Heads up to King of Whispers! It's not really what you were talking about but…I mean, it just kinda happened.
Guess who's back again? The hell is this writing inspiration coming from? (Pst, it's called Procrastination.)
Anyway, I don't own D. Gray Man or Bleach.
Warning – Mention of torture and human experimentation. And, ya know, possession. Let's not forget vague murder either.
(Not all heroes are kind, not all heroes are light. Sometimes it takes evil to do away with evil.)
Maria shivered, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees. Her skin was riddled with bruises, abrasions from the experiments, the tests they demanded of her. Her bones ached and her heart pumped sluggishly. She could still feel her muscles quiver, a reminder of the electricity they punished her with at every failure.
She bit her lip, smothering her sobs as best she could.
It didn't matter.
"Always with the tears," Aizen noted. He rested his chin on one hand as he gazed at the destitute teenager. Really, the young woman was so predictable. It got boring after a handful of years.
"It hurts," she said. Her body shook as she recalled the scientists who peered down at her, scribbling note after note. Even as she screamed and begged, they blinked and wrote.
"Do you desire my help?" Aizen said. He reached out a hand to run over her long black hair. She was as fragile as Momo, as reliant on his power.
Unlike Momo, she knew his nature within seconds of their resonation.
And yet…their power continued to grow, together.
"We can kill them," Aizen continued.
"They are people, with families and hopes and dreams."
"Their only dream is the eradication of akuma," the former Shinigami corrected. He stood, spreading his arms grandly. "We are the answer. Together, Maria, we can kill them all. The akuma, the Noah, the Earl." The scientists, the exorcists, the Order.
"You won't stop there," Maria denied, shaking her head frantically. "As if someone like you would stop there!"
Aizen chuckled and let his arms drop. "'Someone like you'? We work so well for a reason. We are exactly the same."
"Lies! All you ever do is lie to me!" Maria shouted. Her hands pressed tight against her ears, her knuckles white as her cracked and quick-bitten nails dug into her skull. She couldn't listen to her Innocence. Not now, not with her body weak and her mind trembling at the edge of a dark chasm, his arms the only respite offered.
"We'll kill them all and raise to the top," Aizen said, his dead brown eyes lined with a dangerous purple. He sat down next to her on the bed and watched her breathing come in sputters and gasps. "We'll throw that fat clown off his throne and become the Millennium Earl."
"You speak blasphemy, all you ever speak is blasphemy. They'll try us for heresy and lock us away. We'll be tortured and executed."
"But," Aizen said, his voice low and seductive. They already torture you, he didn't say. They already tried to kill you, he didn't say. She wouldn't listen. It was all done in the name of humanity, that disgusting diseased species she clung to like a starving child. "If we are the Earl, we can make sure no one is hurt like your mother. Like your precious Marian. We can protect them all. Power is the only answer, you know that oh-so-well."
"We can't, we have to kill the Earl," Maria reasoned. She shivered, shuttered, the words choked out as she scrambled to form arguments. The scene was already painted in her head. "We have to free humanity."
Power protected those who hurt her, hurt her mother, cut them apart until they could wish for little more than death – and how was Mara's Paean any different?
"What has humanity ever done for you?"
"They loved me! They gave me Mother and Marian, humanity gave me hope and love and I can't, I can't, I can't," Maria faltered.
"Oh, Maria," Aizen hummed. He pulled her down, resting her head on his thigh and pet her head like the obedient Accomodator she was. It was these moments of weakness, these moments behind her closed door that she allowed her heart to fracture and her resolve to dim. This Maria…this one no one loved. "All they have ever done is lie to you. Hurt you. You know what else the Order has hidden in their precious basement. They never loved you – they only ever wanted to use you."
"Marian loves me. He told me, Mara, he told me he loved me," Maria tried.
It's all too easy.
"You saw him."
Maria froze, her struggles to escape his hold halted. "I saw nothing. I never see anything. You're lying, you're lying."
"He was there, with Klaud. They looked so sweet together, Maria. The perfect couple. Why would he ever look at you when he has beautiful, powerful Klaud?"
