White Demon, Red Scribe, Black Nightmare
A D Gray-Man and Assassin's Creed Revelations Crossover
Two days dragged on with little to show for it. They went ahead with their planning to stake out Faulklin's place in one of the adjacent buildings, while Allen spent much of that time in the house itself with the boy, but Apollo was a no-show so far.
Lavi knew the value of patience though. Their enemy had been building up a kill streak recently and he didn't see that changing if the man thought he could do so and get away with it. Likely it was only a matter of time before there was another attack, they simply had to wait for it.
So, productive or otherwise, they waited, taking turns rotating watch at the window periodically.
Inside the smaller home, Faulklin indulged Allen's company, though with somewhat of an err of passive reluctance, only interacting as much as was required of him and otherwise retaining his same skittish quiet as he always seemed to have.
"I don't like this silence," Kanda murmured from his spot against his wall as he carefully stared from the shadows at the opposite house. "Something's definitely off."
"Yeah," Lavi agreed. "I feel like Apollo should have made a move by now if he was going to, but so far... nothing. Unless he's caught onto us already, but how would he have done that?" He was more speaking aloud, but he figured it couldn't hurt to put the other man on the same train of thought, in case Kanda might realize something he didn't.
Kanda gnawed on his lower lip, his eyes trained on Faulklin's house. "There is no way in hell he knows we're here."
Meanwhile in the house, Allen was brewing his third cup of tea, watching the child busy himself with the blades. The headache he was sporting since yesterday was unforgiving and he felt his forehead pulsing with pain because of the lack of sleep. He silently cursed, raking his fingers through his hair.
"Aren't you hungry?" he asked finally, breaking the rather uncomfortable silence.
Faulklin shook his head, barely pausing in working on the blades for Allen. "Don' really need t' eat much," he answered.
Allen laughed silently. "You should, though," he said, grinning widely. "-because people will tease you about your height all the time! You trust me on this!" He waggled his finger. "It is my everyday struggle, just because I was a little bit shorter than Lavi and Kanda when I was younger."
Faulklin shrugged, unconcerned. " 'f that's th' only thing they can do, 'm not too worried," he dismissed, moving on from working on one blade to another. " 'sides, it has some advantages. Most don't notice me 'nough to do anything."
"Aah, come on! You can't be like that! We're men!" Allen called standing up and putting his hands on his hips, as if he was preparing himself for the ultimate speech. "We have to be big and strong to protect all the ladies who are in need of it! That gives you a fine opportunity to find a good wife!" He grinned cheerfully.
The optimism obviously wasn't shared, the teen only glancing up to give Allen an impassive look. "I've seen plenty enough not to be interested," he stated rather bluntly, returning to work sharpening and inspecting Allen's blades. "Not much redeemable that I've seen."
"Oh, come on!" Allen whined. "Women are nice! They make you food and listen to you when you have problems!" He went on while slicing a bunch of apples. He didn't even notice the kid was not really listening to him but he talked and talked, just to fill the rather uncomfortable silence. "Maybe you haven't found the right one yet," Allen finished, plopping down on the chair, munching on his apples. He shoved the plate closer to the boy. "How do they look?" he asked, staring at the daggers Faulklin was working on.
"Fine," Faulklin shrugged, setting the last blade down. "None of 'em are cracked or anything, just kind of worn. Just needed sharpening and t' be tightened a lil bit." He pointedly scooted his chair back before sliding the apples the rest of the way, half-heartedly munching on one of the slices and turning his gaze out the window.
There were a few beats of silence before Allen sighed and stood up, walking to the nearby corner and sitting down there. "Oh boy, you're no fun," he murmured, looking around. It sure was quiet, too quiet for his taste. The boy still refused to indulge him in a proper conversation and there were not many things he could do.
He guessed Apollo won't be turning up anytime soon, so he guessed a nap would be fine. He glanced at his hand - still shaking. Yep, a nap it is.
"Mind if I nod off for a little while?" Allen asked, resting his hand on the small hidden dagger in his sash.
Faulklin nodded. "I don't mind."
Allen smiled, leaning his head against the cold wall, falling asleep right away.
Faulklin only watched the man in silence for a time, the room falling more quiet than ever now that Allen was no longer conscious to converse. He glanced out the window into the night, occupying his attention with listening for the soft breathing that assured sleep, and watching outside for anything to be wary of.
Being absolutely certain that Allen was entirely out of it, he carefully took one of the daggers from the tabletop and slid from his chair, stepping across the room with the cautious soundlessness of a mouse.
Lavi perked as he noticed the door of the house open up and the smaller brunette boy slip outside alone, sparing a brief look at his surroundings on the street before he turned and walked off on his own.
"Just where is he going...?"
