A/N: Sorry for the delay in the latest chapter! I(bamboofoxfire) got some ransomware and virus trouble recently that kept me away from my computer for daaaays, so Shaera and I didn't get to work on writing this for a little while, but I should be back now and the story goes on! We broke out a fuck ton of writing the last couple of days for this so thankfully we're able to bring you this chapter, and another one soon to follow this one!

I know some people are getting really impatient for Kanda to make an appearance, and we're sorry for that, really! Pairings DO play a significant role in this story, but we also want to have some solid plot too that isn't just all about romance/smex lol But yes, Kanda WILL be making a definite and long-term appearance in this story. Count on it.

White Demon, Red Scribe
A D Gray-Man and Assassin's Creed Revelations Crossover

Allen returned to the den at midday, feeling lighter than ever. The priest was right - saying things to get them off your soul really helped. Especially when the chances of meeting the person you're talking to again are almost nonexistent.

The den was full of men who had enough of the daily heat and decided to hide here until the night falls. Seeing that, Allen remembered what Lavi had asked him the previous night. He told the men to let Kanda's assassins know about the meeting and went to his room, collapsing on his bed. Now to wait for Lavi to come.

Or should he go get him himself?

Allen sighed, already half-asleep. He'd just wait.

When Lavi arrived at the den, he poked his head in to find it more heavily occupied than usual. The heat might've had something to do with it.

Hoping that he was no longer a target for the group of assassins - had Allen ever actually called them off? - he entered and kept somewhat alert in case such was still the case, plastering a outwardly friendly and inwardly please-don't-try-to-maim-and/or-kill-me smile on his face.

Finding Allen's room, he craned his head around the frame from just outside, glad to find him there, alive and safe.

"Hey, Allen-buddy, I'm not gonna have to wake you with extra company in your bed again, am I?" he teased. He, of course, wasn't referring to himself, but couldn't help casting a glance over his shoulder in case his words might be misunderstood by someone else still intent with seeing him gutted. He was sure that it had something to do with such misunderstandings before, even though he didn't know for certain what Allen had told the other assassins.

Allen stirred, thinking the voice trying to wake him up was a part of his dream at first. After his mind realized it was not that, he jerked away, abruptly sitting up on the bed.

"Oh, hey Lavi," he said, still somewhat disoriented. He looked at the redhead and smiled, partially happy that the assassins were keeping their distance this time. "Ready to talk?" he asked, tying his disheveled hair into a small ponytail.

"Yeah, ready whenever you are," he nodded, straightening up. "Well... whenever you and your friends are anyway." He motioned toward the other room with his head. "Feeling better?"

Allen nodded and walked out, heading downstairs.

"A lot better, thank you." He smiled.

The hall downstairs was already filled with assassins and when they walked in, the murmur almost immediately died down. Of course, Allen stubbornly ignored the glares Lavi received from Kanda's men.

"Thank you for coming, everyone!" Allen started, drawing the attention to himself. "As you might have heard, my friend here-" he gestured to Lavi on his side, "-had an excellent idea that could help us find the hunters that came to the city. I would like to hear what your opinions are on this matter."

Lavi nodded as he followed, more or less used to the looks of distrust. No use in dwelling on it or drawing attention, the redhead immediately launching into his plan for those around him to hear.

"It's pretty simple, really. There's a phrase that goes the enemy of my enemy is my friend. All we have to do is get those who would normally be your enemies - the Byzantines - to form a temporary alliance, just until the killer is caught." He could tell that already the idea was not being well-received, but he continued regardless. "Since the Byzantines have their hands full with contending with the Ottoman, they're the least ready to be able to handle further enemies. All we have to do is convince them that this rogue killer is a big enough threat to them to take interest. Make them think this person threatens their territory. We already have all of your allies on alert, but it's probably going to take more than that, hence using the Byzantines, and it's a good idea to do so in case the killer might think of the same, before they have the chance to do so. Of course, this also means you'll all have to lay a little lower than usual, and play nice with them, meaning no raids or fighting until this whole problem is dealt with."

"And why should we accept orders from you?" one of them demanded.

"I'm not giving orders," Lavi shrugged. "I'm giving advice. If you don't want to take it, then don't. It's your call, but not taking it into consideration might get more people killed."

He let that sink in for a moment before continuing.