"It's another lie," Maria hissed, digging her nails into his leg. As if she could hurt him as much as his words always seemed to hurt her. Oh, but she was aiming for the wrong spot. She needed to go higher, to his cold heart, fossilized centuries ago. "You made me see it, you created that scene. I know you did. All you ever want to do it hurt me."
"Never," Aizen swore. "What Innocence would I be if I wanted to harm my Accomodator? All I want to do is protect you, Maria."
"All you know how to do is lie."
"I don't deserve all the credit, Maria," Aizen chastised, tapping two fingers against her check in reprimand. "You started this dance. I want to save humanity. I want to help people. You can lie to them, but you can never lie to me. I live inside your head. I have always known you, even better than you know yourself."
"Shut up, shut up, shut up."
"You want to watch them all burn for what they have done," Aizen said. "You want them to fail. You want the Earl to win."
"Shut up, shut up, shut up."
"Even your precious beloved Marian." Aizen leaned down, his white on purple eyes wide and insistent, demanding that Maria understand. His grin stretched inhumanly, large toxic wings spread behind him. "You hate all of them."
"I love them."
Aizen pressed a laughing kiss to his precious, fragile Accomodator's forehead. "You do," he agreed. "You love them so much. So much, of course, that you must save them from their diseased freedom. It's your love which will save them, and only your love."
"We can save them together," Aizen promised. "Just the two of us."
"Maria, what are you doing?" Marian was always so cold, so distant. It hurt Maria, because he loved her, she knew he did, because he promised that he did.
(There was blood on her hands. It was warm and slick. She didn't know where it came from, but Marian's eyes were fixed on it, angry and sad, just shy of disappointed.)
But now, she could see the other, the dark weapon who stood beside the man she loved. The Innocence.
Innocence was to blame.
The thought hissed and spit, spiteful in a way she wasn't – she wasn't, she knew she wasn't, so why did the hatred burn and bubble, consuming her until the world was tinted in purple and white? – and she hated him. The man who represented all that chained her – him – to this Earth, to an absent God. Abandoned again and again, what did she – he – do to deserve this fate stuck on repeat?
"I will save everyone," Maria said. She blinked and the world tilted, warped. Her hand was on Marian's throat. "I will be free."
"No," the dark man corrected. "This is not Maria, Marian. Stop being so pathetic. Or are you just going to let this body usurper kill you?"
"Usurper?" Maria lilted. Someone laughed, distant and cold, insane in a way Maria recognized from an akuma. Was that her enemy? Was that who Marian snarled at, fierce and mad?
"Of course not," Marian said. "There is too much I still need to do." He grinned, wild like the ocean, strong like the earth beneath her feet. He lifted Judgement and pointed the muzzle up at her.
Was…was Marian her enemy? Was he corrupted?
We can save him. We can save all of them, together.
"Yes," Maria realized. "We can save them. Together."
"What poison have you filled her head with, Mara's Paean?" Marian demanded, pressing Judgement harder into the hollow of her throat.
"Mara's Paean," Maria repeated. She choked out the name. It tasted like lies and chains, like darkness and a scalpel cutting her throat, a surgical retractor opening her for the scientists to ooh and awe. Like a dissector scraping against her vocal cords – and she decided she hated that name. Hated it like she hated the cool eyes of the Innocence that watched her in disgust, who mocked her. "That is not my name. I am not a slave, not again. Not this time."
"And that is not your body, Mara's Paean, but you couldn't help yourself," Marian continued, that disgusting name falling from his lips like an insult.
She hated it.
"What did you do to Maria for her to fall so far?" he said, like he wasn't tearing her apart with each word. He didn't understand that she wanted this, she wanted to save all of them.
Save them from the Order. From being treated as less than human, as experiments and toys for those sick minds.
Brilliant, brilliant, but sick minds.
"Marian," she said. She wanted to explain it to him, wanted him to know that humanity wasn't worth his life. That the Order wasn't worth his life. She wanted him to know, because Marian loved knowing things. "Please die."
His face shuttered, closing off in a way Maria was unfamiliar with. "It seems I can't reason with you, Mara's Paean. I'm sorry then, Maria. I'll just have to save you my way."