"What the-" Kanda stopped himself, carefully leaning out of the window to squint at the house. "Moyashi!" he growled and without a warning he jumped out of the window, bolting inside the house.
Lavi was close behind him, pausing only to glance where Faulklin had gone and keep note before he went through the doorway as well. He was somewhat surprised to find Allen slumped against the corner wall, but at the very least he didn't spot any blood or signs of injury anywhere. Even so, he crossed the room after Kanda and shook the man by his shoulder to wake him.
"Hey! Allen, did something happen?"
The white-haired man only grumbled something unintelligible under his breath but otherwise didn't budge. That was all it took to make Kanda's eye twitch and grace the man with a slap across his face, which woke the other up very effectively.
"What the-!"
"What are you doing?" Kanda growled. "You let the kid go!"
Allen stared at him with eyes wide and immediately scrambled to his feet. "He was fixing my knives just a second ago!" he gasped as he ran to the door. "Where did he go?"
Lavi glanced at the table and belt of weapons, noting that one slot was empty. Looked as if one of the blades had walked off along with the boy.
"He didn't leave that long ago," he assured, taking the lead since he had made it a point to remember which way the boy went. Hopefully they wouldn't be long in catching his trail and finding the kid. "This way."
They followed Lavi silently down the street, hastily inspecting the narrow alleyways on the way.
"Why would he do that?" Allen whispered, his eyes wild with worry. "Why would he do something stupid like that?"
"We're about to find out soon enough," Kanda commented, knowing that whatever the boy was doing would not make Allen happy at all.
Lavi didn't say anything as he inspected their route, keeping a sharp eye out for anything. The maze-like streets of the city weren't very good for searching on the ground, so they switched to the rooftops. On the upside, the darkness of night wasn't a problem on account of Eagle Vision, and before much longer he spied them, both Faulklin and another assassin that was one of their own.
"There!" he alerted Allen and Kanda.
The boy was crouched down to pet a cat wandering the late hour, and the assassin looked somewhat impatient. They were speaking, but between Faulklin's soft-spoken voice and the man's hushed one, what they were saying wasn't particularly clear. Lavi could guess though by the audible sigh the man let out as he crouched down to pet the cat as well, Faulklin retracting his hand.
Another two beats passed, and while the man was still crouched, Faulklin lunged at the man with something, sending the startled cat bolting down an alleyway and the assassin jumping back in shock to clutch his own throat now gushing blood.
By the time the assassin's body hit the ground, Kanda was ready to throw the dagger he was brokenly clutching at his side at the boy but the breath that Allen released as he stood up stopped him. His head was immediately flooded with curses of all the languages he knew but his body didn't move as he watched Allen stand on the edge of the roof, staring at the goddamned brat with his mouth gaping.
He was too focused on the trembles that shook the man's body to react in time. He only managed to grab empty air where Allen stood just a second ago. He heard the dull thud of Allen's feet hitting the ground and saw him run down the street to meet the brat, which only served to make him more furious.
He followed, stalking slowly forward in the shadows, just in time to hear Allen ask ´why´in a weak, breathy voice.
Faulklin spun around with eye wide in surprise when Allen landed on the ground, retreating a few steps and clearly weighing his chances of fleeing, the hand that clutched the bloody dagger trembling unsteadily.
For several moments, all he did was mutely stare at Allen, then his single eye slid past him, catching Kanda and Lavi further away, even hidden as they were, and seemed to decide that moment which of his options was best.
"He's going to run!" Lavi warned, a second before the boy whirled on his heel and dashed.
"He won't be able to run far," Kanda said, eerily calm. He ran after the boy, faster than ever before, getting ahead of Allen in a split second. Faulklin sprinted as the old saying of "run as if the Devil himself is upon you", with Kanda as the perfect embodiment of the devil himself.
"Kanda!" Allen yelled when he saw the man draw a dagger from his belt. A second later Faulklin tripped forward and tumbled across the stone street with a yelp of pain as the blade bit his ankle.
Faulklin hissed as he pulled the dagger free and scrambled back away from the swordsman and back onto his feet, though with a noticeable limp and he stopped when his back brushed a wall of a building, the kid leaning his back against it.
Lavi could see him visibly trembling, but oddly enough and as menacing as Kanda was, Faulklin didn't appear fearful of the man. Even with the point of the man's sword brandished at his throat, he didn't waver, managing a glare through brown bangs that could rival Kanda's own with what even the blind would call a stupid level of defiance and resentment.
"Do it, then," he hissed, less than unconcerned by the deadly weapon. " 'won't be anything worse than what you fucking Assassins do already every day."
"Why?" Allen gasped, taking a step closer. "Why did you kill him? Did Apollo make you do this?"
