was Neah's host? Not even he had felt so when first meeting him and Mana had been just human, shouldn't be able to feel such things, but then again, he was Neah's brother…
"Brothers. Twins…" The words echoed in him and, regarding those two, ringed with sadness…
"Let them go today…" He decided, though reluctantly as he straightened his coat. It was rumpled and dirty and as slapped one of the sleeves to get rid of the fragments of brick, he almost could feel the sensation of Raz's shadows holding him. Now, with his mind a bit clearer, he realized she had hesitated…
She had forgotten all, but some memories lived in the blood. This was some sort of comfort… Despite standing up against him (well, it was forgivable due to her state and how she was protecting Walker, who was technically a Noah as well), he knew she had been afraid…
"Well, it didn't go at all like I had planned." The Millennium Earl was aware part of this was his fault and how his excitement had broken his control. Damn. Taking a breath, he reflected on what they should do now.
"Any message from Jasdevi?"
The white-haired Noah shook his head.
"Fiidora says he hasn't received any report." Tyki told, sounding disappointed with how things were going too and how the boy and the girl had escaped. He also wondered what exactly had happened: The street looked like it had been hit by a hurricane.
"I don't believe that rotten Innocence will be caught so easily…" The Patriarch went on, thoughtful. Innocences were hateful, but Apocryphos was a true curse and also a league of his own. "But if we manage to hurt him, at least a little, we may have a clue of who the Heart is… They are our true targets."
XxX
Kanda's head throbbed and he floated in his own thoughts, his brain making its way back to reality. He was lying in a no-end street, without having an actual idea of how it had happened… His mind felt empty until the memories started to come back.
What had exactly happened?
He was on his way to… To… He had been going somewhere, right?
Yes. The others, the Moyashi and Gil had seen the marks on his arms and concluded it had been an initial state of the transformation into a Fallen One.
"You're an Accommodator of Innocence, you can't stay away from the Order."
True, true… And he… Oh, it was logic, wasn't it? The Moyashi and Johnny hadn't wanted that to happen, but… To know that the brat was fine hadn't been enough? Hadn't that been why he had decided to go back to the Order to get Mugen?
He felt an itch in his arm, under his flesh.
"That's for your own good."
Of course, the stupid Moyashi would say something like that, the moron. Kanda knew they were right and had ended up agreeing, saying his farewells… Heh… He had never thought that someday he would think the Moyashi was right. Not that he would ever admit this out loud.
"Well, I escorted Johnny to him safely, I did what I wanted. That idiot needs someone like Johnny with him anyway." There were some people ahead, but Kanda wasn't interested in them. However, this thought of his just now felt weird… It was as if he was leaving something behind.
"No, no, I haven't forgotten anything. I fainted, that's all…" Probably. He should hurry up before the transformation went too far. A wave of warmth came through his body, running in his marked arm, as if to emphasize this.
Still dizzy of losing his senses, he almost felt there was something more among this sensation, but it was distant and weird. He ignored.
Besides, at least he had been sincere. He had told Allen Walker what he had meant to…
"Thanks, Kanda… Please, watch over the Order for me." He hadn't been at all surprised by this answer. What else would that idiot say, anyway?
He didn't want to go back, he…
But it was a request from him and Kanda had to be back anyway if he wanted to prevent the transformation. And at least now the Moyashi would be better, with someone who believed him, he would… No, wait, why he kept feeling that something was missing?
He felt it in the corner of his brain…
What was missing?
His blood pulsated more this time, shaking him as some child holding the parent's clothing hem for attention. A voice broke his concentration.
"You let Mugen on the street, Kanda."
It was Tiedoll.
The man studied him with an unlikely serious expression as he started talking about how Lenalee and Marie could be placed under watch due to him having left without permission and just talking to them briefly. Kanda stopped listening slowly, the memories of saying goodbye to Johnny and the Moyashi becoming a jelly-like veil, too cold in his mind…
The warmth of his blood went to his brain.
There was something more!
And what was false melted in a needle of flames.
He hadn't said goodbye to them.
He hadn't even told them about his arm.
And the Noah, that was what he had forgotten, the Noah was with them and the Moyashi had found people who had run away from the Order! The fake memory had felt weird because it had the sensation of total unawareness of them, as if he didn't know them.