Maria opened her mouth. She had to explain it. Marian, if anyone, had to understand.
He had to know what they were doing. He had to know, he had to know, he had to know.
He already did. He always knew, Maria.
Maria couldn't breathe. Her eyes, white on purple, widened as she took in Marian's cold stare.
Marian, who started in the Science Division. Marian, who watched everyone like he was recording everything for future use.
Marian, who claimed to love her.
Why…did everyone lie to her? Why did God curse her with this pitiful existence? A toy to all who meet her. She should just die. Then she – he – would be free.
"Bullets of Condemnation."
"Hey, Mara's Paean."
Aizen couldn't move. It was dark, but he felt walls press in on him at all sides.
"I know you can hear me," Marian continued. Aizen tried to curl his lip, tried to tear into the pathetic mortal who his Accommodator trusted so wholly. Just like Momo, Maria was so weak.
Emotions. As if Aizen would ever allow himself to be felled from his goals by such a pathetic excuse.
"I don't know what you did to Maria," the exorcist said. Aizen wanted tell him, wanted to explain his Accomodator's suffering and how she leaned on him until the ground finally gave way under her. He wanted to, but he couldn't move.
"But consider this your punishment for taking advantage of her heart," Marian said. "Judgement and I have been working on this spell, you see. It's supposed to remind akuma of their humanity. There's still some kinks to work out, of course. This version was adjusted just for you. I guess, in a way, you could consider yourself my akuma now."
Aizen refused. He didn't escape one prison – as if he would be docile and allow himself to be used in another God's play – only to fall into another.
"This is your punishment, Grave of Maria."
Aizen opened his mouth –
"Carte Garde."
And sang.
(There are always multiple sides to the same story)
*squints off to the side* What the fuck.
Also known as the 2k+ where I turn Maria into a tragedy. Which, actually, was not my intention? This was supposed to be a funny short on Aizen's struggles as a pawn of God. The fuck, brain.
So, I changed Maria's original Innocence name idea from Voice of Magdalene to Mara's Paean in this. I felt Mara (Buddhist) fit Aizen a hell of a lot better than Magdalene ever could and Paean was just my replacement for Voice. 'Song of praise/triumph' just works I guess. That might just be me though, I dunno.
(Why did I make Maria the new Alma, what the fuck me? Imma just go to my shame corner now.)
(On a completely unrelated note, who's seen Moana? Cause, oh my gosh, I am still dazed and dazzled and absolutely in love.)
Guest Reviews:
q - Hun, of course I did! It was an awesome idea, there was absolutely no way I couldn't use it, like seriously? That would actually be a really cute scene? Just, Luffy bonding with Grave of Maria while sticking his tongue out at Judgement during Allen's years with Cross. (Imma just plead the Fifth and zip my lips for good measure on that...) Haha, thank you! I'll definitely keep it up. Cross is such a complicated character, but I can see it being like that. A frantic attempt to save the woman he maybe loved and pretending nothing went wrong when he just ended up with another Innocence weapon. (Ooh, I've had thoughts on Alucard (abridged or canon, I was still debating) but I never considered Seras. Which would probably twist him up over Eliade all over again. q, you are evil and I adore it.
review reader - Haha, thank you! I'm glad you like it! Ah, I definitely need to get around to watching Durarara! then, if only to check that route out. Edward for Mugen? I can definitely see he getting along with Yu and seeing him react to revival and Kanda would be interesting, with the homunculus route you thought of. They'd get along like a house on fire in the end. (*squints off to the side* I'm totally not putting off Mugen's chapter since there are so many great ideas or anything, psh, what.)
ANYWAY, I hope everyone enjoyed the first Extra of this compilation! I'll be diving into my other stories for a bit but...I'll probably return with Judgement's main, since I keep hinting at who it is and all.
Dark Boots - Maximum Ride (Maximum Ride)
Time Record - Rapunzel (Tangled)
Crown Clown - Luffy (One Piece)
Heaven's Compass - Haku (Naruto)
Grave of Maria - Emily (Corpse Bride), Aizen (Bleach)