Disclaimer: Nope me no owny but I am a Allen cosplayer, it's a blast! I love D-Gray man and I wish I were an Exorcist, yep, I'd love to be a parasite type (I'd want wings XD)! Well, I hope you enjoy. I tried. D.Gray-man is a manga series by Katsura Hoshino.

Onward to The First Act of The End, a play by the Millennium Earl:

When the time comes, will you be able to save the ones closest to you or will you watch them sink away into the sweet dark poison of the night.

Between Black and White

Chapter 2: Sweet Poison

Allen bolted up from his pallet on the floor as he heard a loud alarm sounding through the Order. What was going on? The white haired Exorcist looked over as a movement in his peripheral vision caught his attention to see Lavi pulling on his Exorcist uniform. He was confused. Lavi looked down to see Allen staring at him with sleepy bewilderment. He tried not to laugh at the funny looking expression.

"Hurry up slow poke. We're under attack."

"Attack?" The words slowly sunk into his groggy brain, "Attack?!" Eyes shot open as he scrambled to his feet and dashed out of Lavi's room to get his own gear nearly tripping on his own feet.

The lanky boy shook his head with a chuckle as he watched his friend's spastic withdraw then he darted out at the ready. He could hear the annoying howl of Alestina shouting 'Out! They're out!!'. What an obnoxious noise. On his way to the nearest exit, Lavi ran into a genuinely confused Krory.

"What's going on?" The pale man seemed slightly panicked again. Lavi wondered if it was just the tall man's natural state.

He grinned, "C'mon, Kro-chan. There's trouble at the front door."

"Trouble?" Still perplexed, Krory began to follow Lavi.

The two ended up exiting through an escape door two floors from the ground level to see around six Level 2 Akuma attacking the front of the Order. The science team's artifact defenses were holding but under the stress of the powerful attacks, they were weakening. Lavi surveyed the scene for a second to get a quick summary of what was going and where.

"Heh…where's the rest of the party?" He wondered out loud. As if summoned, Allen came leaping out of an upper level exit at the Akuma. Lavi shook his head, "Well, let's go, Kro-chan."

"Yes." Krory's hair stood on end as his teeth ached in readiness of the fight before him. Only a breath later, he launched himself off the landing into the battle black coat flying wildly about him. Cold dark yellow eyes sought his first victim.

Lavi watched him go then out of the corner of his eye he saw Lenalee shoot out from the dark tower as well. Was this everybody? Yuu must have been dispatched earlier that morning. Well, shit.

"Big hammer, little hammer! Grow, grow, grow!" Better make it good then. Propelling himself into the air, Lavi leapt out swinging his hammer mercilessly.

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Allen dodged back and forth avoiding direct hits as he attempted to blast the evil weapons into dust. He noticed the other three fighting around him but something seemed off. He just could not shake the feeling that this was very wrong somehow. It was very strange for Akuma, even Level 2, to attack the Order directly especially in such a small number. There had to be some reason behind it, but what? Chasing one Akuma across the sky, he finally caught it with a direct hit destroying it. Immediately, he saw a shadow fall across him, he must have missed one sneaking up from behind him. As he turned, Allen knew that it would be too late to react. The young Exorcist raised his arm defensively only to watch as the Akuma withered and exploded. Krory was tearing into it.

"Thanks, Krory." Allen shouted as the vampire moved on to another enemy.

The cursed Exorcist turned immediately to another target and began to engage it. He reverted to his clawed arm and ran at it. Halfway across the combat area, the Akuma shot at him. Allen jumped to the side to avoid it but as he landed, the earth beneath him burst forth sending him flying. He fell to the ground heavily unbalanced and lost his footing. Before the boy could recover his feet, he had just enough time to see the large snake-like Akuma just before it struck out at him, biting deeply into his shoulder. The pain was instantaneous, it burned like nothing before! Allen screamed, or rather he tried to, but he unable to move a muscle. The burning sensation filled his every cell as the snake Akuma coiled about him.

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Lavi whacked at an eagle wannabe Akuma knocking it out of the sky and slamming it into the ground just before using his fire attack to send it into sweet oblivion. It seemed almost nice to have such a workout so early in the morning. It was better than a repeat of the last couple of boring days waiting for a mission. The redhead swung at his next victim as the Akuma burst into the scene on his right. As he swatted it several feet back, he saw Krory alight upon it and drink deep draughts of the poison black blood. He turned away to find another fight. So far they seemed to be holding their own.