"Anyway, there are a few things that need to be done. First, the other dens that the Byzantines claimed, that you haven't had the manpower to take back yet, just completely forget about them. Let the Byzantines have them for now. No one should go anywhere alone - that means you too, Allen - and I'd recommend groups of no less than three at a time, for reasons that should be obvious. Timmy and Emil were both picked off while by themselves, after all, and with any luck, your enemy is probably working alone, or with only one or two others, and they can't afford to make a scene. As for the Byzantines, since the enemy is likely an assassin from elsewhere, you should establish a very discreet, but recognizable signal of some kind. The Byzantines should be made to agree that anyone who doesn't use it if confronted, or does it improperly, be arrested and handed over to all of you alive. At that point, it'll be up to you guys to discern if they're a threat or not."

He wasn't sure how much they'd like what he was suggesting, but it wasn't his business what they wanted to do with the information. It was only his place to provide it and let them choose how to proceed.

"Mind you, this isn't a fool-proof plan, but it will make it harder for whoever is after the Assassins to act, so at the very least, even if it doesn't allow you to catch them, it will make the chances of being the next casualty significantly smaller."

The assassins looked thoughtful, glancing at each other every once in a while, trying to find out how many are for and against without any words. Allen stepped in then.

"As Lavi said: it is not an order. Take this as a precaution - never leave alone, you don´t need to take a part on the plan, but I beg of you, please don´t go running around on your own." He hung his head in defeat, breathing in deeply. "I don´t want to watch another pyre burn." He added silently.

"All of us are going to take part on your plan!" echoed from the back of the room and all heads, some surprised, other amused, turned to see who that was.

Lavi surveyed the group in silence. At the very least, no one wanted his head on a pike for the suggestions, though he hadn't expected the response would be as extreme as that. It seemed at least one among them liked his idea a bit more than the others.

"An' here I was thinking that I was going to get booed and heckled off-stage," he laughed faintly toward Allen, his own eye following that of the gathered group.

Allen stared at the man with his mouth gaping. "Master Tiedol..."

The elder man smiled, nodding his head in a greeting. "Nobody is booing anyone out of here. The situation is nothing to joke about," he said, the kind smile he directed at Allen vanishing from his face as he looked around the room. "Not to mention your plan might help us gather some valuable information about the Byzantines here. But what is more important at the moment is the hunter, or hunters, I keep hearing about." He looked at Allen again, pushing his glasses a little bit higher on his nose. "We need to be very careful."

The assassins who wanted to protest quieted down when Tiedol spoke. None of them dared to oppose the senior assassin.

When he moved to meet Allen and Lavi in the front, Kanda's men immediately flocked around him, eager to hear some kind of news about their master.

Allen on the other hand looked as if he was having a mild panic attack.

Lavi was of course watching the man and taking note of his characteristics. He was older and looked somewhat unkempt, but not in the way of someone who was lazy and unhygienic. More in the way of someone who kept himself too busy with other things to worry much about appearance.

That wasn't to say he looked bad though. There was a certain charm to the way he kept himself and a fatherly kindness in his eyes. His appearance and accent immediately gave away that he was French, and the redhead quickly figured from his words that the man was someone that would be easy to work with and get along with. Someone with good sense and wit.

"Bonjour, monsieur Teidol," he greeted, smiling. "I haven't seen you around before now, but it seems you're no stranger here," he noted, watching the reactions of the assassins and Allen, whom he put a steadying hand on the white-haired man's shoulder.

Tiedol nodded again in greetings, his hand shooting to the back of his head. "Aah, bonjour, jeune garçon, bonjour!" He replied with mild surprise underlining his voice. "That's because I have arrived only yesterday. The rumors, however, were hard to overlook." He gave Allen a very pointed look.

Lavi nodded understanding, smirking at the man's surprise. He supposed it hadn't been expected of him to know the language.

Kanda's assassins then stepped in, showering the older man with questions in a language that sounded like a mix of Chinese and snippets he couldn't recognize, even vaguely. What language was that...? He'd have to ask, later.

Tiedol only stood there, not really listening to any of them. A short command in the same language silenced them. "I will talk to you later. First, I need to talk to Allen here."

Hearing that, Allen's heart skipped a beat and jumped into his throat. For some reason, he awaited the worst. Lavi glanced between Allen and Teidol, wondering if this aforementioned discussion was a private one or not.

The older man nodded to the side and walked off, only waiting long enough to see whether the two would follow.

Allen followed him without a second thought, his mind blocking out everything but the man leading him to his own room. The sound of blood rushing though his body rang in his ears, drowning out every other voices.