"He didn't make me do anything," Faulklin snapped, his voice not quite so soft spoken as it was normally. "He's going to win. He's gonna beat you guys, and when he does and he has the Apple, he's gonna change things and make them better!"
"Make things better?" Allen repeated. "Faulklin, whatever that man has told you is a lie!"
"Don't waste your breath," Kanda interrupted, his eyes never leaving the boy, and Allen immediately turned his attention on his partner.
"Put that sword down!" he ordered, putting a hand on Kanda's arm to push the sword away, only the man didn't budge. "Faulklin, please! You misunderstand!"
"I don't misunderstand anything!" Faulklin snarled. "He's going to use it to make the world better and use the Apple to control people, so they won't be able to do terrible things anymore!"
"He's a Templar," Lavi stated after having remained silent on the sidelines so far, more in case Allen hadn't come to the conclusion already. More likely it was that Allen wasn't willing to admit to the realization. "He believes in the idea of the perfect world through order and control, even if it means taking away free will with the use of the Pieces of Eden."
"People can't be trusted to do things on their own, all they do is hurt each other! You think your ideals are better, but they aren't," Faulklin snapped in a feral tone, breathing a little too hard and hateful shaking becoming more pronounced. "It's your guy's fault just as much as it was his! You preach about protecting free will and then allow people like that bastard blacksmith to do whatever they want hurting other people so long as they call themselves your allies, then turn around an' murder people that don't agree with you! I'll never regret killing him and I don't regret killing any other assassins! I won't regret wiping out every one of the rest of you either! All of your side are the ones that deserve to die!"
It was at this point the kid ducked around Kanda's sword point and lunged with the dagger still in his hand.
Allen was so stunned by the boy's outburst that he reacted a second too late. He couldn't draw his weapon in time, so the only thing he could defend himself with was his left arm. If it wasn't for that, the dagger would have pierced his heart.
Allen stumbled backwards just as Kanda brutally kicked the boy off him and against the nearby wall. Before he could scramble to his legs, Kanda already had his sword nailing Faulklin's hand to the ground.
"Stop!" Allen shouted, trying to wrench the dagger out of his hand only to curse a second later because it was probably wedged in his bone.
"Any last words?" Kanda calmly asked, eyeing the thrashing boy with dead calmness.
" 'hope he kills all of you," Faulklin hissed lowly, meeting the man's expression with a defiant glare of his own and spitting at the man for good measure.
"No! Kanda, wait!"
Unfortunately for Allen, the man was not listening anymore. He jerked the sword out of the boy's hand and brought its tip down through his neck instead, not feeling generous enough to let the boy die quickly.
"Mystery solved," he said, wiping the blade on the boy's back. "Don't cry over him," he warned when he saw Allen. "He doesn't deserve it."
Lavi was already certain that Kanda's words were wasted considering that it was Allen of all people, especially at this point, when there was nothing to be done except watch the kid bleed out onto the street as he choked a horrible, gurgling noise from a punctured throat.
He was right, of course, but chose to say nothing as Allen went to the boy's side as he lay dying. Even as he gasped and sputtered, crimson trickling from his lips, Faulklin's single eye wandered somewhat towards Allen's face.
"Sh-should've jus' le'me d-die…" he choked softly around a mouthful of blood, laying limp without struggle, single eye going glassy. "…'day tha-at bastard tried t' kill me… 'n' t-took m-my eye…"
"Sorry," Allen whispered softly as he petted his hair. "I'm so sorry!" He let his tears spill freely, murmuring to the boy as he was dying. He didn't dare to kill him swiftly. Not while Kanda stood above him. "You could have at least let him die quickly," he said quietly, sitting down. He tried to pull out the dagger but it still wouldn't move.
Lavi glanced between them, but it was obvious that both Allen and Kanda had entirely opposite feelings on how the situation should have been handled. It wasn't really his place to have an opinion though.
He watched Allen struggle with the dagger for a few moments before walking over and crouching down, gently grasping his wounded arm. "Here, let me have a look at that."
Allen withdrew his uninjured arm and shifted so he would sit on the ground. He didn't even have the strength to yell at Lavi anymore - he just let the man try to remove the blade. "Can we at least bury him properly?" he asked in a whisper.
Kanda eyed whim with slight irritation and scoffed. "Not near a church, or where we bury our men." With that he turned on his heel and slowly walked down the road.
Lavi mostly remained silent, carefully working the blade out and putting pressure on it to stem the bleeding until it could clot naturally, then wrapping it tightly.
"Try not to let it bother you too much," he advised softly, referring more to the boy than to the wounds. "All it'll do is stress you out more, and right now, that's the last thing anyone needs."