Lavi turned to see Lenalee still at battle with a cat from Akuma. She seemed to be holding the upper hand as her speed was by far more than a match for it. He frowned. This seemed a bit easy especially for Level 2. Something smelled rotten and it was not Komui's latest invention. The Akuma Krory was currently engaged with seemed to be giving him a bit more fight than his previous prey. It was then that Lavi noticed the absence of Allen's anti-Akuma on the field at all. He felt a sudden sick feeling hit the bottom of his stomach. Where was he? The Bookman-in-training shot into the air with his hammer and quickly searched the battleground only to find an Akuma that he had not noticed at the beginning of the fight. It looked like some kind of mutant weird snake thing but it was not attacking. Why? Lavi squinted and shaded his eye. Buried in it's coils was a shock of white hair.

"Allen!!" Lavi swung his hammer up to bat away an approaching Akuma then slammed it back into the ground, "Extend!"

The lean Exorcist shot across the air propelled violently by the Innocence imbued hammer and landed before the Akuma snake. He would have struck out at it with the element of surprise but the odds of having hurt Allen too were too great. Lavi brandished his hammer threateningly.

"Hey, slithers, how about some more food?" He twirled his hammer, "A two Exorcist snack, how about it? I taste better than him anyway." Lavi stuck out his tongue.

"You wish to die too, Exorcist." The snake Akuma uncoiled a bit, still keeping Allen wrapped in its tail, "Be honored that I, Naoshe, will slowly squeeze the life from your useless body."

Lavi batted the fanged head away as it struck out at him. A strange purple substance dripped from the pointed teeth. Poison? The redhead back stepped as Naoshe attempted to jump at and crush him with sheer weight. Lavi cursed through grit teeth in angered worry. The damned thing had yet to release Allen. If it rolled or even moved the wrong way, the white haired boy's neck would be snapped. Lavi attempted to crush its head but Naoshe was far too fast for a slow move such as that. He cursed again. This was not going to be easy.

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Krory slashed the face of the Akuma that he was currently exchanging blows with, spilling its black accursed blood through the air in a wondrous spray. Finally seeing an opening in his opponent's defense, the cruel man darted in and bit hard. He drained the creature into a dry empty shell. The vampire dodged to the left as the remains exploded into useless dust. His hungry dilated yellow eyes searched for more to fill the insatiable need inside. There were more Akuma and he would not stop until they were all rendered into nothingness. A light caught his eyes and he looked up to see Lenalee flying to and fro in her combat with two airborne enemies. He was going to even the odds when he heard Lavi shout out. Krory turned quickly in the direction of the rowdy Exorcist's voice.

Across the way, he saw Lavi facing off with Naoshe. The snake Akuma was much faster than the unwieldy hammer Innocence. Krory wondered for a moment why the boy was not using his seals when he saw Naoshe drop his hostage to the ground finally goaded into forgetting about him. At that moment, Lavi began to spin his seals for the attack. However, just before he could strike the Fire Seal, Naoshe struck. Fangs sunk into the lean boy's chest. Lavi dropped instantly as though he had been struck dead. Krory felt rage bursting forth from inside himself. His two friends… how dare that creature harm them! Empowered by his fury, Krory sped at the Akuma.

Naoshe was caught off guard by the lightening fast dark Exorcist. He took a deep slash across the face but had managed to turn just in time to keep from getting his head cut off. His slit eyes narrowed as he sized up this new threat. This Exorcist seemed much more dangerous than the other two. He had not been told about one such as this. He would have to be careful with this one. Naoshe blinked and that was all Krory needed to slam his fist into the Akuma's body throwing it several feet from his fallen comrades. He coiled himself up.

"Damn, Exorcist!"

It took all of Naoshe's ability to dodge the rapid succession of attacks that Krory brought his way. The black Exorcist was insane with rage. Naoshe hissed a hate filled curse at Krory. This one was going to be too much for him. It would be over soon if he did not think of something soon. Then his original intent came back into his mind. Before he died, he had to do it; be the one to kill Allen Walker. Even in death, the Earl would remember and honor the name of Naoshe if he could just do that. It would be good enough to be remembered by the Earl. The Akuma raised its tail high to bring it down to crush the cursed Exorcist.

Krory rushed here and there trying to tear into a tender spot on the Level 3. The snake Akuma managed to protect its vital points but was becoming riddled with gashes nonetheless. Halfway into the battle, Krory saw something cross Naoshe's eyes. Then it raised its tail to administer the coup-de-grace to Allen's prone form. With a loud curse, Krory raced quickly to intercept the attack.