Did Tiedol meet up with Kanda? Was the man alright? Did he know who his hunter is?

Many more questions swam in his head but once he stepped in his room and found the man facing him with his arms spread wide and mouth turned up in a gentle smile, all of them disappeared and he gladly ran forward to accept his hug.

"I'm happy to see you still alive, my boy," Tiedol said, releasing the younger man from the hug to properly look at him.

"I'm glad to see you too, sir!" Allen said, gripping the man's arms. "Have you met him? Is he alright?"

A shadow fell on Tiedol's face. "I'm sorry, my boy, I have not. He only sent me a letter - urging me to return to Istanbul to keep an eye on things." He sighed and his eyes fell on the ground. "The letter was dated a month ago but I received it two weeks later. I haven't heard of him since."

Allen was speechless. Kanda sent a letter to ask for help a month ago. Which meant that something must have happened to him in Italy and that-

"He's alright," Tiedol suddenly interrupted, cutting the thread of Allen's progressively depressing thoughts. "Something might have happened but he is definitely alright. Don't worry yourself," he said as if he read the younger one's thoughts.

Allen nodded but he didn't seem very convinced.

The older assassin stepped back and crossed his arms on his chest. "Now we have more important things to worry about - that is your safety. Your friend," he looked to the entrance, scratching the back of his head, "is an excellent strategist. Are you an assassin as well?" He asked.

Lavi followed behind, lingering to see if he would be asked to leave, but it seemed that wasn't the case. What was apparent though was that Allen and the man knew each other, decently well, if he were to guess. As he heard them continue from his spot nearer the doorway, he started to piece together how and why.

That the man was part of the Assassins, or a supporter at the very least, was obvious. He guessed that this Kanda person and Teidol were connected somehow. Perhaps Teidol was his mentor? Then again, Lavi wasn't sure how old Kanda was, so perhaps a friend... or family or something. But Kanda didn't sound like a french name at all so he guessed otherwise.

He smiled when he was finally addressed properly, appreciating the compliment. He knew already that he was a good strategist, but he still liked the ego-boost of acknowledgment once and a while.

"No, nothing like that," he said, dismissing the notion of being an assassin. "You can call me Lavi, or just Bookman," he introduced, offering his hand. "It just depends on how formal you want to be, but I answer to both." He'd since dropped the 'Junior' after moving up in rank and no longer working directly under the Bookman that had mentored him.

"A bookman, eh?" he mused. "I heard about you a thing or two. This is my first encounter, though." He stepped closer to the redhead, offering his hand. "Froi Tiedol. Nice to meet you, Lavi." He tilted his head then, rubbing his mustache with the other hand. Glancing back at Allen, who still seemed to be in a mild state of shock, and then back at the bookman lad, he hummed. "I don´t presume you were sent here for the same reason I was."

"Well I wasn't sent here, per se. I was just passing through looking for my next job, looking for history that might be unfolding. I figured this might be a prime place to find it. After all, interesting events often tend to unfold around the Assassins." He nodded towards Allen. "Plus, he and I are good pals from a number of years back. It makes things a little easier when you already know someone, after all."

He turned his eye back to Teidol.

"And what of you? What's your story?" Lavi had a keen eye, and he could tell that this Froi Teidol person was well travelled. People had a certain look about them when they had seen much of the world and different places, and he might have been just as well traveled as any Bookman of his age, were the redhead to guess at all.

He was interested to learn anything new the man might have to offer. True, Lavi had grown up under a grumpy old man for most of his life, but he'd never lacked respect for the wisdom that age and experience brought, and was always ready to be taught if he didn't already know something. Emotions were forbidden to him, and that included arrogance. Especially arrogance, because one stopped learning and became dull in the head if they had the attitude they had nothing left to learn.

"Oh, a friend from Allen's side then! That's why I haven't heard about you yet. Yuu surely wouldn't keep a person like you secret." He said more to himself than anyone else and nodded thoughtfully, still stroking his moustache. "You are right about the history part, my lad. Things tend to get interesting around us." Tiedol let go of his hand and sighed in amusement. "As for me, I am just and old man ready to retire from the Order of Assassins. I'm just travelling around and enjoying life now." He said calmly. "Occasionally picking up potential recruits along the way." He laughed, shrugging and stretching his arms casually. "I don't think I am going to reach retirement when things like these happen though. Looks like I will have to deal with this ´hunter´ of yours, dear Allen."