"How can I not?" Allen asked, pressing his palm against his forehead. "I wasn't able to do anything!" Useless - that's what he felt like. He wished at that moment he could at least feel the pain in his left arm. At least something that would make him feel that he wasn't completely dead inside. But it hurt. Maybe he wished to be like the Bookmen - emotionless and empty, dull inside. Because maybe he felt too much. "He was so young," he said and immediately thought of Tim's bright eyes and merry smile.
Lavi hummed somberly. "It might not have mattered what you or anyone did or said, the result may have been the same, or worse," he told Allen flatly. "Young or not, I think he knew the risks and what might happen to him, and he went ahead anyway. It's naïve to think you can always save or avenge everyone, and a lot of people don't want a martyr."
Allen raised his head and stared. He couldn't decide whether to feel insulted, disgusted or angry.
"A lot of people don't want a Judas either!" he said, yanking his hand out of the other man's grip. He drew a deep, shaky breath and scrambled to his feet, steadiyng himself with a hand on the wall. "I know I can't save everyone. I am not as naive as you think I am! But if don't at least try, who else will? Or should we all just stand back and observe like you?" he spat scornfully, absentmindedly palming his chest as if he could stop his madly beating heart. It felt as if it wanted to pump its way out of his body.
His so called destiny was to guard the apple for the sake of people, but what good did it bring to them? He felt empty just protecting an inanimate object. The brotherhood always said it was for the greater good but what good was there if the people slowly sunk deeper and deeper into the sea of misfortune and hardship and there was no hand that would pull them out?
"I didn't say to just stand back and do nothing," Lavi rebuked, standing abruptly and staring down the slightly shorter male. It was taking all of his willpower not to let his frustration show, especially the way Allen threw it in his face that he tended to hang back and let things happen as much as possible, when it was required of him.
Arguing anything even remotely close to do you think I WANT to? would break the illusion of non-caring that he was obligated to maintain though, so he said nothing on the subject.
"But unless you can bring people back from the dead, dwelling over it and blaming yourself doesn't do a damn bit of good for anyone. Not for you and not for the dead. What's already been done is done. The kid chose to murder, of his own will, and he paid for it. That's how the real world works. I can't say whether or not Kanda made the right choice, but neither do you know he made the wrong one. Either way doesn't matter, what happened can't be reversed."
"I know how the real world works," Allen growled sarcastically. "You of all people should know that! Oh," he faked surprise. "-but I have forgotten that you don't care, you're here just for the history, right? Sorry, it had slipped my mind that the Bookmen weren't taught how to feel!" He felt bad for saying it in hindsight, but he couldn't hold it in anymore. He was suffocating with all the feelings he was holding inside.
His vision blurred and he felt like someone set his lungs on fire. The pain in his chest wasn't helping either. Then suddenly, he was staring at the ground, his eyes focusing on the tiny drops of sweat that fell from his face.
Lavi clenched his jaw so tightly that it made his teeth hurt, feeling some of his self-control slipping. Part of his mind told him to just turn and walk away before he really did slip, but he was rooted to the spot with fists balled at his sides and all of his own pent up emotions about ready to boil over whether he wanted them to or not.
They just might have boiled over too, if Allen didn't suddenly collapse right in front of him vomiting blood, anger melting into sudden alarm. He kneeled next to the white-haired man and tried to help him sit up.
"Hey! Allen! Talk to me, are you okay?"
"I can't - I can't-" Allen gasped, clutching Lavi's hand as he gasped for air.
"What happened?!" Kanda barked, looking from one man to the other, first in panic then in anger. "What the fuck did you do?!" He shouted, falling to his knees next to his white-haired partner. He'd heard their little argument echoe down the street and just when he thought the two would finally settle things - either by screaming it out or throwing fists - he heard Lavi's distressed call.
"It's gotta be his wounds from the Apple again, they're getting worse," Lavi said, deciding to ignore the usual accusation that he'd done something to try and get this result.
"No shit!" Why now? Everything was going well, why did he collapse so suddenly?! He was gently shaking his shoulders but Allen didn't respond anymore.
They brought him to the den, Kanda shouting on the top of the lungs at the men to get a doctor - yet again. He felt like the joke was getting old. Very old.
They put Allen on the bed and while Lavi was trying to figure out what was happening to the whitehead, Kanda paced around the room, clenching his jaw so tightly that his mouth went numb.
The doctor came and when he was finished, he told him what others have many other times before - there is nothing to be done. Kanda had half a mind in cutting the man down on the spot.
"We saw many of these cases," the doctor said, "but it was always the elderly. We cannot treat it, not with the current knowledge. I'm sorry. There are only two possible outcomes of this," he continued. "He will either get over it himself, or..."
Kanda left the room to let his frustration out in the underground tunnels. His furious shouts echoed throughout the whole den.