Naoshe was surprised to see Krory holding his tail back, standing over the first fallen Exorcist. He pressed harder with his tail but it was a stalemate. The vampiric Exorcist was far too strong to crush with weight alone but this was providing him with the opening that he needed. Fanged teeth sank deeply into Krory's back. It took a moment, but he too lost the movement of his body and sank to the ground as the fiery burning sensation sped through his veins consuming him. Naoshe laughed and then moved in for the kill when suddenly his head was severed from his body. Just before his head left his body, Naoshe saw a tall Exorcist with long blue black hair and a cold hateful expression on his face.

Kanda looked briefly at the three downed Exorcists with disdain, "Amateurs." He turned to aid Lenalee with disposing of the remaining Akuma.

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Reever turned in his chair to shout over his shoulder. His face serious and tainted with worry, "Kanda's finally arrived and is taking control of the situation but three Exorcists are down. They're not moving."

"Where's the battle?" Komui's face was set tight and serious but his tone was almost anxious.

"About forty feet from their position." Johnny reported.

"Send the Finders out to bring them in. Quickly, before we lose our chance." Komui ordered. His voice fell heavy in the thick atmosphere.

"Yes, sir." Reever turned back to his computer and pressed a button on his headset, "Attention, this is an emergency code 43. Send a squad out to bring in our injured Exorcists. A.S.A.P. Get them in, now!"

Toma raced out with a squad of twenty other Finders to retrieve the downed Exorcists. Most were armed with anti-Akuma artifacts for defense. He raced up to the nearest Exorcist.

"Master Allen!" Toma dropped quickly to his knees to ascertain the degree of damage. He held out a hand as two other Finders bearing a stretcher between them came forth, "Be careful! Most of his ribs are broken and I'm not sure about his neck." Holding Allen's body as still as possible, the three lifted him onto the stretcher. Toma frowned. The young Exorcist was burning up with fever. He might be lost to the Order if they did not act quickly. He took the front part of the stretcher, "Let's go!"

As he dashed back into the barely open gate, Toma saw the other two stretchers out of the corner of his vision. The army of Finders was deathly quiet. It was not a good sign. They rushed their charges to the medical ward. All available personnel were there waiting to begin treatment. Komui himself was still in the war room for the battle, though being wrapped up neatly was not over yet. Bandages and ointment were soon scattered all over the room. Toma reluctantly left. He joined several in praying for the wounded.

Komui finally left the war room as soon as all the confirmed enemies had been destroyed and the two victorious Exorcists had reentered the Order safely. He ran down to the medical ward. They had so few Exorcists as it was, he would not lose three under his care. Entering through the door, Komui walked up to the nearest assistant.

"What's their status?"

The man turned to him, "Krory has a few stray gashes and two puncture marks in his back just below his scapula. There was a trace of some unidentified fluid around the two puncture wounds. We are currently analyzing it."

"Good. Get me the report as soon as possible." Komui frowned deeply, "Go on."

The man nodded, "Lavi has several cuts, a fractured radius in his right arm, and two of the same puncture wounds in his chest. Luckily they missed his heart and lungs. The unknown substance was present on those wounds as well."

Komui shook his head, "It must be some kind of poison. Allen has the same wounds too?"

"Yes, sir. Walker has the puncture marks in his back just under his right shoulder. His entire ribcage is fractured to some extent, but miraculously none of the broken bones punctured any of his internal organs."

"Thank God." Komui sighed.

"All three of them are exhibiting abnormally high fevers, severely dilated eyes, and delirious behavior."

"A reaction to the poison…" The head scientist put a hand to his chin. Damn, the Akuma must be getting smart. For parasite type Exorcists the Akuma blood poison did not affect them but a regular poison could. After all, they were only human in the end. His brow furrowed. Komui was brought out of his thoughts as a folder was handed to him. He looked up at the new assistant, "The poison?"

"Yes, sir. We could not pinpoint exactly what it was but it's similar to cobra venom."

Komui's eyes went wide, "Cobra?!" He turned to the nearest scientist, "Have Miranda contacted immediately from wherever she is! Get her back here as soon as possible. Go!" He shouted at the man who remained standing a second too long. Komui turned again to the previous assistant, "Get me a sample of the poison." An antidote had to be made and fast or nothing in this world would be of any help.

End Chapter 2

Next Act: Krory, Allen, and Lavi all take a plunge into the darkness implanted into their blood. What was Naoshe's true purpose? Will the three fall prey to the darkness within or will they pull through to fight for their lives?