AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Yeah I fucking love getting back into the swing of things? Welcome back to actual chapter one y'all
Title: Who Else Has Betrayed 'God'?
Summary: What is 'Family', in the end? Noah is not the only one who turned his back on God. 35 years ago, someone besides the clan of Bookmen stood with the clan of Noah. As Allen strides forward unflinchingly, he gradually uncovers the mystery surrounding the Holy War. (Canon divergent) (A fun little experiment)
Rating: T
Category: Dark/Adventure
Pairings: None
Warnings: Extremely AU (probably), some blood, some weird concoctions of my mind, Cross Marian (he deserves a warning all on his own)
Disclaimer: D. Gray-Man belongs to Katsura Hoshino! And thank fuck for that because no one can draw as beautifully as her.
In the beginning, there were four brothers. Abram, Noah, Cain, and Elijah. They were happy together, a quartet of explorers and adventurers. Of the four, only the three oldest had children. Elijah, the youngest, preferred his books and his fantasies, but had always made sure to tell tales to his nephews and nieces.
Abram's children were great in number, although not of human flesh. The eldest brother was an artist and inventor, who crafted dolls with painstaking attention to detail, every 108 of them astoundingly life-like and different from its fellows. Of the crowd, he favored three, but treated all as his blood children. He gave them crystal hearts and animated them with sorcery, for he was a powerful magician, and so they came to life, and adored their creator and father.
Noah had thirteen children, all of his blood. He loved each and every one of them equally, cherished them and taught them, trained them and took pride in them. Of them all, he appointed the eldest, Adam, as the heir of his great magicks, and trained him in the way of sorcery. But his other children grew curious as well, and begged their father to be taught as well. As a benevolent father, incapable of refusing his children of anything, he included them in the lessons of magic.
Cain had many children, who in turn had many descendants. He could not keep track of all of them, although they were all marked by their hair the hue of blood. He, too, was a sorcerer, but preferred subtle methods, in comparison to his older brothers. He wandered from tribe to tribe, all descendants of his, and taught them the sneakier and more vicious ways of magic, placing both the balance of justice and revenge and the means to exact it in their hands. Cain was both judge and executioner, a good and fair judge, and he lived in hope his descendants followed his path.
Elijah, although without children, followed Cain's footsteps as a wanderer. He held a love for words and ink, of spoken and written fantasies, inspiring and intriguing tales. Whether they be truth or fiction, it mattered not; as long as it drew in the reader and captivated their attention. He loved to write, providing his brothers with his written pages, who in turn would take them and read them avidly. Elijah was beloved to his brothers, encouraged and supported in his dreams. He was the favored child, beloved and shielded by his older brothers.
But the peaceful days… Where have they gone?
It began with accusations. The hearts Abram gifted to his children, which allowed them to move and speak and be alive, were objects of power. Noah sought this power, coveted it for the advance of humanity, for the protection of his family. Where his brothers saw their precious nieces and nephews, Noah saw soulless puppets Abram played house with. In turn, Abram accused Noah of dark sorcery and corruption the younger brother's children with his vile practices, repulsed and fearful of the golden eyes which replaced soft brown, the skin which slowly turned corpse-like before darkening to grey, the scars which appeared on foreheads like a crown. As the older brothers spat accusations at each other, they still attempted to keep their younger brothers out of it. They argued out of sight and hearing, hissed and snarled curses while the other two remained unaware that their brothers' relationship was slowly worsening.
But it wasn't meant to stay hidden. Slowly but surely, their arguments and bad blood spilled over, harsh and acrid until it could no longer be tucked away unseen, until it dragged all four brothers in. Both Cain and Elijah were pressured to take sides, but stayed stout in their neutrality, until one fateful day.
It was an accident. But Abram's children grew to hate Noah and his children, grew bitter and angry for being treated like objects. The oldest, called Apocryphos, struck first, attacking the youngest child, Mightra, who was great in mind, but weaker in body. Cain, horrified by the sight, stepped in, throwing Abram's child away and cradling Noah's child close as he rushed to where his brothers fought, sword against mirrored sword.
But even with the sight of his bloodied and barely breathing nephew, Abram did not falter. He stared unflinchingly, as Noah collapsed and wept and begged for his child to be healed, as he did not possess the ability to heal. He raised his sword high, prepared to deliver the killing blow to his brother, until Cain struck, stabbing out his eye and dragging his brother and his brother's child away.
Abram was taken and sheltered by his children, furious and hateful of both Noah and Cain, swearing to destroy them both for the injury of their father, as the aforementioned pair performed the greatest work of sorcery they ever had in their lives.
"This is my Ark," said Noah to Adam, kissing the brow of his son. "Stay. It will protect you. And no matter how long it takes, I swear… One day, I will return to the Ark, to home."
"I will wait for you," replied Noah's children to his retreating back, as the gate slammed shut, cutting them off from the world.
Elijah, neutral as he were, still stayed in the shadows, watching as his brothers descended into hatred and thirst for blood. He watched, as Abram's children hunted the descendants of Cain, as Abram fought Noah and Cain, hatred in all of their eyes. Elijah watched, and he recorded, the events burned into his memory, his punishment for standing by.
In the end, it was all three brothers who lay dying. Three brothers swore an oath, as their fourth watched and witnessed their vow.
"I will find you again, one day," whispered Abram. "I will find you both, and I will kill you and all your descendants, once and for all."
"My children will stop you," hissed Noah. "My children will stop you, no matter how long it takes, no matter how many times they die, they will stop you."
"And the blood of Cain will do the same," promised Cain. "My descendants will kill you and your children before you or them ever lay a single finger on Noah's children."
Elijah clasped his hands together, kneeling over the bodies of his brothers, and wept. "So mote it be," he uttered softly. "Until the day our blood no longer exists, until the day we all reunite and settle these scores, your children will be cursed to forever continue your battle until our blood walks this earth no more." And the youngest brother bound them all to this oath, this curse, condemning all his family to wretched existences until the end of times.
And so the three brothers passed, while the fourth mourned, before picking up and moving on, walking forward without looking back. He recalled, at the beginning of his journey, the words Noah spoke to him before he left to explore the world.
Don't stop. Keep walking.
"Until the end of time," the youngest whispered to the wind.