His eyes shivered with the nerves connecting them to the right place in the sockets, something pushing among flesh and blood and eye… There was no pain, but it felt disgusting. The seal also agitated his metabolism, like to heal a wound…
But what it was healing…
Then he understood. His body was pushing away a false memory, created by that white long thing coming out of his eyes… The pain of before, of that white substance wrapping his brain as a membrane, adjusting to the spaces…
He knew it.
"This sensation… That man with glasses… He IS Innocence?" This didn't make any sense, yet there was no mistaking. He knew it from the time the Central tried to force the synchronization.
"LEAVE ALLEN TO ME AND RETURN TO THE ORDER!" The voice ordered as it implanted that memory, with a voice that wasn't human, the sound merely making words, something old and that made his nerves twist. Controlling himself to not say anything, ignoring Tiedoll, Kanda turned to look at the street… The golden golem had been with him, but…
Then he saw. A small pile of black shards, as if carbonized… He still could make out the shape of the tail and one of the wings of Timcampy.
He wasn't regenerating.
"Shit, such a thing and right now…" He picked the pieces, careful to not miss any and quickly shoved them in his pocket before standing when Tiedoll approached asking if he was okay.
Kanda grabbed his collar.
Someone screamed about a squad having found a street in ruins, the chance of it being due to akumas or Noah.
"Fuck, now this? Damn it all to Hell!" The samurai cursed. Now that he had been found, he had the option of trying to escape by force or trying to evaluate the other routes he had. Without Timcampy, he couldn't find the Moyashi as easily… Sure he could be back to the inn. They still had the golem Johnny had, altered so the Order couldn't use it to follow them.
Despite the assault, Tiedoll laughed.
"You really haven't changed a thing, since you were a child!" He released himself, straightening his collar. That wasn't the reaction he had expected, much less when Tiedoll smiled. "It is good to see you again… Welcome back."
Indeed, Kanda hadn't met the General since months ago, even when he had gone back to the Order, he hadn't met him.
"It may seem like I'm on a mission to capture you, Kanda. But… Know what?" He continued as if it was a harmless subject, of no worries. "My true intention is to protect my pupil. And for the looks of things…" He lowered his voice, his eyes behind the glasses with a twinkle that was more of a chess player than of the "kind, grandfatherly master" people took him for. "You're involved in something quite risky, up to your neck on it."
At those words, the samurai took a deep breath as he thought about his next actions. If he managed to convince Tiedoll to pretend he hadn't seen him and give some excuse to the Central, very well, otherwise he would have to leave him unconscious. The problem was, then it would be clear someone had attacked him and it wouldn't be believable that it had been a Noah or akuma since they wouldn't have left the General alive.
Yet, he hadn't spent weeks after that white-haired dunce just to leave him after three days.
Tiedoll scratched the beard, not showing what he truly thought of it before sighing.
"Kanda… This isn't going to work. And you know it. The Central lost all trust in you and you can imagine the punishment they may force you to face, before "forgiving you", can't you?" The term was pronounced with some irony and quotations as both knew that Kanda, with his deep hatred for the Organization, couldn't care less in being forgiven by them, as a dog being punished by a master. "They won't buy any excuse and the Crow that were with me probably have informed them already that we found you…"
He knew what this meant.
There was no escape, no without the Order knowing he had been found.
They exchanged glances.
"I'll help you in any way I can, but I have a condition of my own…" He didn't wait. "You need to show loyalty to the Central. So, you need to become a General."
Kanda didn't believe what he had just heard.
Just the idea was so stupid that he would have considered it a poor attempt of being funny, if it wasn't for how Tiedoll, clearly, was being serious. Loyalty to the Order? Be a General?
Fuck. That.
Tiedoll could imagine that his synchronization had reached a higher level than the Central knew, but couldn't he get in his head that he hated the Organization?
"Or… Don't you have determination enough to try entering the nucleus of the Black Order that you hate so much?" Tiedoll kept the conversational tone, while this is really the opposite. But he would rather provoke Kanda to make him understand… The Central wasn't stupid, he and Lenalee were until now the only Exorcists with Innocence that had evolved to Crystal type.
Not only that, but they had also no conditions of sacrificing or rejecting an Exorcist now, let alone one of Kanda's caliber. If it wasn't for this (and if Kanda had crossed the lines the Central was willing to overlook back when he was a member) Tiedoll had a good idea of what they might decide to do.
Yet, they could still decide to do something and Kanda would be placed under observation.