Allen's face twisted in a painful grimace as he shook his head. "There is no need! I can-"

"Now, now." Tiedol interrupted him a calm voice and a raised hand. "Yuu would be very cross with me if I didn't. Now, my lad," he turned to Lavi. "I'm open to some extra tasks if you come up with some. If you have an extra plan, don't be afraid to tell me."

Allen sensed the man trying Lavi, but said nothing to see what the redhead would do. He knew that despite telling him that they were friends, Teidol still had his doubts - just like Kanda would have had. Tiedol played the ´nice old man´ to see if Lavi could be one to trust.

He was curious what would convince the old assassin.

"Well besides what I already said to the other assassins, about using the Byzantines to help us, I've also been doing a little bit of digging around town," Lavi shrugged. "Allen and I went to find rumors of newcomers coming from the west, Italy primarily; scholars looking for immortality, priests new to the city, and traders. I already followed one of those leads, the scholars, but it was a dead end. Talking to the priests is the next order of business. The traders, unfortunately... even if the hunter is posing as one, it's going to be incredibly difficult to pin them down in a port city like this one."

Likewise, he was testing out Teidol, not out of potential distrust or wariness, but simply to glean what information he could, even if it was indirect, that the man might not be willing to say outright. Sometimes a persons expressions, tone, or body language gave away a lot more than their words did. Lavi was well versed in guarding his own signals, practicing at it since a young age, or deliberately masking them with fake ones, so that he couldn't be read quite so easily that way.

It wasn't so much a conscious effort on his part this late into his life, merely a habit of second-nature. He didn't even always realize when he was doing it. It was like a defense mechanism that he rarely, if ever, dropped.

He casually crossed his arms, acting more as a true Bookman in this instance than his persona as "Lavi", dropping his feelings on the matter by the wayside. Right now, it was all business.

"Of course, we'll have to check for other rumors or potential witnesses that might know something if that lead dries up too."

Tiedol stayed completely still.

"Hmm, digging around the city is pretty hard when you're doing it on your own - and on the top of that, being a foreigner. I might help with that. I know people around here that might have some valuable information."

"That would be helpful," Lavi nodded. He took note of something Teidol kept saying - Yuu - which he hadn't heard before, but it didn't take much thought to piece together that maybe that was another part of Kanda's name. He wasn't sure which was the given and which was the family name, but he supposed he could always find out later, tucking that away into his memory.

Teidol turned to Allen and patted his shoulder affectionately. "You need rest, my dear." He said, subtly implying that Allen was a walking mess. "I'll take care of the men here, you lay down and rest a bit."

"But-" Allen protested weakly.

"No but's," Tiedol said, his fatherly instincts completely taking over as he pushed Allen backwards until he collided with the bed. "What would Yuu say if he saw you in this state? I'm sure the whole den would carry the consequences for a whole week if he saw what condition you're in." He smiled then, ruffling the assassin's white hair. "Don't forget what I told you - no matter what happened, he'll always be alright."

Lavi smirked as Allen protested, Teidol doting on him like a parent with Allen as the child. His friend really wasn't the type to know how to handle doting very well, with anyone. Seeing him flustered and at a loss in the argument was somewhat amusing. To a certain extent, Lavi doted. He didn't think he did, but sometimes he really did. All the same, it wasn't a matter of authority though. He and Allen stood on even footing to each other no matter if Lavi tried to act like he was taking charge or not, whereas Teidol was much older, so his hierarchal relationship was a bit different.

Teidol reached into the folds of his coat and took out a little box. "See this?" He asked, opening it and holding it uncomfortably close to Allen's face. When the lad craned his neck a to see what was inside, Tiedol released a short breath and blew the white powder that was inside right into the assassin's face.

"What the-?" Allen coughed, trying to fan the dust away with his hand but failing. "What is..." He stuttered and then fell backwards on the bed, completely knocked out.

"A little secret I picked up along the way." Tiedol quickly clarified when he noticed the change in Lavi´s posture. "Completely harmless."

It was another method of the man's "doting", it seemed, but it fell a little on the... extreme side.

After a moment, Lavi laughed, shaking his head. Not many people knew how to out-cheat Allen, but that was absolutely flawless. It seemed the 'nice old man' was hiding somewhat of a sly side, but he really should have expected that from a weathered Assassin.

He really needed to find out what the secret of that powder was. It might come in handy.

"Shrewd. Very shrewd. I think I'm going to come to like you."