And Tiedoll had always been protective of the members of his units, his pupils.
Kanda reflected his opportunities ahead, evaluating which would be more lucrative in the long run.
"Very well…" He said, raising his head. "But there is something I need to do."
XxX
"You should have come to tell us at once!" Samuel hissed, though there was no need to speak quietly when the store's door was closed and, at the moment, there was no one there except them. At his side, Alison had her arms crossed and didn't seem at all pleased either. She kept still and not for shock at what he had told them, but rather out of being at the edge of her control: Her wish was to go out in search of Allen and Raz.
"There was no time." Kanda replied without a care, starting to grow impatient. From where they were, Tiedoll couldn't see them and also looked distracted, standing outside the door and looking around, probably picking details of the city he wanted to draw later once he had some time.
"And you even brought him here, what if he sees us?" Alison hissed between teeth as if it was taking all of her control to not yell or worse, referring to the General outside. It didn't matter that she had never spoken to him or truly knew him, the only point was that he was of the Order.
That was enough.
Samuel had heard some comments from Cross regarding Tiedoll. While he seemed to be of a nice character, this didn't make a difference in the whole context. His whole body felt tense.
"And do you think I convinced him to stay outside for what?" Kanda asked in the same tone, searching his pocket to make sure no pieces were remaining and stretched a small bag to Alison. It was a transparent bag, with only the store's name in a flourish blue writing. He had picked it upon coming in and while it was meant for candies, he had used it to keep the now black pieces.
The young woman received it delicately, seeing the fragments. Her face softened a little… Some seconds ago, as Kanda filled the bag, he had told what those pieces were…
"Is… Is that really…?" She asked still quietly, though her voice had lost the edge of angry.
"Yes."
"How will I tell Allen?" Worry mixed with sadness in her, unable to even think how she would do so. She had never cared for the golems, pieces of machine they were, but it had just taken a few days to see that Tim was different and also to see how Allen liked him…
For what Kanda had told them (as summarized as he could to not risk Tiedoll getting curious) he had found him as such. Could it be someone from the Order who had come with the General, like the Crows? An akuma? Both options were awful… But… Why?
What would be the purpose?
Three days again, after the Noahs' attack, Allen had suggested they left, but she and the others had insisted on staying for just a week more… This was a decision Alison now fully regretted.
Wanting to finish that before Tiedoll decided to come in, Kanda carried on.
"Johnny showed me what he did with his golem so the Order couldn't track it, including the info. Once I'm back there, I'll do it with one and keep it." On another occasion, he wouldn't have even cared about something like this, but he knew they would need a way to communicate. Plus, he had to tell the idiot Moyashi about that man of glasses that had tried to mess up his mind.
Samuel's eyes narrowed and Alison looked at him as if she hadn't heard.
"Go back?"
"What are you talking about?"
Among the things Kanda hated one of them was explaining, so he rolled his eyes with a groan.
"I can't tell everything now, but it's not like I have many choices. Talk to the Moyashi, then I'll get in contact when it's safe." He saw how Alison's green eyes studied him, saw Samuel's harsh expression and guessed they might be deliberating their options with a General standing so close. Well, if they didn't believe him, that was their problem.
"I won't say anything about you, don't be stupid." A part of him would have liked being able to push that moment away, not having to go back to that place, but it was better to end this soon, so he gave his back to them.
"Take care, Kanda…" Samuel muttered as he watched the man leaving. He had come by to check how Alison was doing in her job when she had seen, through the window, some men with the Order's clothing. They had at once hid behind a wall in the store until Kanda had come in, starting to tell them about how Timcampy had been destroyed and was now saying he needed to be back to the Order…
His black eyes went to the little bag that Alison held in her hands (though it was small enough to be held in one). No matter how he looked, Timcampy didn't seem to have been destroyed in what one could call "normal" way.
"Ready?" Tiedoll asked, seeing Kanda leaving. With the corner of his eyes, he spied the window of the showcase with some toys and trinkets, getting a glimpse of a definitely feminine figure at the end of the store, unable to see anything but a long gray braid.
"Oh, Kanda! Did you get a girlfriend?"
Both knew that, if it had been anyone else saying so and under different circumstances, the answer would be a well-placed stab of Mugen, but the samurai just rolled his eyes.
"Try to not say so much nonsense. I owned money here, that's all."
XxX
Johnny and Raz watched carefully each direction they took as they came down the roof, almost being seen by a group of people that seemed from the Central on their way back to the Inn.
As soon as they got there, Johnny had sent his golem to call the others with a message, as they divided their time now by packing up their things and taking care of the wounds. The pieces of concrete and brick had hit them several times, some cutting skin, not to mention that they were exhausted. Allen had a nasty wound in his head and the shoulder of when the Earl had hit him against a wall. Raz had a cut on her leg and back and Johnny also had wounds. All of them already had bruises in formation.
Johnny wasn't as used to it as Raz and Allen (not that anyone actually got used to this, of course), but he didn't say anything, just smiled as he helped.
A sound like a shot was heard as the door was slammed open, revealing a breathless Elana, with her blonde hair messed and pale as a ghost. Her eyes ran over each of them, inspecting also the room as if trying to make sure all was in place. The way her honey eyes sharpened in the usual kind face made them almost yellowish.
"Elana…" Allen started carefully, sure that the girl (like the others) hadn't liked to know that the Agents of the Central were in town and that the Earl himself had attacked. The blonde raised her hand, index finger up in a clear signal that he should be quiet.
"You… Insane… I should… You…" She barely could speak and looked about to hit someone. It didn't matter if it would be Allen, Raz, Johnny, the three of them or anyone else. "Lauren went to fetch Samuel… But honestly!"
Her eyes weighted on the three of them like fires from hell.
"You all better tell me exactly what happened, do you understand?" The woman hissed as she went to help packing up, never stopping staring at them and Allen felt a little shiver… He had never seen her so angry. He almost felt like a child being lectured by his mother (not that he knew the sensation). He gave a side look to Raz, who had been very quiet after mentally screaming at Wisely… Now, back to a human appearance, she was folding a coat and when Elana stared at her, her eyes went to the floor in child-like shame…
Allen wondered how meeting the Earl had been to her.
At the moment, Allen wasn't at all worried about finding his old circus or the threat of the Noah… Even Apocryphos, though a serious matter, wasn't the focus of his worries.
If what Wisely had said was true, Lavi was still alive and with them, along with Bookman… He approached Raz, muttering quietly as Johnny tried to explain what had happened to Elana and how they hadn't had time to call on them, especially since Timcampy had disappeared.
She looked strictly at him as she heard.
"Do you think Wisely was lying?"
Raz turned to him, not answering at once.
"I… I don't know… But I don't think so." She pushed some clothes inside the backpack, sighing. "I don't know, but… It's not just that I feel he isn't, but… Something in the way his telepathic powers work…"
Allen thought he understood. There was something in that weird channel through which words slithered to their minds that made him feel like the Noah hadn't been saying anything close to a lie.
"Perhaps… Perhaps that's it. It's a mental communication, how can you lie in your own thoughts?" You could imagine a lie, form it with words, but the brain knew it was that: A lie.
In any case, Allen was sure of one thing.
He wouldn't just forsake Lavi and Bookman.
Ana: Well, I'm not sure if people will either like or dislike this.
Kanda: Dislike.
Lavi: Hey, I like it. It means I'm finally going to appear here?
Ana: But you did appear already...
Lavi: A cameo to show I was in a world made of nothing but pain and agony? Geez, thank you...
Ana: ... Details.
Tyki: Can we please stop letting the boy escape? That was stupid! They were right there.
Ana: They escaped, emotional shock from the Earl and you were more interested in using them as bait, anyway.
Earl: Sorry, dear, those excuses are quite dumb.
Ana: ... Do check my deviantart account, guys, there are some pics of this fic and others. And remember, reviews means a lot to me, I wonder what the readers think will happen (or hope it will happen). Critiques are also welcome!
Kanda: She isn't really a smooth or subtle one, is she?
Lavi: Lost cause.
ZooFan: Huh... Because they are fun if you're the one writing them? ^^''
Lavi: It's because she isn't a nice person, that's why.
Ana: Hey! I am nice! I swear!
jy24: Yeah, not really what happened here... As I said, this is the part where things will have nothing to do with what happens now in the manga. Sorry. I hope it will still be good, though.
Neah: I didn't like. It would be way better if I had taken Allen over with Raz there.
Raz: No, it wouldn't.
Neah: Yes, it would.
Raz: No, it wouldn't.
Ana: ... No comments. Again, I hope you liked it even if it wasn't what you expected.